1. United States
2. Calif.
3. Letter

Hi, Since I'd like to request you introduce a bill to make a legal name change easier, quicker, and cheaper. In California a court filing fee for a name change costs over $400, which is outrageous, but at least it can be waived if a waiver is approved. However, there is an outdated requirement to then publish a legal notification in a newspaper for 4 weeks before the name change can be processed by the court. The cost for this publication varies between $100-$400 depending on the newspaper. In my county it costs $300 and we only have one newspaper to choose from. The newspaper has no option to waive the fee. This expense is prohibitive for low income people. My 69 year old mother has gone by a different First name than she was born with for over 50 years. She never had it officially changed despite using it on all her documents. She now needs to have it changed legally so she can get a Real ID, but she cannot afford the $300 to publish in a newspaper. Other states such as illinois have recently removed this publication requirement https://www.myjournalcourier.com/news/article/illinois-bill-aims-reduce-state-requirements-name-20003314.php. In Oregon it only costs $124 to file a name change petition and there is no publication requirement. It only takes a few days to a couple weeks for the whole process. Whereas in California it takes 3-4 months for the whole process and can cost as much as $800 after the court fee and publication fees. This is an unacceptable prohibitive requirement for a necessary process now that Real ID and will be going into effect. Please remove the publication requirement, make the name change petition cheaper, and make the whole process quicker and more efficient. Thanks for your time. https://dl-rapidbot.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/attachments/1/361f/f5a8/361ff5a8-433e-4d62-ab25-8c36e85bff04.php