My sister bought a car for her daughter's use. She bought it with her ex-husband after their divorce.

They titled it in both their names Sister AND Ex-Husband.

They got a loan for the car, together.

Apparently the split was cordial at that point. And my sister is eternally good-natured and trusting. I mention that now because it's worth noting that everyone else she knows is appalled just by what I've typed so far.

The split turned acrimonious after this happened (ex-husband is a drunk and abusive, sister is the sort of person who thinks if she's nice enough to someone like that she can fix them. The divorce was her having a moment of clarity when ex-husband was abusive to daughter, and the acrimony was when the ex-husband realized the divorce was permanent. Just so I don't have to answer a dozen times in comments).

Ex-husband decides to 'win' the divorce, buys daughter a new car two years later. Ex-husband parks car in sister's driveway that says, "it's yours now".

They owe about $10,000 on car. They had been splitting payments. Ex-husband refuses to pay any more.

Car is also trashed. Could sell for $4,000, maybe. Blue Book is closer to $10,000. It's difficult to express how badly this car was destroyed.

Sister doesn't want to take credit hit, and so is paying for car. Ex-husband refuses to pay, and refuses to sign the title of the car. Until he signs it, she can't sell it. She can't even give it to a junkyard, because they're demanding a signed, lien-free title.

She will not let the lender repossess the car. She's stuck--she won't take the credit hit, and the ex-husband knows she won't, so he knows he doesn't need to do anything except let her pay for the car.

Three questions:

1) Is there any likelihood of winning were she to sue in small claims for half the loan amount? She pays off car (or more likely I give her the money to pay off the car), sues him for $5,000 (half the loan balance).

2) The best route to get him to sign the title so that she can sell it? She spent a few weeks trying to find an attorney. She couldn't find one to even talk about it, and it doesn't matter because she couldn't afford to pay them if she could. The legal aid society here told here to file an Illinois Miscellaneous Remedy motion to request he be compelled to sign the title. That would at least make the car negotiable.

3) Can she sue him in small claims could for half the cost of the repairs the car needs, so that it could then be sold? Or really, does she have a leg to stand on in front of a judge if she did?

As it is, she put it on Facebook and no one would buy it at any price. It's filthy, and has engine, cooling system, wheel, tire, and brake problems, and it needs bodywork as well. Apparently ex-husband had been using the car himself, and decided to give it up when he realized he couldn't just sell it.

My advice to her was to let the lender repossess it and take the credit hit. She says she'd rather pay it off. If she's going to do that, my advice to her was to have it fixed, sell it for whatever it'll get, then pay off the difference...but not to do anything until she knows for sure she can sell it at all (i.e., his signature on the title).

My (not legal) advice was to forge his signature on the title and then fix it and sell it, but she thinks he's waiting for that. I think as much trouble as she's having getting the legal system involved he'd have the same problems. What's he going to say? "That's not my signature on the title of the car I told her to take?"

Nonetheless, she's right, and that's illegal. Any ideas how she can do this the right way?