Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Ohio

I have a credit card debt from 2001 that was suppose to covered by my exhusband according court documents. The card was in my name only. There has not been a payment made in over 7-8 years.

1. Do I have to pay the debt, even though it was given to him and I paid all of mine.

2. Also isnt the statue of lilmitations up for a credit card debt this old?

They have sent a legal notice from the court and I am afraid to ignore it.

thank you


Asked on 6/30/10, 1:44 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

Bradley Miller Miller Law LLC

This is actually a common occurrence following a divorce. I have seen mortgage companies doing the same thing. To answer your questions:

1. Because you are on the account, the card company is going after you. The original credit card company probably doesn't know anything about the court order. Any subsequent collections companies certainly won't know about it. Because of the court order though, ultimately it should be your husband who is responsible to pay the debt. You would file a third-party complaint against him that says he is the one who is responsible for the debt, not you.

2. It is possible that the statute of limitations has expired. A lot of it comes down to whenever is defined as the default on the account. Chances are that this debt was purchased by a collection company (and possibly several in succession) and they are going after you in hope that you won't respond and they can get a default judgment against you. An argument that they are past the statute of limitations might be able to defeat their claim.

Whatever you do, you must respond by the deadline in the court documents. If there is no date specified, then you have 28 days from the day you received the notice from the court to respond. Although this is something you can do by yourself, having a lawyer do these things for you might help to ensure that if anyone has to pay the debt, it is your husband.

If you have any further questions or if you would like to discuss your situation in more detail, feel free to contact me.

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Answered on 6/30/10, 5:06 pm


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