Bankruptcy, Things Not to Do - and Your Adult Son's Medical Bills

July 13, 2010 - PRLog -- Before filing a bankruptcy there are a few things that are real killer to receiving a discharge of your bankruptcy. Some people think well I’m going to file anyway I will go charge the rest of the limits on the credit cards. Doing a balance transfer on one credit card to pay another so that you can keep that one, maybe because the loan is with your bank or use the money to pay back your mom or someone else you owe. Going into Best buy and buy a big screen TV or new furniture and think you don’t have to pay for it. Sometime going out and buying a new car with a super high car payment. Transfer the title of your boat or second car into a friend or family members name to hide it. Not listing all your assets like boats,lake lots,timeshares,or land maybe your grandmother gave you. Now if you have some of these things it does not mean you will lose it but you need to list it.
A bankruptcy is there to help us when things have changed in our lives and we really need the help so do not take a good thing and make it bad.

I have a client with a son that is disabled. He is in his 50’s and has his own place and is receiving disability, but he cannot afford to pay his medical bills that keep accumulating. His mother, my client, has been trying to help him pay his rent and medical bills, but she only brings home around $1600 (she is retired and living off social security).

She has run up around $100,000 in credit card debt. Her son has over $30,000 in medical bills and credit card debt. My client knows wants to know if she can include her son’s medical bills in her bankruptcy. The only number the creditors have to get in touch with her son is her cell phone. She is tired of getting calls from creditors and wants to include her son’s medical bills to stop the creditors from calling.

I explained that even though she feels responsible for her son’s medical bills, legally she is not. She asked if she told the creditors she was responsible if she could then include them in her bankruptcy. Even if she took responsibility for the medical bills, her son is still responsible and the creditors can still try and collect from him. Also, she cannot take responsibility for another person’s debt in order to include them in a bankruptcy.

If multiple people are responsible for a debt, and only one person files bankruptcy, the non-filing person is still responsible for that debt. Just because one person gets a discharge that does not discharge everybody responsible for the debt.

For more information visit http://www.bankrupcy-alternative.com/bankruptcy-lawyers.html or call us directly. Here is another bankruptcy article http://www.prlog.org/10793428-bankruptcy-tax-returns-and-... and here is another http://www.prlog.org/10790923-bankruptcy-keeping-in-conta... for your reading enjoyment.

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