A divorce decree usually allocates between the spouses responsibility for paying predivorce debts, but ordering a spouse to pay predivorce debts is not the same as getting those debts paid. Although there has been much discussion in the scholarly literature of the difficulty of enforcing court-ordered support, there has been virtually no discussion of enforcement of court decrees that require a spouse to pay debts remaining from the marriage.
Payment of such debts is often accounted for in the overall settlement between the parties, but there has been no systematic study of the extent to which such agreements are honored. The reports of the debtors in our bankruptcy sample indicate that predivorce debts create another layer of postdivorce problems. The obligation to pay these debts often represents a severe strain for the primarily responsible spouse.
Nonpayment of joint debts by one spouse often contributes to the financial stress of the other spouse. Melanie Hart is a Chicago woman who was divorced at age forty. Since her divorce, she has worked sporadically, mostly on commission, and her income has declined. Melanie's struggle has been uphill from the moment of her divorce because her husband, Gregory, went into bankruptcy before the divorce was completed, leaving her with all the family's bills.
By the time of bankruptcy, she faced almost US Dollars 50,000 in short-term unsecured debt on top of her US Dollars 78,000 mortgage. Half of the unsecured debt was credit cards, because, "After a year of struggling to keep up the payments on my own, I took cash advances on some of the credit cards to meet the monthly payments." After two years of robbing Peter to pay Paul, Melanie followed her ex-husband into the bankruptcy court.
The women in our sample repeat what a Pennsylvania woman said: "Aftermy divorce,my ex-husband did not pay the bills he agreed to pay in our divorce decree." Another explained, "Pending divorce proceeding, entering work force and not having sufficient income to pay for debts incurred during marriage."
The lament over predivorce debts is not limited towomen. Richard Fine, thirty-six, lives in Philadelphia. Even though he has some college education, he earned only US Dollars 7,000 in income during the year before his bankruptcy. His divorce left him with no home and only US Dollars 800 in assets. He blames his bankruptcy on his ex-wife's failure to pay the bills she agreed to cover during the divorce. Buddy Wallace, a Nashville, Tennessee, man in a similar position, had a double complaint: not only did his ex take off, leaving him with the bills for a new car, but the darned car was always in the shop. He didn't say if she had promised to fix it.
From a legal perspective, predivorce debts enjoy a protected status second only to the protection for alimony. The law, particularly as it was amended in 1994, makes these debts difficult to discharge. But their legal status is often not at issue. If the ex-spouse is not paying - or cannot pay - a determination that the debts are nondischargeable is cold comfort in the face of creditors demanding payment from the spouse left behind.
Our website is not responsible for the information contained by this article. Articleinput.com is a free articles resource thus practically any visitor can submit an article. However if you notice any copyrighted material, please contact us and we will remove the article(s) in discussion right away.
Note: This article was sent to us by: Peter G. Vailend at 05122010
1. Countries have different disclosure obligations
All articles are property of their respective authors. Please read our Privacy Policy!
© 2009 ArticleInput.com.