Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in California

Re: Debt Collection

The credit card companies have a right to pursue your father's estate. That may expose some or all of the 1/2 of the marital assets your father owned(those held in community property, which is likely to be everything they owned) to their collection efforts. Although your mother may not have made application for any of these cards, they were done (I assume) at a time when they were married. There are a lot of questions that would need to be answered to give you an answer with any specificity, but I'd start from the position that the credit cards can come after some or all of your father's assets, and would suggest that you at least speak with an attorney who handles probate matters. Alternatively, you could attempt to negotiate settlements with the credit card companies directly.

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Re: Debt Collection

The credit card companies cannot directly sue nor demand payment from your mom. They would have to file a probate action. Unless we are talking about a very large sum of money, it is unlikely a credit card company would go to the lengths of a probate action to collect a debt, as this procedure is rather expensive.

Should, however, a creditor choose this route, then your mom's assets would be in jeopardy. Before matters get out of control, your mom may want to talk to an estate planning and bankruptcy attorney to learn how to protect her assets.