Posted by Shu ZhengMany people going through divorce are under financial stress, they often think about the possibility of bankruptcy as a way to control of everything.
There are some debts that don’t get discharged in bankruptcy:
· Alimony and child support
· Some obligations for property settlement in divorce
· Student loans
· Debts arising from fraud or theft
· Criminal restitution
A question arises when it comes the time that one spouse has to declare bankruptcy, should he or she file it alone or together? The decision depends on various factors: types of property, the amount of community debt involved, and how the property is held.
Filing together eliminates the separate debts of the both spouses and all the jointly-held debts. Filing alone leaves the non-bankruptcy spouse still liable for his or her share of joint debts, but wipe out the spouse’s separate debts and his/her share of the joint debt. And if you are legally separately, have divided your property, and taken care of all the financial considerations, you best option may be to have your spouse go it alone. If all the debts were incurred before you were married, there is no point to having you both file.
Thus, is you would have decided to file bankruptcy separately after marriage, keep separate credit reports with the spouse, because joint credit applications will show up on both of the couple’s credit reports, and even when one spouse is just an authorized on the other’s credit card.
Sources:
1. http://bankruptcy-law.freeadvice.com/consumer_bankruptcy/spouse_bankruptcy.htm
2. http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/DrDon/20050427a1.asp
3. http://www.divorceinfo.com/bkrcybankruptcy.htm
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