My question involves bankruptcy in the state of: FL (which is a state requiring FL exemptions)
I'm having trouble finding out what, precisely, constitutes 'undue hardship', perhaps this is case-by-case?
This is in the context of a chp.7, apprx.$75k in total debt, about half of which is school loans (predominantly gov-insured loans). If that's the situation, and the person has not worked more than ~6mo total in the past ~4yrs, and has lived couch-to-couch/poverty/etc, is still unemployed/ and sleeping on a family member's floor, is it conceivable that gov't-insured school loans could be considered 'undue hardship' and be discharged?
I have to imagine there's some type of psychological thing that "for red tape reasons" could be diagnosed (in theory), but is that requisite when it's clear that a person's been a complete bum for years, their EBT card being their greatest asset by far, and they've got years'-old school loans (~9yrs ago was when graduation would have been if they'd finished their degree)? I guess I'm not sure how it goes in practice, but the way I (want to)interpret it would be that the repayment of the school loans would present an undue hardship, in that neither a chp7discharge, nor a chp13 workout program, could ever be expected to work out (unless they somehow did an about-face/180 and suddenly became gainfully employed for the first time in ~half decade)
(am also curious, to an incredibly lesser extent, whether speeding tickets that are years' old would be the same? Although that's pretty irrelevant, as the school loans being non-dischargeable would make a 7 or even a 13 plan not worthwhile, the 'fresh start' would not, in such context, be remotely fresh)
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[as example, I came across the following passage:
"As a general rule, if the debtor is not living in a cardboard box under the freeway, there is no undue hardship, and student loans have to be repaid. "
While it's not quite that, debtor hasn't had a personal residence (or rented/shared apartment) in many, many years; sleep/shelter have been entirely amongst friends, family, etc., the person is a regular at the food pantries, and 9 days out of 10 for the last years, would literally not have had a quarter to their name. They've had some short spats of work (the longest was 3months independent contractor [over a year ago], the rest were cash-paid weekend jobs, that'd last for a weekend, usually mowing lawns. This is far beyond 'poverty' in any definition but I guess I'm unsure whether the facts are enough for hardship, or whether they should see a shrink, get whatever appropriate agoraphobia/anxiety-attacks/whatever the dr thinks is most appropriate to term this person circa the past years, before even being able to file this bankruptcy]


