LeviathanNI said:
Are you allowed to do that in the States? Just change your name as you see fit and open up businesses etc? What about taxes etc? How would the State know what you have paid and what you haven't? And regarding cars.. surely it is ilegal for someone to be driving around in a car that is registered to someone else?
Anyone can
legally change one's name, but it takes a
lot of paperwork and trips to several gov't offices, etc. And
even if a new SSN were obtained, the fact that the name was
legally changed would still be able to lead back to the person's original name, records, business dealings, taxes, etc.; when one's name is not
legally changed (i.e., a made-up alias), well then of course those records won't connect to the real person's name. The only way I could see Damon Heynen's name being legally changed, considering his criminal background, would be if he were in a Witness Protection Program; and I don't see that, I personally see someone
else entering such a program to be safe from Damon Heynen before the former scenario. The fact that Damon Heynen seemed to just drop off the face of the earth after the
"AZ Noah's Ark" incident, with no trace, would indicate that he is in fact hiding; without having had his name
legally changed. Last I heard, they don't put a person into a Witness Protection Program for to protect one from one's
own criminal background.
Yes, you can drive a car that is registered to someone else. It only needs to have proof of registration and insurance, but the person driving the vehicle does not have to be the registered owner. In the case of a driving ticket, it's the driver that would get the citation, not the registered owner of the car. (Unless the citation were, say, a parking situation, and the ticket placed on the windshield; then the citation is the legal responsibility of the vehicle's registered owner, as it cannot be proven who was driving the car before it was illegally parked. Same with the intersection cameras they've got installed here and there to catch those who run red lights, etc.: it again would be the registered owner citated, not the driver, as the driver cannot be proven with the stoplight cameras.)
I'm currently undergoing the exhausting process of having my last name legally changed to that of my common-law husband. Due to financial reasons, we can't get married and file a marriage license for well over another year. We don't really care about the gov't recognizing
OUR vows, so the obtaining and filing of a marriage license can wait until the financial hiatus is over. We're in the works of planning our wedding ceremony that is for us, our family, and friends; to be married "in our hearts" but without the legalities until the next year or two. All of this is perfectly legal, and although I don't know
all of the steps involved as of yet, I do know that it can be quite a process to get my surname legally changed. Now, if we were married according to the eyes of the gov't, then it would be a lot less work for me to get my surname changed. But I don't care about the work involved, as this is what I want for me; and once we're married with a marriage license to file, I'd be changing my surname to his, anyway.
And yes, that means that currently my surname is not Crosby, it is Haskell. However, with the changing of my surname already in progress, I didn't feel like signing up to a web site with my current surname when it's about to be changed to my fiance's. If Damon/David is insinuating that I've been "lying" because of my surname listed, well, here is the solution to that equation.
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Kathryn ~~