filing bankruptcy

[IceMountain]

State:  Iowa

My wife and I split up about 6 weeks ago.  We want to file divorce, but also file bankruptcy on the marital debt.  Nothing has been filed yet.  

1.  Does it matter which one I do first?

2.  Can bankruptcy on the marital debt be filed jointly after we divorce?

[socrateaser]

>1.  Does it matter which one I do first?

See below.

>
>2.  Can bankruptcy on the marital debt be filed jointly after
>we divorce?

Persaonal Bankruptcy is an individual action, you don't file bankruptcy as a marital partnership. It doesn't really matter whether you file before or after, except that if the court awards a debt to one spouse or orders whatever assets are currently available to extinguish certain debts, it's possible that one of the spouses who filed for bankruptcy, would later find that it was unnecessary for that person to have done so, because they didn't owe anyone anything substantial after their divorce was final.

The question fo whether to file bankruptcy requires some hard thoughts about the options first. Many people with no assets are judgment proof and they may be able to signficantly reduce their existing debt by negotiating with creditors for a large debt reduction, while threatening bankruptcy as the alternative if the creditor refuses to negotiate. In this manner, one can sometimes avoid bankruptcy altogether and thereby save one's credit record.

I don't have near enough facts about your respective financial conditions, so I suggest that you talk to a BK attorney -- they all generally give free consultatons.