Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Georgia

As I am sure your divorce attorney told you, the car lender can still sue you. You may be able to sue her for contempt. Discuss this with the lawyer who handled your divorce.

If the amount of the deficiency is large, you may need to consider bankruptcy.

As between you and the car loan company, you are still on the hook for the car payment if your name is on the car loan, singly or as a co-borrower, regardless of whether it was repo'd or given to your ex in divorce. Its a shame that you did not find out about this sooner so you could have saved the car from repossession.

The good news is that the car deficiency is like any other unsecured debt. It can be resolved. It depends on how much is owed and what they will settle for. Try offering 50% of what they are asking for if you have the funds. If you don't start saving and see if they will accept that when you do have the funds. Hopefully, they will not sue you before you can raise the funds. If they do sue, you can try to use what you have saved as a down payment and pay the rest in installments.

If you have a lot of other debt, including this, then maybe I would consider bankruptcy. However, I would not run out and file bankruptcy today. You can file even after you have been sued or a judgment entered. It is the option of last resort, not the first option.

You say that your ex-wife has been charged with contempt. I don't know what you mean. Have you just filed a contempt petition? Or has it actually been ruled upon by the court? Getting the court to rule that your wife is in contempt is a no brainer. However, what is going to be the remedy? The courts usually order the person in contempt to obey the court order. In this case though the car has already been sold. So what is the judge going to do? Order your wife to pay? The judge might do that, but does your wife have the means to pay? Can the judge basically enter a judgment and garnish her wages? I don't know the answer as I have not researched the Georgia divorce laws lately and don't really do much Georgia family law.

While people can represent themselves, to best maximize your chances for success, I recommend that you get local counsel. Contempt hearings are not all that expensive. If nothing else, pay a lawyer for 30 minutes of his/her time to review the situation and tell you what remedies you can get the judge to impose. Also, if money is tight, some lawyers may give limited legal representation. Look around to see if there are such lawyers in your county or contact your county's bar association.