Expert: Regan Shinski - 9/23/2009

Question
A friend of mine has been over and over about collecting a debt that was part of a divorce decree. The decree stated she was not liable for the debt and her ex-husband is liable. The divorce was over six years ago.

Answer
Creditors are not obligated to abide by a divorce decree.  If there is a joint account that she put her name to, she is responsible for those debts - in the creditor's eyes.  Her liability will stop on NEW debt IF she takes her name off the account or if the joint account is closed.  However, the creditor is within their legal rights to collect the old debt, including placing derogatory information on her credit bureau reports.

The divorce decree is still is a legal document.  Think of it as a contract between her and her ex.  Therefore, she can sue her ex for damages and any part of the bill she paid that the decree says he should have been responsible for.

However, on a joint account, the creditor extended the credit with the idea that both parties are responsible for it.  The creditor does not give up their rights just because she was divorced.

The only other exception would be if she has a specific court order barring the CREDITOR from collecting - i.e. deleting her liability.  This would mean she likely had to sue the creditor, I don't think that is the case here based on your posting.

I hope that makes sense.  I wish I had better news for you and your friend.

There are steps she can take through credit repair to delete the derogatory or collection accounts from her credit reports.  Actually, based on your posting, this is a prime case where credit repair has a good shot at being pretty successful.  I would be happy to look into it for her.  We are a credit repair company that has deleted literally hundreds of bad accounts from consumers' credit reports.  There is also potential statute of limitation issues that may apply and help her.

Regan
mbscompany@aim.com
813-454-1459