Getting married is a decision between two people to join their lives in a ceremony in front of their family and friends. Often people don’t consider the legal side of the agreement they’re making while they’re surrounded by flowers, cake, and champagne.
There are many ways to make a family, and one way is to form a blended family when one or both spouses have children from previous relationships. Besides the emotional benefits of one spouse becoming the legal parent of the other spouse’s child, there are also significant legal advantages, including the right to make important decisions for the child such as decisions on education and medical care.
Going through a divorce is always distressing, but sometimes a bad situation becomes even worse when your spouse or other parties invade your privacy during this sensitive time. Between personal matters becoming the subject of public records and the possibility of a contentious spouse accessing information and accounts to undermine your desired outcome in the divorce, it may feel like your life is no longer your own.
Changing your last name after a divorce can help begin the clean start you’ve been waiting for throughout the legal challenges and distress of the divorce process. Though you don’t have to change your last name after divorcing, and some women who share children with an ex-spouse keep their married name in order to have the same last name as their children, many others choose to return to their maiden names.
