What happens to joint debts?
The Missouri statute which required the Court to divide marital property does not mention debts. The Court may assess responsibility for the debts between the spouses but is not required to do so. Even if your spouse agrees to pay a joint debt or the judge orders the spouse to pay the joint debt, that liability remains a joint obligation to the creditor. Neither the agreement nor the order binds the creditor who can sue one spouse if the other doesn’t pay. An important consideration regarding joint debts is that if a spouse agrees to pay the debt, or the Court orders it paid, the other spouse will still be responsible for the debt if it is not paid. If this should ever happen, the former spouse could be sued to collect the money the other spouse had to pay. When the creditor loaned the money to both spouses, he relied on that joint income and has the right to collect from either spouse. Occasionally, a bank will let a spouse refinance a loan and remove the other spouse’s name, but this
