My divorce was final last year. I wanted it quickly and so I signed the papers without looking at them so that we could get it over with. Now that I’m happy and ready to move on, I realize that I really should have...
 
 
...gotten the living room furniture. I also never dealt with the debts that were in both of our names and assumed my former spouse would pay them, but now they declared bankruptcy and the credit card companies and finance companies are coming after me. How do I fix this?

You can not get changes made to a property settlement agreement after the divorce is final. When you signed your decree, you took an oath and swore that it was a complete and final agreement, and you can’t go back and change things now. If you left all your heirlooms in the house when you walked out and did not get anything specified to be returned to you when you signed the final agreement, then you can’t get it back unless your former spouse takes pity on you and agrees to let you have it, or maybe you can offer to buy it back from them if it’s important enough to you. And if you did not make it clear that the bills were to be divided and who was to pay which bill, you do not have the opportunity to do it now. In other words, provisions of the property settlement that were approved by the court in a final decree are final and can not be modified (A.R.S. 25-325B)
 
There are a few rare exceptions. For example, this might be for property or debts that the two of you both forgot about at the time of the divorce and so you didn’t tell the judge about it. If you owned 100 shares of ABC stock in both parties names, but you both forgot to mention it in the divorce, and discovered it a year or more later, you can bring it to court and can get it split 50-50 (A.R.S. 25-318D).
 

The lesson is to make sure that all your property and debt issues are completely and finally resolved between the two of you and clearly explained in the decree so that they won’t pop back up a year or two (or 10 or 20) later, and make you miserable.

 

 



The information on this page is provided for educational purposes only, and should not be relied on in any specific case. Furthermore, the information applies generally to matters of Arizona law and not any other jurisdiction. Full site disclaimer.
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