Editorial standards

This page is the contract behind everything else on the site. It says who stands behind the content, what we accept as a source, how our dates work, and what we do when we can't confirm a fact.

Who writes and reviews the site

Every page is written and reviewed by the Name Change Atlas Editorial Team and published by Billy Reiner Inc.. We publish under a team byline, not a personal one. We don't invent authors, we don't use AI-generated portraits or fake credentials, and we don't claim to be attorneys — this is a procedural reference that cites official sources, not legal advice. The trust here comes from the sources we cite and the dates we stand behind, which is exactly what this page documents.

What counts as a source

For any legal fact — a filing fee, the court that hears petitions, a publication rule, a form — we cite an official primary source: a state judiciary or court page, a county court fee schedule, or a federal .gov page (ssa.gov, travel.state.gov, irs.gov, usps.com). We do not treat a law-firm marketing page, a form-selling service, or an AI-generated article as the authority for a fee or rule. Every form link points to the official host's own document, never a paid re-host. When an official source and a secondary source disagree, the official source wins and we note it.

When we can't confirm a number

Many states set filing fees at the county level, so a single statewide figure doesn't exist. Our rule in that case is simple: where a fee is not set at one official statewide figure, we show the verified range and tell you to confirm the exact amount with your county clerk, rather than publish a guessed number as fact. The page is marked as being re-confirmed so you know the difference. A stale-but-honest note beats a fresh, confident guess every time.

How our dates work

Every data-driven page shows a Last verified date, and that date comes from the underlying data — the day a human actually re-checked the facts against the official source. It is never the build date, and it is never stamped forward automatically on deploy. The sitemap's freshness signal uses the same real per-page date. If nothing was re-verified, the date does not move. Right now 33 of 51 states are fully verified; the rest are marked as being re-confirmed. We re-verify fees at least every six months and at the start of each calendar year, since fees often change in January or July.

Independence and money

The guides and all three tools are free, with no signup and no email gate. We are independent of the courts and agencies we describe. Where the site carries advertising, ads are labeled and never determine which facts we publish or how we describe a process.

Corrections

If you find something wrong or out of date, email [email protected] with the page and the official source. We re-check against the primary source, fix the page, and update its Last verified date. See our methodology for the step-by-step verification process and the master source list for the primary references.

These standards last reviewed July 16, 2026.