Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Pennsylvania

If the bill was incurred before separation, and used for marital items, as opposed to clearly your spouse�s sole benefit, it would be marital debt that both of you are liable for in a divorce proceeding.

As to the creditor, you would have to claim that the account was incurred through fraud and that you didn�t authorize it. The method for that is defending the suit and hoping the arbitration panel believes you.

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If you are being sued, then you need to get a lawyer. Now. You are going to have to prove that you did not authorize this and that this was due to fraud as noted by Attorney Nahrgang. You also should seek to add the spouse as a party. That is why you need a lawyer.

If you do nothing or try to end up doing this on your own thinking to save a few dollars, you may or may not come out on top. However, if you are held responsible, then if you are not divorced, I would see if you can recoup some or all of the money in your divorce.

The way to prevent this from happening is to "freeze" your credit. See http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0497-credit-freeze-faqs

Failing that, at least have a security alert put in place requiring creditors to contact you before extending new credit. If ex-spouse tried this once, no telling if it was done more or if he/she will try again.