Can married people file bankruptcy alone? Should we file together?

The ground rules

Marriage doesn’t make you liable for each other’s debts (with a community-property-state asterisk below). Debt belongs to whoever signed. So the starting analysis is an inventory: whose name is on what? A spouse who brought premarital credit cards, a failed business, or a medical event into the marriage can file alone, discharge their debts, and the non-filing spouse’s credit report shows nothing, because nothing of theirs was in the case.

Three honest caveats on the solo filing:

• Household income still counts. The means test looks at the household, including the non-filing spouse’s income (minus that spouse’s own separate obligations, the “marital adjustment”). A solo filing doesn’t shrink the income picture.
• Joint debts survive against the other signer. Your discharge protects you; the card you both signed now points entirely at your spouse. If the important debts are joint, a solo filing half-solves them, and collectors are good at finding the remaining half.
• Jointly owned property is still in your case to the extent of your interest, with exemption and titling wrinkles worth an attorney’s eyes, doubly so in the community property states, where the estate can sweep in community assets and where a quirky “community discharge” partially shelters community property even for the non-filer. If you’re in one of those states, say so in the first minute of the consultation.

When together wins

One petition, one filing fee, one set of courses each but one case, one 341, and typically one attorney fee modestly above a single filing: when the debts are substantially shared, joint filing is usually cheaper, faster, and complete, no surviving halves. Exemptions often double in joint cases (state-dependent), which can be the difference for a car or home equity.

When alone wins

The debts are essentially one person’s; the other spouse’s credit is worth preserving for the household’s near future (a mortgage application, a security clearance); or one spouse simply refuses, which happens and is workable. Occasionally timing splits the difference: one spouse files now for the emergency, the other later or never.

The bottom line

This decision is made well with a debt list sorted into three columns, yours, mine, ours, and made badly from fear. Bring the three columns to a consultation; which names go on the petition usually becomes obvious within minutes.