Legal Question in Family Law in Texas
In my divorce decree it was ordered that my exhusband pay the remaining balance of my vehicle loan. He defaulted on this loan and my vehicle was repossessed a year ago. I do and did not trust my divorce attorney to help and/or have the finances to contact an attorney at the time (or now). Is there anything that I can do about this myself? It has affected my credit as well and I am unable to to purchase any type of vehicle myself.
1 Answer from Attorneys
The business of "dividing debts" in a divorce is complicated. The Family Code doesn't make any provisions for it at all.
IF a debt is "assigned" to your husband (in the decree) and IF you are forced to pay part of it, you can sue him for the portion of the debt you were forced to pay (that is, actual money that came out of our pocket). You end up with a money judgmetn against him which you probably won't be able to collect. Damage to your credit rating isn't actionable. The "husband must pay this debt" part of the decree is NOT enforceable by contempt (assuming that it's an ordinary debt, and not child support).