Legal Question in Family Law in Tennessee

Re: not in divorce papers

If you can get your husband to agree to the name change, then for $50, I can prepare an agreed order for your name to change legally by order of the court to your maiden name.

Re: not in divorce papers

Ok, here is the deal. You have not stated whether you are divorced yet or not. If you are not divorced yet, you can file an answer to the complaint and ask for the name change and then ask the lawyer again to put it into the final decree. For some reason, some divorce judges will not allow you (or at least will frown upon) your changing your name if you have children with your maried name. Anyway, I am assuming for purpose of this response you have already been divorced. You can go to the probate court, circuit court or chancery court in your area and ask the clerk if he or she can give you a form. Some will, some won't. They might even give you some tips on how to approach the court about the name change. You will need a form petition and a form order. Ordinarily I would never advise anyone to step foot into court without a lawyer, and I am not doing so here, but if you absolutely do not have the money for a lawyer, this is one thing you can try with very little risk. Nonetheless, if you are in any way concerned it may not go right, by all means, save up an hire and attorney. It very well may be one of the least, if not the least expensive type of court proceding. I do not think you need your husband's consent as suggested by another post on this site. You do need the Court's permission though. I also do not think you need to buy a form. If you are going to do that, by the time you pay the filing fee and the cost of the form, you will be very close to spending the amount needed for an attorney to help you with this. Best of luck.