Barton v. Circuit Court of the Nineteenth Judicial Circuit

KLEIN, Judge.

Appellant, an indigent prisoner, filed a petition to change his name, which the trial court denied, following a telephone hearing, on the ground that the reason for the change was “for an ulterior purpose.” The trial court gave no further explanation as to why it denied the petition, and the telephonic hearing was not transcribed. There is, accordingly, no way for us to determine whether appellant’s petition was properly denied.

Although there are a number of cases holding that a trial court cannot, without having received evidence, summarily deny a facially sufficient petition…