Expert: Terry Leeders - 1/28/2009

Question
My husband and myself had to take a bankruptsy in 2003.  It was discharged October 2008.  The problem is, from the beginning I made known to my lawyer how important it was to get a hardship cancellation of my student loan, but he said I would do better applying for it.  I didn't know how, nor did I know it should have been done during the bankruptsy period to have more validity. My student loans were paid over $6,000, with almost all of that going to interest, just like throwing it out the window.  Can I appeal to the bankruptsy court to review this now, even though it has been discharged?

Answer
Most likely not.  The test to discharge student loans is very hard to pass, you basically have to show that you have no current ability to pay them anything, no future ability to pay for them, and that you had repaid them some when you could.  If you are working, then the chances are extremely low that the court would allow you to discharge the loan.  This would be done in the form of an adversary, and needed to be filed while the case was open.