Although it can be challenging to discharge student loans in
bankruptcy, it is certainly not impossible.
In some cases, the Court requires a debtor to meet the following three
criteria in order to discharge student loans:
(1) the debtor cannot maintain, based on current income and
expenses, a “minimal” standard of living for yourself and your dependents
if forced to repay the loans;
(2) additional circumstances exist indicating that this state of
affairs is likely to persist for a significant portion of the repayment period
of the student loans; and
(3) the debtor has made good faith efforts to repay the
loans.
If you want to try to discharge a student loan in bankruptcy,
you need to bring a separate action within the bankruptcy case. In the
complaint, we can ask the Judge to rule that your student loan is
dischargeable.
If you have questions about whether you might be eligible for a
discharge of your student loan debt, please all our office and set up a free
consultation to discuss your situation. There are various options
available to deal with your student loan debts inside and outside of
Bankruptcy.
Please also see the following primer designed to provide an introduction to student loan debt:
http://www.scb.uscourts.gov/pdf/initiatives/SLDPrimer.pdf
