new law question

[aoccc]

What is the name of your state?IL

What exactly does the new bankruptcy law mean when it say all debts from divorce? Does it just mean lawyer fees or do they actually mean the debt that was divided up? I have like 50k or so that was divided up in half but I was told they can still come after me for the half thats not mine. All of these accounts were closed more than 2 years ago.

 

[Ladynred]

The BK reform legislation isn't law yet and most of it won't go into effect until 6 months after Bush signs it into law.

So, under CURRENT law, if you file for bankruptcy and include debts that were joint accounts from your marriage, you will most likely be relieved of those debts with a discharge and there's not a thing the EX can do about - he/she will be stuck with ALL the formerly joint debts.

It IS possible that the Ex could protest the discharge of those debts by claiming that it would cause more harm to them than it would a benefit to you, but that's not all that easy to argue and it costs money.

 

[aoccc]

Why did they even waste the time dividing our debts in court if they were just going to be still joint in the first place? Also if I do wait and the new law comes in effect, how does that effect the debts divided in court?

 

[Ladynred]

The only way to get one name off of a joint account is to re-finance if its a house or car loan, or to close a credit card and re-open without the other person. The creditors don't CARE who got 'assigned' a debt in divorce court, the divorce court order ONLY applies to the 2 people getting divorced - not the creditors.

Bankruptcy is Federal law - trumps State divorce court orders.

This is a BIG reason why divorce often causes TWO bankruptcies.

 

[aoccc]

So i read that divorce debts are not dischargable under the new law.So if I decided to wait for 6 months to file bankruptcy and the new law was in effect, and all the debt was made before we were actually married..Do they go back and check dates or ? Thanks.

 

[Ladynred]

I think you misunderstood what it said or the writer misunderstood. I don't recall anything that said debts from dvorce won't be dischargeable. There are SO MANY changes its going to take some time to learn it all and see how it washes out in actual court cases.