The Judges Deciding Divorces Do not Have the Authority to Change Debt or Creditor Relationships
When people get divorced, there’s a divorce judge who is a state court judge that during the process, divides up the property and determines the child custody. But he or she will also divide up the debt in the divorce decree.
Lose the Husband or Wife but Gain the Credit Card Debt: Most Credit Card Debt Is Joint Debt, Regardless of Which Spouse Accumulated the Debt
In those instances, a state court divorce judge does not have the authority to change the debt or creditor relationship. Only the federal bankruptcy judge has that. If you become divorced and your husband is supposed to pay all of the Visa or MasterCard he doesn’t, chances are the Visa or MasterCard will come after you.
You can wave divorce fee in their face all you want saying, “He got that debt in the divorce.” They’re going to say, “Well, you’re still liable on it because a divorce judge does not have the authority to change the debt or creditor relationship.”
A Bankruptcy Filing Protects One Party from the Liability of the Debt
That’s why sometimes the people are part of their divorce will go through bankruptcy because even though they know the debt has been partitioned, they have no confidence that the person who was assigned the debt in the divorce is actually going to follow through and so they’re protecting themselves from it.
