How does the court deal with community debt like credit cards and medical, during the divorce?

With regard to debts, as spouses we have a duty to provide “necessaries” for each other, shelter, food, clothing, and medical care. Therefore, a first example is you should keep the spouse covered with health insurance during the divorce. Without the medical coverage, since you are married to this person, if anything happens to them-car wreck, etc-you could be tagged for 100% of outstanding medical expenses. So, the short version is, keep them covered! A second example involves credit card debt. In theory, a spouse could be liable for charges involving the “necessaries”, but most credit card companies do not pursue this avenue of recovery, unless it is a large amount of money. Plus, even if only one spouse can sign for charges on the card, the charges are technically community debt during marriage. However, as a practical matter, courts usually divide property in such a way to require the card account owner to pay it.

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