Legal News

Man wins right to take his wife's last name

By Jason Siegel

A Marina Del Rey man won a three year legal battle claiming sex discrimination in the issuance of marriage and driver's licenses, CBS 2 reports. (WATCH)

Michael Buday wanted to take the last name of his wife, Diana Bijon. While his wife needed only to pay between $50 and $90 dollars, Buday would've needed to get judicial approval, as well as to pay several hundred dollars in court filing fees, application fees, marriage license fees and advertisement costs -- posting the change in the newspaper for four weeks.

Buday and the ACLU of South California sued in 2006.

"It's not about the money," Buday told ABC News last year (here). "It's about the principle of families being able to make their own decisions. Diana's dad has become my father figure, and I want to honor that."

They settled, with the state Department of Motor Vehicles and Department of Health Services changing their policies.

The suit also led to last year's passage of the Name Equality Act, that gives married people and registered domestic partners the right to choose their names. Similar laws exists in Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Massachusetts, New York and North Dakota.

"These settlements dispose of the rule in California that the male surname is the marital name to the same trash bin here dowries were once tossed out., " Mark Rosenbaum, legal director for the ACLU of Southern California, told CBS2.

Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on May 06, 2008 (boomark / email).