LEGALLY CHANGING YOUR NAME WITHOUT A LAWYER IN ERIE COUNTY, NEW YORK  

1 . OBTAIN FORMS: The necessary forms can be obtained from Sanders Legal Publishers, Inc., 174 Franklin St. , Buffalo , NY . (716-842-6666). The packet contains 3 Petitions, 3 Orders, and 2 RJI’s ( Request for Judicial Intervention )at a cost of $15.76. Fill out and amend the forms where necessary. DO NOT DATE OR SIGN the forms at this time.

2.APPLY FOR YOUR COURT DATE: This is done at the County Clerk ’s office at 25 Delaware Ave , downtown Buffalo , in the office of Actions and Proceedings. You presumably won’t need your petition yet, but have it on hand for cross-referencing, just in case. You’ll fill out an Attorney Filling Application in the office of Actions and Proceedings. Three completed copies of your RJI less the date and signature are also required. ( Fill out one RJI form and copy it twice.) In front of the clerk at the office of Actions and Proceedings you will sign and date all the RJI’s and the Attorney Filling Application. Your court file number will be on your portion of the Attorney Filling Application and your copy of the RJI. The clerk will direct you to the cashier line to pay your filing fee of $210.00 and in turn you will receive a receipt with you file number.

3. CONFIRM YOUR COURT DATE: Within a few days you should receive confirmation of your court date on a three by five card indicating the justice, where the petition and order are to be filed, a return date/court date, time, and the part. If you do not receive confirmation contact the Court Calendar office by phone to see if and when you’ve been scheduled. Have your file number ready.

4.ATTACH OTHER INFORMATION TO THE PETITION: Amendments that might be required when filling out your Petition. (The amendments are to correct statements made on the form that are not true for you.) A letter from your therapist indicating your birth name, your gender orientation, the possible need for SRS, and that you are not trying to perpetuate a fraud. A stamped copy of you birth certificate with your birth number. Your petitions must be dated, signed, and notarized before they can submitted. I submitted three copies of the order and the petition. ALL DOCUMENTS SUBMITTED TO THE COURT MUST HAVE YOUR FILE NUMBER ON THEM.

5.DELIVER YOUR PETITION AND ORDER TO THE JUDGE: These go to the judge’s office. You can mail, return receipt or hand deliver them. You’ll get the location from the card mailed to you, or from the Court Calendar’s office. The paper work must be delivered five days before the court date or else the date moves forward, into the next “cycle”. Usually this means another month’s wait. After the paper work has been delivered, check with the judge’s clerk to be absolutely sure everything is in place. If so, you need not do anything until after the court date. You do not need to be in court.

6.FILE YOUR ORDER AND PETITION WITH THE COUNTY CLERK : Within 10 days after the court date, pick up your order and petition from the judge’s office and bring them to Actions and Proceedings

7.PLACE YOUR AD: Within 20 days of your court date, arrange to run an announcement of your name change in a local publication. Mostly these ads run in the Buffalo Law Journal. You can deliver a copy of your Order to the Law Journal (currently 465 Main Street , Buffalo - phone: 854-2480), or you may fax it and be billed later. The cost was $35. The Law Journal will send you an affidavit of publication as soon as the ad is run, or you can make arrangements to pick it up and deliver it to the office of Actions and Proceedings. The Law Journal puts the information from your Order in the correct form for publication for you, but should you choose to use another publication the format is given in the Civil Procedure texts.

8.FILE THE AFFIDAVIT OF PUBLICATION WITH THE COUNTY CLERK : Within 40 days of the court date the affidavit of publication must be filed at Actions and Proceedings. Once done you have officially changed your name. You’ll get a copy of the Order, signed and stamped by the county clerk. You may want additional copies with the clerk’s seal to present to officials who’ll be changing other identification. These are $4 each.

9.APPLY FOR AN AMENDED DRIVER’S LICENSE: Bring to the Department of Motor Vehicles a letter from your therapist on letterhead paper stating that one gender predominates, and as part of the therapy you should be living in that gender.

Compiled by Colleen R. - (2000, revised 2005)
Distributed by Spectrum Transgender Group of WNY