Legal Question in Family Law in Louisiana

Re: X-wife is still using my last name

In Louisiana, a spouse never legally takes the name of the man or vice versa. However, the government wants to know when people marry so they can extract their share, so they want the name changed. However, a woman never needs to have permission to change her name back to her maiden name if she has chosen to use her husband's name whether she stays married or gets divorced. At the same time, if the public has gotten used to dealing with her in her married name, there is no prohibition to her using your last name. Should you discover that she is perpetrating fraud using your last name, you can rule her into court to show cause why she should not be prohibited from using that name in the future. As an aside, many women continue using the married last name after divorce because the children carry that name.