August 29th, 2006 | 
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sidhfaerie asked:
How does a person pay their personal debt while they are in jail? What happens to unsecured debt? I understand that a house would be foreclosed on, that a car would be repossessed, but what happens to other debt? Is the family responsible for paying it?
Quentin Posik
How does a person pay their personal debt while they are in jail? What happens to unsecured debt? I understand that a house would be foreclosed on, that a car would be repossessed, but what happens to other debt? Is the family responsible for paying it?
Quentin Posik
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Pretty sure it’s there waitin’ when they get out…
it waits for them to get out
It keep piling up so you have something to look forward to when you get out.
Is very nice, no?
The family would not have pay if it was to the individual going to jail only; however, if the debt was joint with someone else, then to responsibility to pay would fall on the other person to make payments on.
Most likely, for the unsecured debt, the creditor would file suit and get a Summary Judgment, which would be valid for 10 years and could be renewed if there were extenuating circumstance, such as, the debt is still in prison.
A write-off means that a company has written the debt off as a loss on their books for profit and loss reporting only. Just because a company “writes-off” the debt on their books does not mean that a person does not owe it and that the company cannot collect it or sell or assign all of their right, title and interest in the debt to a 3rd party or collection agency.
You are still responsible for paying your debt. You should contact your credit card companies to advise them that you will be “away” for a while and unable to make your payments and ask that they forbear on your account until you are “out”. If your family wants to assume your payments in your stead while you are gone, that would be wonderful; but they don’t have to unless the debts are joint debts. You may wind up being sued if you don’t bite the bullet and just work with your creditors before you cannot meet your obligations. Good luck!
The family is not responsible, unless it is a joint debt, then the other person on the account gets stuck paying it. Other than that, the debt is still waiting to be paid when you get out of jail, only your credit is bad since you could not pay it when you were locked up.