Responsibility May Depend on Necessities
Video Transcribed: Are you responsible for your spouse’s debts? My name is Brian L. Jackson. I’m a Tulsa Father’s Rights lawyer here with Dads.Law.
I want to talk about whether or not you would be responsible for your spouse’s debts. The answer is generally no, except for very specific circumstances, which would be necessaries, and which you can be responsible for under Title 43.
Necessaries are generally defined as medical treatment, but arguably that could potentially expand other things, for example, if your spouse needs a criminal attorney. And in those limited circumstances, yes, you can be held to be responsible. And of course also, if you expressly sign as a guarantor on behalf of your spouse, you sign surety on behalf of your spouse, then yes, you are liable on those.
And obviously, if it’s a joint debt. For example, a mortgage, typically those are frequently joint debt. Yes, you could be liable to the creditor on those types of debts as well. But generally speaking, if it’s a separate debt that’s not necessary, it’s a credit card or a personal loan or some kind of a bill that’s only in one spouse’s name, you as the other spouse are not liable for it to the creditor. It may still be divisible debt as marital debt in the context of a divorce though, and that’s a topic that I will discuss in a future video.
If you have questions about that or if you have a creditor who’s hounding you because your spouse or ex-spouse failed to pay, then you need a lawyer, and one place you can find a good Oklahoma men’s divorce lawyer is at Dads.Law where fathers are not disposable.
