Where Do You File a Name Change Petition in Staten Island?
In Staten Island, a person who seeks a name change files a name change petition at the Civil Court of the City of New York, in Richmond County (Staten Island). The Civil Court in Staten Island is located at 927 Castleton Avenue, Staten Island, NY 10310.
A name change petition with the appropriate exhibits must be submitted with a proposed name change order and this must be taken to Special Term clerk's office located in the basement of the Staten Island Civil Court. (See my website http://www.ny-legal-name-change-lawyer.com/ to learn in detail what exhibits are necessary to attach to the petition.) If the papers are in order, the Special Term clerk will mark the name change petition and proposed order as approved and you will then take the name change petition and proposed order to the cashier (also in the basement) to pay for the $65 filing fee.
Once the filing fee is paid, the cashier will mark the petition and proposed order as paid and then mark the proposed order and petition with a stamped index number. When this is complete, you bring the name change petition and proposed order back to the Special Term clerk office window in the basement where the Special Term clerks will enter the index number and information about the petition into the Staten Island Civil Court computer data base.
After the Special Term clerk enters information from the name change petition into the Civil Court data base, the name change petition and proposed order are held by the clerk until such time as a Civil Court judge can review the papers. My experience in Staten Island Civil Court has been that I had to call the Special Term Clerk within a few weeks after filing to check on the status of the submission, or the Clerk's office would contact me approximately 3 to 4 weeks after filing to let me know that the order had been signed. Expect the waiting time to be longer during summer months since judges are on vacation.
After the order is signed by the Staten Island Civil Court judge, you must obtain a copy from the Special Term clerk's office so that you can send it to a newspaper designated by the order for publishing the name change notice. Most judges in Staten Island select the Staten Island Advance Newspaper for publishing as it is Staten Island's only local newspaper. (See my website http://www.ny-legal-name-change-lawyer.com/ to learn about the name change publication requirement). You must also send a copy of the order to government agencies and private parties that are designated by the order, if the order requires that.
After a few weeks when you receive an affidavit of publication from the designated newspaper, take the affidavit of publication and any proof of mailing to government agencies and private parties back to the Special Term clerk office in the basement. If the affidavit of publication is properly prepared and your proof of mailing is in proper form, the Special Term clerk will mark the name change order as complete and send you back to the cashier also in the basement where you can obtain a court certified name change order copy for $6.
Christopher Tompkins is an Attorney that has been handling Legal Name Change Matters for 20 years in New York City frequently practicing in Staten Island. Contact him at 212 962-5363. Email: NameChangeLawyer@gmail.com. Visit his website at http://www.ny-legal-name-change-lawyer.com/
