Chapter 7 filed husband only, pending legal action, can they come after me.

[kittywalt]

Okay, so I met with an attorney a few months back and we decided that we would file chapter 7 - just my husband since all debts were in his name...I was just an authorized signer on the accounts, and was never put on the house. We decided on BK because of a summons we received....so today we get a copy from that law office that a notice of bk was filed by them in court, which is standard when you are already in the legal process. But on the notice it says "....that Defendant HUSBANDS NAME has filed bk. however i am worried that they might try to come after me. I am unemployed but with it being a community property state I am assuming that they could put a lien against our house, etc...even though it isn't in my name, right? Also, if they did decide to come after me, could I just file a no assets Chapter 7 since I am not on the house or car loan...so the bk trying to reaffirm them wouldn't happen for me since I am not on them. I remember that the attorney and I talked about it but for the life of me I can't remember what we said in the end...so I have a call into him, but was wondering what some of you might know from experience or have knowledge of. Thanks for your help!

[despritfreya]

So long as you remain married, your husband's discharge will protect you. It will be a "community discharge". The creditor, if it chooses to, can obtain a judgment against you "sole and separately" but it will be unable to collect since, if you go back to work, your earnings will be "community". Now, if you come into a sole and separate asset, say an inheritance, and the judgment creditor finds out, it could execute against the sole and separate asset.

In Arizona a judgment lien simply does not attach to your homestead unless there is more than $150,000.00 in equity. Further, since your husband is in bk and the home is in his name, the creditor cannot now file such a lien.

Yes, if in the end, creditors come after you, you can file your own case. But don't worry about it at this time.

Normally I advise husband and wives to file joint case so issues like this do not happen. I keep a spouse out of the bk for only two reasons: 1) the spouse simply refuses to file or 2) the spouse has a sole and separate asset that a Trustee would love to take. Otherwise, it makes no sense not to file a joint case.

Des.

[tcreegan]

Hi kittywalt,

BK because of a summons we received....so today we get a copy from that law office that a notice of bk was filed by them in court, which is standard when you are already in the legal process. But on the notice it says "....that Defendant HUSBANDS NAME has filed bk

Just curious, did the judgement law office file the bk notice in the court where they sued you...? I thought it was the other way around, you had to file the bk notice w/ the judgement court.

The community property state is a good deal, thanks for posting despiritfeya!

Tom in Colo

[kittywalt]

Just curious, did the judgement law office file the bk notice in the court where they sued you...? I thought it was the other way around, you had to file the bk notice w/ the judgement court.[/I]

tcreegan - All of the sudden today we get a letter from the attorneys office which filed the suit against us and it was a copy of their notice of bankruptcy filing. Attached to it was the notification letter that goes out to all creditors. We were about 60 - 90 days from going to arbitration on the case, but no date had been set as of yet.


despiritfeya Thank you for posting that absolutely wonderfully helpful info, reading it I remember that this is what the attorney told me when i met with him. Can't thank you enough.

[tcreegan]

ahh, that explains it, someone put them on the list of people to be notified. Now you should get a letter from the court saying the case has been dismissed.

Glad everything is working out for you!

Tom in Colo