Today, we are discussing when it’s important for you to take on debt after your West Virginia divorce. One of the common questions I get sometimes is should they be responsible for certain debts? It’s usually in the context of one thing and one thing only. That’s when the other person you’re divorcing is not responsible enough to be able to take on the debt. In previous articles, we’ve talked about equitable distribution. Generally speaking, all debts and properties are supposed to be divided equally, but that doesn’t resolve the issue as to who is responsible for what debt. Next, we are going to go over a classic example as to when you may want to take on a certain debt after your divorce.
Let’s say that you have a credit card debt that’s solely in your name only. You want to make sure that you take on that debt. The reason is because of what can happen in theory. The other person can be responsible for a debt and let’s say it’s a credit card debt worth $3,000. The court can order that person to pay on it and be responsible for that debt. Even though the court can order that person to be responsible for the debt, that doesn’t mean that person’s necessarily going to pay as they’re supposed to pay. What you would do in that instance is that you would file a contempt against that person, but at the same time, that’s not going to do anything about your credit.
The court can’t take action to fix your credit and they cannot transfer debt out of one person’s name into another. What you want to do is make sure that any debts that are solely in your name, you take care of. There are exceptions to just about everything however. Let’s say that you just don’t have any ability whatsoever to pay the debt. Then it might be that you want the other person to pay it and that is why you may have that person be responsible for the debt versus you.
Maybe you just can’t afford to make the payment, but you just have to understand that there are risks involved when the other person is responsible for the debt like we spoke about. That’s just something you need to be thinking about in context of any kind of divorce whatsoever. Now, just remember, if the debt is totally out of your name, don’t worry about it if you want the other person to be primarily responsible for the debt because it won’t hurt your credit if they don’t pay. This sums up the issue as to whether you should take on debt after a divorce.
