Post Falls resident seeks legal name change to Morgan Juniper MacCain

A Post Falls resident has filed in Kootenai County District Court to change his name to Morgan Juniper MacCain, putting the request into the county’s public court record. The notice carries Case No. CV28-26-5179 and identifies Robert C Williams as the petitioner in the District Court for the First Judicial District of the State of Idaho, in and for Kootenai County.

That filing is part of Idaho’s adult name-change process, which runs through district court and requires public notice before the case moves forward. Idaho Court Assistance Office materials say adult petitions are filed in district court and must include notice of hearing and publication-related paperwork, making the process more public-facing than many residents expect when they begin changing their legal identity.

The court paperwork also follows a form-driven process. A 2019 Idaho Court Assistance Office instruction sheet lists the required adult name-change documents as an unredacted petition, a redacted petition, a notice of hearing, a general civil case information sheet, a judgment for name change and a letter for publication. In practice, those filings create both the private court file and the public-facing notice that newspapers publish to satisfy the legal notice requirement.

The petition itself can carry sensitive personal information. A National Center for Transgender Equality guide says Idaho adult name-change petitions must be filed in the district court of the county where the person lives and should include the current name, proposed name, place of birth, residence and reason for the change. Those details explain why the process matters to public-records readers as much as to the person filing: once submitted, parts of the request become part of the court record and are available through the county’s legal notice system.

Kootenai County’s Court Assistance Office serves Kootenai, Boundary, Bonner, Shoshone and Benewah counties for the First Judicial District, giving residents across the region a local point of contact for the filing process. In neighboring Bannock County, adult name-change materials list a $166 filing fee and note a newspaper publication requirement with a publication cost of $250-plus, showing how the costs and notice requirements can add up before a judge grants the change.

For Kootenai County residents, the filing is a reminder that a name change is not only a personal step. It is also a public legal action, routed through the First Judicial District and documented in the county’s court record before it can be completed.