Bankruptcy

Is It A Good Idea, When You are Insolvent, to Have Your Name on Sonnyboy's Bank Account? Or to put Sonnyboy's Dough In Your Bank Account????

By Joseph McDaniel, Esq.

No kidding.

Some people love their kids and their parents.

You heard it here first.

So there are a lot of things that people do to try to make things easier for Mom, or Sonnyboy, or their beloved daughters.

One of the common mistakes that I get to hear about is the parent who has a joint account with Sonnyboy.

Sonnyboy is 16, but he has a job. And he works hard flipping burgers.

And then, when he has a lot of money saved up, it gets garnished from the joint account by a judgment creditor who has a judgment against DAD, not Sonnyboy!

I know there are problems getting everything straight when you're out of work, but in general, you don't want money that belongs to your sweet, gray-haired mother and to your darling daughter to get grabbed by a creditor's lawyer with a writ of garnishment.

Can you get the money back for Sonnyboy, Mom, and Darling Daughter after it's been garnished by the evil creditor?

I have an answer. Absolutely, positively maybe.

But then there's the more important question: how much got wrongfully swiped by the garnishing creditor from Sonnyboy, Darling Daughter or Gray-haired Mom?

And how much do you have available in legal fees to pay to unscramble the omelet?

And those legal fees are a clear waste of money, because the problem should never have come up in the first place.

So don't have joint accounts. Just don't. Think of an alternative, because you'll be so angry with the bank about your mistake that the anger could rub off on me, and nobody wants that. Least of all me.

So don't do it, right?

Commingling bad. Separate accounts good. Hulk smash bank.

Actually, Hulk doesn't smash banks; just doesn't happen.

And don't be a co-signer on Sonnyboy's account, or Darling Daughter's, or Gray-haired Mom's account. I know that may cause some problems, but ask yourself this question:

Do you want to tell your Mom that her money is gone because there's a judgment against you?

Yeah, I thought that would be your answer.

NOTHING HERE CONSTITUTES LEGAL ADVICE RE A CHAPTER 7, CHAPTER 13, CHAPTER 11, OR CHAPTER 12. FIND AN ARIZONA BANKRUPTCY LAWYER WHO IS BOARD CERTIFIED IN BANKRUPTCY LAW, AV RATED, AVVO 10 RATED, ON SUPERLAWYERS, OR JUST VERY EXPERIENCED AND A FORMER CHAIR OF SOME BANKRUPTCY SECTION OR COMMITTEE. NOTHING HERE MAY BE USED AS LEGAL ADVICE IN CONNECTION WITH ANY BANKRUPTCY, WHETHER THAT BANKRUPTCY IS IN PHOENIX, GLENDALE, TEMPE, MESA, SCOTTSDALE, OR ANYWHERE ELSE.

Full post as published by Arizona Bankruptcy Attorney Blog on August 11, 2010 (boomark / email).