According to U.S. law, the only person who can be held legally responsible for a debt is the person who incurred it. This means that a person cannot be sued or otherwise pressed by creditors to pay a debt that they did not themselves guarantee. This holds true even for debts incurred by spouse. A creditor cannot pursue payment of a debt from a spouse who did not incur it and cannot garnish his wages.
Debt Law
When a loan is taken out or a debt is otherwise incurred, the two parties -- the creditor and the borrower -- generally specify the details of the transaction in the contract. This contract makes clear the party who is responsible for repaying the debt. Unless a borrower has co-signed the contract with his spouse, the spouse is not responsible for the debt the borrower took out.
Debt Collection
Under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, creditors are not allowed to pursue a debtor's spouse for money that the debtor owes. This means that the creditors cannot contact the spouse or attempt to take money from the spouse by force to make good on the debtor's debt. This also means that creditors cannot garnish the wages of the debtor's spouse if the spouse does not owe them money.
Wage Garnishment
When wages are garnished, it means that the debtor's employer takes a portion of his wages out of his paycheck and hands it off to the creditor to whom the debtor owes money. Wage garnishments can only occur if approved by a judge. A judge will only grant the garnishment of a person's wages if the worker himself owes the money. The judge will never grant a garnishment for a spouse of the debtor.
Considerations
If the spouse of a debtor is working but the debtor is not, a creditor is not allowed to garnish the wages of the employed person. This is true even if the money that the employed person is making is being used to support the debtor. However, this money may be considered income and it may, under some circumstances, be seized from the debtor's bank account.
0 comments:
Post a Comment