At first glance it appeared that the debtor had a “slam dunk” case to receive a hardship discharge of her $140,000 student loan debt.

The debtor is a 36-year-old single mother of two disabled children, ages 11 and 12. She received no child support since her ex-husband voluntarily terminated his parental rights. She could not

In today’s mailbag . . .

“70k in student loans–feeling lost

When I graduated high school, I felt invincible. I was a smart kid, so I thought I’d definitely find a good career someday. I had lots of dreams of becoming a roboticist, doctor, dentist, or anything challenging that I could feel proud of.

Flash

The Eight Circuit Bankruptcy  Appellate Panel denied an application seeking to discharge student loans because the debtor voluntarily quit a full-time job eight months prior to filing bankruptcy.

The debtor, Erin Kemp, is a 36-year-old single mom raising a 13-year-old daughter in Arkansas.  She obtained a psychology degree in 2010 and for the past 17 years she worked for a bank earning up to $45,000 per year.  However, eight months prior to filing bankruptcy she quit her full-time bank job due to problems with depression and anxiety and took a part-time job at Lowe’s earning $13.46 per hour. She supplemented her income by performing home daycare services as well.Continue Reading 8th Circuit BAP Denies Discharge of Student Loan

Winter Town

Last week the bankruptcy court for the Western District of Missouri discharged $37,243 of federal student loans for Michael Abney despite the fact that he was not required to make any payment on his account under an Income Based Repayment plan (IBR). (See In re Abney)

The facts of the case are as follows:

Ten

Ten years ago this month the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act (BAPCPA) became effective. The act was designed to make filing bankruptcy more difficult by requiring filers to provide more information to court trustees that supervise the process and by installing a mathematical formula to keep higher income debtors out of chapter 7.