Q: can a joint and several be dismissed?
I was convicted in 2006 for forgery, when convicted the amount awed was joint and several with the other party. I am the only one in the past 13 years that has made any payments and has been garnished over this. Is it possible to get this dismissed to where the other party needs to be liable? Or settle on the fact that I am the only 1 that has made any payments. There is 1 judge in my county that maybe would be in favor of doing this but I dont know how to get it started as I really cant afford an attorney if this is even possible.
A: You can always try but it is HIGHLY unlikely that you will extinguish your liability before 100% has been paid. It is, after all, the whole point of joint and several liability - both (all) parties owe the entire amount to the creditor, and the creditor is free to collect any or all of it from any party that they can. All this said, you may, however, have claims against your fellow debtor for the amount of their share of the payments that you have made. That, however, would likely require a separate lawsuit by you against them and if the current creditor has not collected anything from the other person, you may want to be sure you have some way to before incurring the additional expense of suing them.
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