Jul 26, 2026 · 22 min · 11 segments
I've spoken a lot about my ex-husband declaring bankruptcy in previous episodes, and I realized that a lot of listeners probably have a lot of questions about that, especially those listeners who are…
As I mentioned in the previous episode, I had kind of become friends with a lawyer through my interpreting work.
I was interpreting for one of his clients and because we spent an hour or more together in the car several times a week, I gradually opened up to him about everything my family was going through to see if he had any legal advice that he could offer that would keep these awful people who are harassing me and my family away.
Of course, I could only tell him what I knew at the time, and as I've said before, some of what I believed back then later turned out to be lies my husband had told me.
And to this day, I'm fairly positive I don't know the full story.
But based on what I knew, the lawyer's advice was that my husband should declare bankruptcy.
At first, that idea really scared me.
We were finishing up the design stages and getting ready to break ground on our new house.
And my immediate thought was, if he declares bankruptcy, we won't be able to build our home.
But the lawyer explained that all of the information that you hear on TV or read about in pop culture is not always accurate.
It doesn't give you the full picture and obviously doesn't account for every factor or every situation.
And depending on all of that, the outcome can be drastically different.
And one of the most important aspects of all of this was that The debts my husband had created were debts he'd accumulated secretly, without my knowledge or my consent.
And because of that, legally, they were his debts and not mine.
However, the people he was indebted to had been telling me something else all along.
They would call me and say things like, you're married, so his debt is your debt.
And there's a thing called rentai sekinin, which basically translates as collective responsibility, which was obviously terrifying to hear.
But after speaking with the lawyer and learning that they were basically using quote unquote condoms, common knowledge to threaten me, I started to be able to say to them, I've spoken with a lawyer, this is not my debt, you'll need to deal with my husband.
And I don't think that they had actually expected me to go to a lawyer, and I'm not sure all of them actually believed that I did, but it seemed that just saying that made them back down for a time.
As I mentioned in the previous episode, I had kind of become friends with a lawyer through my interpreting work.
I was interpreting for one of his clients and because we spent an hour or more together in the car several times a week, I gradually opened up to him about everything my family was going through to see if he had any legal advice that he could offer that would keep these awful people who are harassing me and my family away.
Of course, I could only tell him what I knew at the time, and as I've said before, some of what I believed back then later turned out to be lies my husband had told me.
And to this day, I'm fairly positive I don't know the full story.
But based on what I knew, the lawyer's advice was that my husband should declare bankruptcy.
At first, that idea really scared me.
We were finishing up the design stages and getting ready to break ground on our new house.
And my immediate thought was, if he declares bankruptcy, we won't be able to build our home.
But the lawyer explained that all of the information that you hear on TV or read about in pop culture is not always accurate.
It doesn't give you the full picture and obviously doesn't account for every factor or every situation.
And depending on all of that, the outcome can be drastically different.
And one of the most important aspects of all of this was that The debts my husband had created were debts he'd accumulated secretly, without my knowledge or my consent.
And because of that, legally, they were his debts and not mine.
However, the people he was indebted to had been telling me something else all along.
They would call me and say things like, you're married, so his debt is your debt.
And there's a thing called rentai sekinin, which basically translates as collective responsibility, which was obviously terrifying to hear.
But after speaking with the lawyer and learning that they were basically using quote unquote condoms, common knowledge to threaten me, I started to be able to say to them, I've spoken with a lawyer, this is not my debt, you'll need to deal with my husband.
And I don't think that they had actually expected me to go to a lawyer, and I'm not sure all of them actually believed that I did, but it seemed that just saying that made them back down for a time.
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