CA changes name during litigation?

[Xanathos]

I'm helping a friend sue an unscrupulous CA that has earned a... "special"... place in my heart from first-hand experience with them. They're just some little hick one office enterprise a state to the north, so they're especially nasty and ignorant to the law. Took her down to the court (small claims--she's not ready for Circuit), helped her fill out her complaint, etc. etc. etc.

I called them on her behalf today to verify that the registered agent shown on the Sec. Of State's web site is accurate, and found that they've changed their name.

They are still showing as the old name on her credit report. They still show as the old name in the Sec/State site...but they answer their phone differently, and the phone rep wouldn't elaborate as to why the name was changed, only stated the new name was as in "formerly known as" the old name.

The complaint I helped her file is using the old name. Are there any complications, hurdles, or obstacles that could result from this change of name with regards to obtaining the judgment and enforcing it? I've verified that their RA is accurate (by calling this scumsucking attorney that acts as their RA directly--the CA didn't know what their RA was. This jackass attorney actually wanted to discuss HER case with me, even though I identified myself as a third party, and never once even insinuated that I was representing her in the matter), so everything is in line for this to proceed except for this hiccup.

Just want to make sure nothing needs to be changed before I have her forward off these copies of the complaint to the Multnomah County Sheriff to have these jackasses served.

[calawyer]

The issue you want to look at is how to treat a "d.b.a." under state law. Since the entity is still apparently using the former name, it may be sufficient to have the Sheriff serve it as "Bad CA Inc., d.b.a. (Doing Business As), Worse CA, Inc."

If you were in Supeior Court, you would probably amend the complaint to allege that the new d.b.a. In small claims, it may be sufficient to do it the easy way, although I would want to make sure that any judgment also included the new name.