Wisconsin is a marital property state. Therefore, all debts of the marriage are the equal responsibility of both parties. Any creditor can seek reimbursement from either spouse either through a garnishment or attaching marital assets. One way you can protect yourself from the debts of your spouse is to file for divorce or legal separation. The court in Wisconsin will then divide and allocate responsibility for the debt which exists at the time of the judgment. After a divorce or legal separation is granted, you are no longer responsible for the other party’s debts.
In the context of a divorce or legal separation, all property and debt is presumed to be equally divided at the time of the judgment in Wisconsin. But, what if one spouse is responsible for incurring more of the debt, such as credit card bills? What if you didn’t even know about those credit cards? Many people ask in that situation, do I have to pay my spouse’s credit cards in a divorce in Wisconsin?
We often see a situation where there is a large amount of credit card debt or business debt of which one spouse was unaware. However, there are different explanations for this. Sometimes, a person is irresponsible or has a spending addiction. On the other hand, there are situations where one spouse controls the money and refuses to give the other spouse money which leads to having to use credit cards just to buy the basic necessities.
The court will look at the details of your case when deciding whether the presumption of an equal division of debt should apply. If the debt is generally for “marital purposes” such as clothing, food, gas, etc., then the court will still generally order that credit card debt to be equally divided. On this issue, Wisconsin courts have ruled that a marriage is a partnership. In many marriages, spouses often disagree about certain issues. Spending is one of them. Some people are savers and some are spenders. Even though you may not have always agreed during your marriage that your spouse should have been using the credit cards or charged more than you thought was appropriate, does not mean that you are not responsible for that debt upon divorce.
However, if the credit card debt resulted from what is called “marital waste”, then the court may deviate from that equal presumption. Marital waste is defined as dissipation of marital assets for a non-marital purpose. This could be spending related to gambling, drugs and alcohol or even related to an affair. In these situations, the non-incurring spouse will most likely not be held responsible for that debt.
There are situations which do not fall neatly into one of these two categories (marital waste v. non-marital waste). In those cases, the court will have to take a close look at all of the facts and circumstances when making a decision as it is required to consider a result which is fair and equitable to both parties.
For more information, please see our website at Nelson, Krueger & Millenbach, LLC.
–Teri M Nelson
Wisconsin Family Law Info 
My divorce was final 2 weeks ago. We’ve been separated for a year and during that time I amassed a little over $2000 in credit card debt. All of the cards are in my name alone. There are 3 store cards and 2 just regular credit cards. I have not used them, OR paid on them unfortunately, in months because just paying rent had been the priority. At least 2 are in collections. (I feel the need at this point to defend my debt a little. My earning potential is way less than half of his and I acquired this debt while tying to establish my life and home from basically nothing. I know that doesn’t excuse anything, especially the not paying. My plan is to finding a trustworthy credit counseling organisation and start making consistent payments I can afford. My new job and it’s consistent paycheck will help with that) BUuuut, IF I didn’t pay them off and they went further and further into collections, would the credit and/or collections agencies come after him eventually? Again, they are solely in my name and in our divorce paperwork I declared them as my debt, to be paid by me. I would just feel better knowing that, IF something happened and I couldn’t pay, like if I got laid off or sick, he would not have to pay my stuff off
Technically all debt incurred prior to a divorce is marital debt and both parties are responsible for them. However, it is extremely rare for credit card companies to go after a “non-incurring” spouse to collect. This is especially true if it was not a joint card and in your name alone. In fact, I can’t recall that ever happening in 25 years of practice. You may want to talk to a credit consolidation company to discuss payment options. Or, if you explain your circumstances and that you just went through a divorce, most creditors are very willing to work with you on payment arrangements. Good luck.
I am wondering if getting separated or divorced would stop the garnishment of my wife’s checks from my previous medical bills.
I’m sorry but we are divorce attorneys and do not deal with garnishment or collection issues. I would seek the advice of a collection attorney. Good luck to you.
My husband and I married just over a year ago and are getting divorced. Without my knowing, he racked up 4600.00 on a charge card that he had prior to marriage. I am not an authorized user and never personally purchased anything. He also has a Firestone card and target card. I’m not authorized to use any of them. Our money was separate. The only difference is, I paid cash while he spent his and used his cards. Am I responsible for paying half of these? Our first hearing is Dec 7th. Can I write a letter to the judge? A month before he filed for divorce he and a woman at his job added me as an authorized user to a maxed out cc. I believe it changed with the cc company but it affected my credit score by them doing that without my permission
I apologize for missing this post but I would not have been able to give you specific legal advice on your question anyway. I hope you consulted with an experienced divorce attorney. If not, I urge you to do so.