Section 7-105 of the Family Law Article of the Maryland Code permits a party in a divorce to change their name from their married name to either their birth-given name or any other former name they have used, as long as it is not for an illegal, faudulent or immoral purpose. The name change is free if you ask for it at your divorce hearing.

So why doesn’t everyone change their married name when they get divorced?

Some people have established an identity and a career under their married name.  Others want to have the same name as their children.  And it is a hassle to deal with all the red tape that a name change involves, like a new social security card or a new driver’s license.  Read more about name changes in divorce at Answerology.com.

In Greenwich, Connecticut, publishing mogul Peter Brant has filed new pleadings in his divorce from Victoria’s Secret model Stephanie Seymour.

He alleges that she is spending $257,000 per month.  Her clothing bill alone is $50,000 a month.  She must have a big closet.

I can’t feel too sorry for Brant, though.  He is worth about $489 million.

Read more here.

“Papers” by Usher

I’m ready to sign them papers, papers, papers
I done took all I can take but you leave me no options girl
I can’t deny how much I love you,

I done gave up everything I had to
As hard as it is I’m afraid I gotta say
I’m ready to sign them papers, papers, papers
I done took all I can take but you leave me no options girl

Ooh! OoOOooh! Ooh! Papers
Ooh! OoOOooh! Ooh! Papers

Alltop.Com has added our blogs, Maryland Divorce Legal Crier and Fathers’ Rights: Not Just Every Other Weekend, to its family law page.  You can access many family law blogs in different states from this one site.

At ABC News, Alice Gomstyn has an article about women who are angry about having to pay alimony to men.  As a result of more women become primary breadwinners in the family, the number of American men receiving alimony has climbed, from 7,000 in 1998 to 13,000 in 2008, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.  Now that the economy has gone from boom to bust, some of these high earning women are feeling pinched by their alimony payments.