You got married, and entered into the relationship with a lot of consumer debt. Along the way, you picked up more debt with your spouse. Now one partner has lost their income and there is simply no way to keep up with what’s owed. This is the time to file for bankruptcy, but one spouse doesn’t want to go for insolvency. It’s entirely possible to make a filing that is titled married filing singly, a la a tax return. Only, unlike a tax return, the sole spouse that is filing doesn’t take the other down with them. It’s best to talk to a Bankruptcy Law Firm Des Moines about how this works for your specific situation.
State laws play a direct role in how assets are handled during the filing. For the purpose of bankruptcy, the state goes by the common law rules of property distribution. In other words, if you bought something in your name only, or have a credit card this is solely yours, the responsibility for paying it off is yours only. Your spouse has no role in repayment, and there can be no forcing of the spouse to pay back the debt whatsoever. What this means for you in a married filing single status is that all of your debts are discharged without ever affecting your spouse.
In the event that there are debts owned jointly, the spouse that does not file for Bankruptcy Law Firm Des Moines has to pay them off. He or she did not request that the court declare them insolvent, so the creditor has the right to look at the non-filing spouse as the source of payment. There is nothing that stops the filing spouse from contributing to the debt afterwards, so for many couples, it turns into a moot point.
All of the debts owned by the spouse that is filing are discharged for good, including joint accounts. This works well for those couples who did not do much intermingling of their debts and accounts during the marriage, but it is more complicated for those who own many debts together. Talk to a lawyer about the best course of action for your particular marriage situation.
