Divorce After Filing

[srehbeger]

My husband and I filed for Ch 13 bankruptcy in Dec of 2003.

Recently, we have begun discussing divorce. I was just wondering if anyone knew how a divorce would affect our monthly payments. We live in a community property state. Does this mean the payments will be split equally for the remainder of our plan? We only have about 16 more payments to make.

Also, what happens if he defaults on his payments? Would that affect me? Would I then be responsible?

[lrprn]

I'm very sorry to hear about your marriage troubles, srehbeger.

The Bankruptcy Law Network does a great job answering your questions at http://www.************************/...13-bankruptcy/ .

Bottom line - if you decide to divorce during your Ch 13 case, then you two must work out who will pay what amount of your monthly payment and set it out in your divorce settlement. Also one of you will have to hire a new bk lawyer because your current lawyer can't represent both of you.

If the two of you can't reach an agreement or if one of you doesn't pay your part of the monthly payment without getting permission from the trustee first, then your trustee will file a motion to dismiss your case.

Hope that you two can find a way to work out your differences. Good luck and please know that we are here if you ever need more information or just need to vent. Hang in there - you're so close to being discharged!

[srehbeger]

Thanks for the help lrprn. It has been another trying two months and we still don't know what we are going to do. My biggest concern is that he won't pay his agreed upon amount and then I will lose everything. At this point, I am trying to decide if it would be better to stick it out one more year just to make sure it gets paid off. We are so close and I would hate for it to be all for nothing.