<prompt> Human: My sister and I both have good credit and we both have just been asked by our dad not so good credit to co-sign a loan so that he can pay his lawyers and hopefully clear his name. Hes never been in trouble with the law before and has already spent 30K to his lawyers so far, hes trying to do everything right, unfortunately he doesnt have a lot saved up. Im a little emotionally overwhelmed and am doing my best to research about co-signing and am finding that the general census is that its not a smart thing to do. As much as I would like to see my dad fight and win, Im at a point in my life where I can see myself getting married and buying a house in the near future. Fwiw - Im 31, my student loans and car are paid off, Ive been saving up for a 20 downpayment, and Im in a LTR that I wanna stay in. My sister has already turned him down and would rather just give him money from her emergency fund, I could do the same. Between the two of us we could probably give him 15k, but that feels like drop in the bucket...I heard my sister talking to him about peer-to-peer lending but that it only goes up to 40k. How possible is it to get that amount with bad credit? What is P2P lending exactly and how does it work? Is that a better idea? Maybe then he could take a loan out by himself from his bank for the remainder? idk...Super stressed about this situation, He asked me two days ago and it sounds like hes looking to get the loan signed this weekend and I know I have to shoot him down, Im hoping I could at least have a No, dad, I cant co-sign on a 60k loan but you could do ___ conversation. Tl;dr - Dad wants me co-sign on a 60k loan, I want to help him but I dont want to mess up my good credit when I might need it for near future Life Events.Edit - Lots of good points, all of your comments helped me think up lots of questions to ask my dad so I can make an informed decision. Im going to go cry a lot now and then have a talk with him, wish me luck.Edit2 - Getting asked to share his legal issues, seeing that this is rpersonalfinance and all, I hesitate, but in a nut shell; My dad is a classically trained fine artist that focuses on oil paintings of the human figure. His house keeper found some sketches andor reference that is similar to this scene in the childrens film My Neighbor Totoro and called the cops on him. I find this situation personally frightening as I am an artist that works in childrens tv and I have totally had projects where I needed to research what kids look like.  <response>: Is this criminal? Why isnt he using a public defender? Has he tried contacting local law schools for pro bono assistance? Has he asked the court for a pro bono attorney?If he cant afford his defense, the solution isnt debt. He may not end up in a a physical prison, but he would end up in a financial prison. 