name change

[applesvpears]

I am in a situation where I am still married to a previous partner, we have been separated for 7 years and I have been with my current partner for er 7 years ( you do the maths) we are expecting our first baby and are so excited. My husband has always been awkward about the divorce and for various reasons it's just never been done. For the last year I had been trying to get things sorted and as soon as I found out I was pregnant I knew I wanted to be divorced before the baby came. My husband and I had an agreement he would pay for the divorce because I handed over our house to him without asking for any of the equity, the divorce was more important to me. So anyway.. In September I went to his and signed everything and he said all the paperwork had been submitted etc. Now it is 4 weeks before I will be induced and have been trying to contact him for 4 weeks for an update and had no luck. I phoned the court who had no record. He has finally got I touch and said he did submit the paperwork.
Worst case does anyone know how easy it is to change your name by depol and update your medical records accordingly? I don't want to have his name when I give birth or to have his name on our baby's wrist band. It may sound silly but it is important to me and any advice would be appreciated.

Very easy to do...you can use deed poll companies found online or you can construct your own with getting a laywer to witness. Think you may have to have two witnesses if write your own declaration as it where, whereas deed poll admin company you need only one last time I saw. Advantage with deed poll office is that they can give you numerous copies that act as an original (various companys want to see your orignal (banks etc). this way you can send them off at same time and if you loss not the end of the world. They will return if you have have the one though. thinking of it I suppose a solitor coudl sign more than one copy though! They coudl help you word it or can get a draft script off line.

I don't think it's silly one bit and I should imagine theres no one on here that would. All the very best with it all and congrats to you and bubs! x

It's very easy. Quite often even if you're getting divorced you will need to use deed poll in addition because major financial organisations won't accept your divorce alone

Oh dear excuse the typos in my post ( just re read back) Thank you for replying, since your posts I have researched online and I am going to do it anyway I think, it seems quite straight forward and quick. Luckily my passport and driving licence are already in my maiden name so it will literally just be bank and medical records plus a few others. I have started maternity leave today and from being on the go constantly, working late etc I feel I need something to do and this will be a good start ! (Along with preparing all the stuff for baby etc!)

No need to go through solicitors or courts if you don't want to. I'm using this and it's perfdctly valid:

freedeedpoll.org.uk

(husband and I are amalgamating surnames but only just getting around to it as we weren't sure we'd have kids!)

If you already have passport and driving licence in maiden name can't you just update med records using those?