@tonikitchen wrote:
I'm currently in BK 13 with student loans. My lawyer specializes in student loans in court. That's why I chose him. However, he said it's very hard to get them discharged. You have to be in dire needs to get them discharged. Federal loans I don't think you can. They will just place in deferment. I have $40k in federal and $120k in private. My federal loans immediately went into deferment. My goal is to come out BK and pay those through an income based plan. Now my private loans, I'm trying to get those discharged. Navient hasn't been willing to negotiate prior to BK. So I'm on a 0% plan for 3 yrs.
But federal loans have so many options for you. I'm a single mother of 4 children. So I can relate. You should try the income based plan, or send them your tax return and request a hardship deferment. I did that and they granted me a 2 year deferment.
But based on your post, there are alot of people walking around with degrees or college education not working in their field. That's no reason to try to get out of paying the loans. You chose that field to study. Now if you simply don't have the income to cover your living expenses anfor pay student loans, ok I can understand that.
But federal loans are not dischargeable from what I understand. Check out the options offered with those programs first.
That statement is most likely untrue, it's very hard to get them discharged but showing proper hardship it may work for you. With Federal, if you fall past due w/o BK they can either garnish wages or take it out of your Fed tax refund (if you're expected to receive one).
People are surprised that federal student loans can actually be included in bankruptcy and if they meet certain circumstances and situations the loans can be discharged. Even the Department of Education makes this statement:
This is not an automatic process—you must prove to the bankruptcy court that repaying your student loan would cause undue hardship.
If you file Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy, you may have your loan discharged in bankruptcy only if the bankruptcy court finds that repayment would impose undue hardship on you and your dependents. This must be decided in an adversary proceeding in bankruptcy court. Your creditors may be present to challenge the request. The court uses this three-part test to determine hardship:
- If you are forced to repay the loan, you would not be able to maintain a minimal standard of living.
- There is evidence that this hardship will continue for a significant portion of the loan repayment period.
- You made good-faith efforts to repay the loan before filing bankruptcy (usually this means you have been in repayment for a minimum of five years).
Your loan will not be discharged if you are unable to satisfy any one of the three requirements. If your loan is discharged, you will not have to repay any portion of your loan, and all collection activity will stop. You also will regain eligibility for federal student aid if you had previously lost it
