Joint liability (often called solidary liability) occurs when each debtor is responsible for the entire debt. The creditor is free to demand payment from any of the debtors. This can be seen in Article 1280 of the Civil Code, which states, “A joint liability agreement exists between the debtors when they are all obligated to perform the same act, such that one can be sued for the entire debt, and the fulfillment of that obligation releases the other debtors from the creditor.”

On the other hand, joint liability means each debtor is only responsible for their own portion of the joint debt. The creditor cannot demand the entire debt from one person, but only from their respective portions. This can be seen in Article 1278 of the Civil Code, which states, “A joint and several liability agreement occurs between several creditors if the agreement expressly grants each party the right to demand payment of the entire debt, while payment made to one of them releases the other debtor, even though the agreement, by its nature, can be divided and shared among the several creditors.”