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If I'm filing for bankruptcy, must my spouse also file for
bankruptcy too? Hi. I'm Eric Engel, a Seattle bankruptcy and
divorce attorney with the Engel Law Group. The short answer
regarding your question is the longer the marriage, generally,
the more likely you're going to want your spouse to also file
bankruptcy at the same time. This is because if you have a
long-term marriage you probably have a lot of debts associated
with that marriage. This is going to place all of those
liabilities potentially on your spouse. On the other hand, if
you have a short-term marriage, the opposite is true. You may
have a lot of debts that existed before you actually got married.
In that case it may make sense to file separately from your
spouse. For example, if you want to protect the credit rating of
a spouse who has otherwise perfect credit. Why do you need
to know this? Because whether or not to include your spouse in
your bankruptcy petition is one of the most fundamentally
important decisions that you're going to make in this process.
We deal with these sorts of questions every day. We can help
you, give us a call. Our phone number is 206-625-9800. Thank
you for watching our video.