[pooksgal]

I am panicking. I just received notice that Discover is suing me for $8000.00. I'm a stay at home mom and my baby sitting income dropped by over 50% and I got way behind in payments. My biggest problem is that my husband has no idea and will divorce me if he finds out. His name is not on the account. Our house is in his name, we have a joint checking account, and only our daughter's car is in my name. My only asset is a life insurance policy. The down side is that I have to be dead for it to be any good which right now might not be a bad idea. I live in Michigan. How bad can I expect it to get?

[aaron]

If they obtain a judgment, they can attempt to garnish the funds from the joint checking account. (If you ignore the complaint, they will get a default judgment against you.)

Without wanting to be intrusive, have you considered marital counseling? Because if this is a matter for divorce, there are presumably some other stressors in your marriage. A marital counselor may also be able to help you figure out how to break this news before he finds out the hard way.

[pooksgal]

Can I file for bakruptcy without it affecting my husband?

[Mr. Knowitall]

Yes and no.

You can petition for bankruptcy without naming your spouse on the petition. But you would have to list any joint assets as part of your bankruptcy petition, and they would count toward your exemptions. Also, following discharge, on any joint credit application for many years you would have to indicate that you had declared bankruptcy. If you are considering filing for bankruptcy, you should discuss your situation in detail with a bankruptcy lawyer.