Legal Question in Family Law in Texas

(a) The law in Texas is that a person can use any name he wants to as long as he's not trying to avoid creditors or trying to avoid prosecution.

(b) The problem comes when he tries to cash a check, and pulls out his driver's license. If the names don't match, he has a problem

His remedy is to go to Court and file a petition to get his name legally changed. A lawyer should charge you about $750 to do this.

The result of this procedure is that you end up with a final order that says that John Faraday�Smith is now John Faraday. It's official. You can take a certified copy of the order to the driver's license folks and get a new driver's license issued. You also take a copy of the order to the Social Security folks.