Co-Signing a Car – I’m being sued on my ex’s, car what do I do?

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Help. I’m being sued, and it’s my ex’s car. What do I do? Hi. My name’s Mike Ziegler. I’m the managing attorney for The Debt Fighters. If you’re saying that before you’ve watched this video, then you are hitting a situation that I’ve run into with clients very often. What do you do when you’re being sued or you’re being garnished on a car that you co-signed for someone else, but you don’t actually have the vehicle. Let’s start with the bad news that you probably already know.

When you signed on that dotted line to help your significant other to obtain a vehicle, you were pledging more than just your credit. You were also pledging a potential liability in the event that they didn’t pay. As you might imagine, for the very reason that they had to sign on that dotted line, you may now be responsible. Now, let’s talk about the even worse news. In most contracts, you’ll have what’s called joint and several liability. What that means is that even if there’s two or more parties to a contract, the lender under the contract can go against the party that they perceive is the most collectible in order to recover the entire balance. Now, that may not seem fair. You do have a legal right to go after the co-borrowers in order to get back whatever balance you pay, but usually that is not the most practical of options.

What do you do now? Now, whether you’re being sued as a primary obligor, or a guarantor, or a co-signer, you would still evaluate your options much the same way that you would evaluate any debt problem solving options. Usually, absent other debt related problems, you would typically try to negotiate on the debt first. There are other debt issues.

You might want to consider a more comprehensive solution, like debt consolidation, or a chapter seven or chapter 13 bankruptcy.

If you want to evaluate your options with the assistance of an experienced attorney, I’d encourage you to give us a call for a complimentary consultation. Now, if your situation is just totally abnormal, it’s weird, if you’ve never co-signed on the loan at all and you feel like you’re still being sought responsibility for the balance, then you should definitely give us a call, because that may be a more complicated scenario.

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