One piece of advice to remember about debts in a Rhode Island divorce is that while Rhode Island divorce judges have the power to assign responsibility for all or part of the debts to one or both parties in different proportions , the original debt contract remains intact.

This is often overlooked or misunderstood by clients. As an example, suppose you and your spouse financed several computers during your marriage, and you both signed the financing agreement.

At the time of your settlement or divorce proceedings, your spouse is considered responsible for the entire computer finance agreement account.

Later, he starts receiving incessant calls from the finance company about paying for his computer contract. Apparently his spouse is not paying like he was supposed to.

You can tell the computer finance contract company that, based on your divorce, your spouse is responsible for the account until you’re sad and it won’t matter. In the eyes of the finance companies and in the eyes of the law, you are still responsible for the account.

Rhode Island Family Court orders are binding on you and your spouse, but they do NOT change your contracts with creditors. If you keep this in mind, you know you can still be annoyed with collection calls, still get sued for outstanding balances, and still destroy your credit. . . for an obligation for which you were not found liable by the court or for which your spouse agreed to be liable.