“I just got divorced, I live in Maryland, and suddenly I have liens against my home. What happened?”

While you were married, if you held property jointly with your spouse, that property was protected against claims against either you or claims against your spouse.

So, those claims sort of bounced off the property that’s held jointly. That’s called holding property as tenants by the entirety. Only married people can hold property in that way. If there’s judgments against you, or judgments against your spouse, the instant you get divorced those judgments will become liens against your interest in the property that is no longer protected by that special way of holding property.

That’s why it’s very important to plan your bankruptcy and your divorce depending upon whether or not your creditors have judgments against you.