Divorce and bankruptcy often go hand in hand. After all, financial problems can contribute greatly to breaking the emotional bonds that underlie a marriage.
And in a sense, divorce and bankruptcy offer the same thing: a fresh start. With divorce, this takes the form of recast relationships. With bankruptcy, it takes the form of debt relief.
In the San Antonio and across the country, however, there are many difficult decisions about divorce and bankruptcy that must be faced someone is considering both of those steps.
Of course, much will depend on individual circumstances. There is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all bankruptcy or a one-size-fits-all divorce. The approach you take has to be tailored to your circumstances, and the advice of an experienced bankruptcy attorney can be helpful in doing so.
For starters, it may be worth considering whether to file only one, joint bankruptcy rather than two. If you and your spouse can agree to this, it could clear away a lot of debt and reduce divorce costs. It would reduce those costs because, with debt divided, all that would be left to finish the property division would be to split the assets.
This may not be possible, of course, if your spouse does not agree. But if your spouse is amenable, it is worth considering.
To be sure, spouses can’t always agree on a joint bankruptcy. And so when a divorce proceeding goes forward, each spouse may be assigned to pay certain debts by the divorce settlement.
When that happens, and one spouse is assigned debt in a divorce decree, the other spouse’s name may still be on a joint debt for liability purposes. This is sometimes the case, for example, with mortgage loans.
We will discuss this and other aspects of divorce and bankruptcy further in next week’s post.
Source: Fox Business, “How Does Divorce Affect Bankruptcy and Mortgage,” Justin Harelik, July 3, 2013