WA Australian Law - Does Legal Name on Court Documents Matter?

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Leeanne1984

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11 January 2019
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I just arrived home and my son hands me some court papers and says some guy dropped these off for you. Not sure if that matters legally but my question is if these papers don't contain my legal name does that make them illegitimate under Australian Law?
 

Rod

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How old is your son?

And what kind of court matter?
 
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Leeanne1984

Member
11 January 2019
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How old is your son?

And what kind of court matter?
Son is 19... Court matter is for a photographer trying to get money out of me for photos I don't have. I did sign an agreement but it isn't signed with my legal name, they didn't ask for I'd when I signed the agreement.
 

Rod

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Not going to matter much. You are the correct person.
 

Tim W

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As a general rule, as long as it is clear overall to whom a document is
addressed to/ made out to/ meant for/ about etc,
then a name that is a bit different is not fatal to the validity of the document.
 

Scruff

Well-Known Member
25 July 2018
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By providing the false information in the first place, you have negated any chance of successfully challenging the validity of any document - in fact, it strengthens the other party's case against you. You have also damaged your own credibility and any court will be suspicious of your motives.

You should try and settle this matter privately and quickly. By not using your "legal name" in the first place and then trying to use this against the other party, a court will view your actions as being fraudulent in nature. So if this ends up in a court, you will almost certainly lose and will probably have to pay the other party's costs as well.
 
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