Debtor's Discharge of Attorneys Fees Payable As Part of Divorce Judgment

A Chapter 7 debtor cannot discharge alimony or child support obligations. A bankruptcy client asked me whether he could discharge that part of a divorce judgment related to his spouse’s attorneys fees. I found that this issued had been addressed in a 2007 Florida bankruptcy court case. In the 2007 case, a family court judge ordered a bankruptcy debtor to pay his ex-spouse marital support and to pay the spouse’s attorneys fees. The order directed the fees be paid directly to the attorney. The former spouse argued that the attorneys fees award was incorporated within the support judgment, that payment of the fees was necessary for the ex-spouse’s support, and that the entire support award including the fees was non-dischargeable.

The bankruptcy court held that the debtor could discharge the attorneys fees portion of the court award. The court held that non-dischargeable marital debts include debts payable to a spouse or child. In that case, because the debt in question was payable directly to the attorney that debtor’s obligation was not in the class of debts payable to an ex-spouse or child and that the attorney debt was dischargeable in bankruptcy.

In my client's case, his divorce judgment was payable in its entirety to his ex-spouse. Even though the judgment included money for attorneys fees I think the entire judgment would not be dischargeable.

posted by Jonathan Alper, bankruptcy and asset protection attorney, Orlando, Florida