132 DIVorCe wItH DeCenCY
well be subject to the same remedies and may also be in contempt
of court (for all the good that does you—an ex-spouse in this situ-
ation will often follow up by declaring their own personal bank-
ruptcy), but it is your credit that gets trashed in the process.
Again, the general rule is that any and all debts incurred dur-
ing the marriage, regardless of whose name they are incurred in,
will be divided half-half. Furthermore, unless the situation is so
extreme as to trigger the “drugs, sex, and rock ’n’ roll” exception,
this general rule will usually be applied to include even the ques-
tionable debts run up by the one party who was the big spender
and who always tended to buy more than did the other during
the marriage.
Clients are reminded that it is not only the divorce court that
will hold them responsible for joint debts—so will the banks. Any
joint charge cards that you’ve got—a joint Visa or MasterCard—
can turn into real problems in this situation. Don’t kid yourself by
thinking it’s just going to be enough to call your friendly banker
and say, “Oh, I’m getting divorced, please don’t let my wife charge
any more, and please remove me from all further liability on our
joint Visa card.” Au contraire! The banker loves having two sig-
natories and two people to hold fully and jointly liable for the
entire amount of all joint debts incurred. So your buddy banker
will likely respond by saying, “Not so fast, bucko, it took two of
you to open this account, it’s going to take two of you to close it!”
Of course, your wife happens to be in Rio at that very moment,
literally burning the digits right off the face of your joint Visa card
(with the kind assistance of her new boyfriend). Oddly enough,
she may not be around to help you close down the account. This
can become a real problem. About all you can do is to scramble
to get your charge accounts canceled.
I have had clients who, at the first sign of a split, grab their
wife’s purse, or their husband’s wallet. The next thing they do is
cut up the credit cards. In some situations this may prove to have
been a very prescient move. I’ve had other clients call Visa and
report all their cards lost or stolen.
All this sounds somewhat hostile, and I don’t generally preach
hostility, but you must be very careful about this joint debt issue,
since bills can rapidly spiral out of control.