Most married couples have debt. Divorce simply complicates your financial obligations. Perhaps you have credit card debt. Maybe you are upside down with your home mortgage or car loans. Worse yet, what happens if you owe the IRS back taxes or have debts related to the family business? Who will responsible for paying everything?
Missouri is an equitable distribution state, which means the court will allocate the marital debts between the spouses in an equitable (fair) manner. It is important to understand that equitable division does not mean it will be a 50/50 split. The court may decide that it is fair to allocate most or all of the debt to one spouse, depending on how and why the debt was incurred. Among other variables, the court will also take into consideration the economic circumstances of each spouse, the child custody arrangements and each spouse’s conduct (or misconduct) during the marriage.
However, the court will not get involved in the allocation of your debts unless you and your spouse fail or refuse to settle fairly. Therefore, we are prepared to make every effort to settle your case fairly through negotiation, mediation and settlement conferences. Settlement allows you to have a say in deciding how you and your spouse will share responsibility for your debts. But unless you settle, the court will decide; and when the court decides, one spouse or the other is often disappointed by the court’s decision.
Any divorce can quickly become a complicated legal matter, a life-changing event which must be handled correctly because it may affect your finances for a lifetime. We are a successful St. Louis divorce law firm that understands your worries; and our mission is to achieve the result you deserve while making the transition as low-stress as possible for you and your family.
We work with both men and women, in St. Louis, Missouri and the surrounding areas, to make sure they get the debt allocation results they want during their divorce. We are both powerful and affordable divorce lawyers with years of experience handling debt allocation cases.
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