Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Arizona

A divorce decree is a contract between you and your ex-wife. It is what you and your wife agreed only between each other. Creditors could care less what is in your divorce decree. And because Arizona is a community property state, that means that any debt (including car debt) that one spouse incurs during the marriage is the responsibility of both spouses, even after they divorced. That is true, even if your wife did not sign for the car loan. The issue is that you incurred that car loan during the marriage, making it your ex-wife's responsibility if it is not paid. So, your creditors can't come after you anymore because of your bankruptcy, but they can come after your ex-wife because the debt was incurred while you were married in Arizona.

If you filed Chapter 7, your promise to your wife in your divorce decree that you would take care of certain debts is NON-DISCHARGEABLE. You still got a discharge with respect to your creditors, but not against your ex-wife. That means that if they sue your wife (because they can no longer sue you since you got a discharge), your ex-wife can then sue you to reimburse her what she pays out-of-pocket for the debt. That is the purpose of the divorce decree: to bind each spouse with respect to each other on what debts they are responsible for.

If you filed Chapter 13, your ex-wife won't be able to come after you (but the creditors can still come after her). A Chapter 13 discharge also discharges your promises to your ex-wife in your divorce decree (except for your promise to pay support)

Therefore, to answer your question: (a) yes, they can come after your wife because you incurred the debt during marriage, regardless as to what your divorce decree says; (b) if you got a Chapter 7 discharge, your ex-wife can come after you separately to reimburse her what she goes out-of-pocket on that debt (because you promised to take care of it in the divorce decree and that promise was not discharged in Chapter 7, even though those creditors can not longer come after you directly); and (c) if you got a Chapter 13 discharge, that DID discharge your divorce decree obligations, and hence, neither your creditors nor your ex-wife can come after you.