Confidential records: name changes.

(1) Existing law establishes the procedure for a person to change his or her name. In the case of a petition for the name change of a person under 18 years of age, existing law requires the petition to include the name and address of the minor's parent or parents, as specified, and requires a minor's nonconsenting parent to be served with notice of the time and place of the hearing. When a proceeding for a change of name is commenced by the filing of a petition, existing law requires the court to issue an order reciting the filing of the petition, the name of the person by whom it is filed, and the name proposed, except as specified. Existing law also authorizes an address confidentiality program for victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking for the purposes of enabling state and local agencies to respond to requests for public records without disclosing a program participant's residence address contained in any public record and otherwise providing for confidentiality of identity for that person, subject to specified conditions. Existing law provides that if a petition for a change of name alleges a specified reason or circumstance and the petitioner is a participant in the address confidentiality program, the action for a change of name is exempt from the publication requirement. This bill would authorize a court, until January 1, 2016, to waive the above-described requirements for publication and notice if the court finds in writing or on the record that a waiver is necessary, and upon a showing by the petitioner that the child and petitioner are participants in the address confidentiality program, that the court has issued a final order that awards the petitioner sole custody of the child and does not grant the nonpetitioning parent any visitation with the child, as specified, that the child is protected by an order pursuant to the Domestic Violence Prevention Act that prevents the nonpetitioning parent from having contact with the child until the child is 18 years of age or older, and that the nonpetitioning parent is not subject to an order to pay child support for the minor. If a court waives the publication and notice requirements described above and enters an order granting a child's change of name petition, this bill would, until January 1, 2016, require the petitioner to provide notice of the child's name change to the nonpetitioning parent by serving the nonpetitioning parent with a copy of the order, as specified. This bill would also require the Judicial Council to study the effect of waiving the publication and notice requirements, as described above, and to report all of its findings to the Legislature on or before April 1, 2015, as specified. The bill would, until January 1, 2016, require any court that waives the publication and notice requirements and enters an order granting a child's change of name petition to provide a copy of the order to the Judicial Council, as specified. This bill would also revise the provisions that authorize a petition for change of name to be exempt from the notice and publication requirements described above to require the petitioner to establish that he or she is an active participant in the address confidentiality program and that the name that he or she is seeking to acquire is on file with the Secretary of State. (2) Existing law requires a petition or application for change of name to be heard at a hearing if objections are filed by any person who can show good reason against the name change. Existing law authorizes the court to examine on oath any of the petitioners, remonstrants, or other persons, touching the petition or application, and to enter an order granting the change of name or dismissing the petition or application, as specified. This bill would require a court, in any hearing pursuant to the provisions described above in which a petition is filed to change the name of a minor, to permit a child who is 14 years of age or older to address the court regarding the proposed name change if the child wishes to do so, unless the court finds that it would not be in the best interest of the child and states the reasons for that finding on the record.