United Student Aid Funds, Inc. v. Espinosa Ten Years After

By Hon. Brian Lynch, United States Bankruptcy Judge, Western District of Washington, Tacoma Division

When the Supreme Court issued United Student Aid Funds, Inc. v. Espinosa1 on March 23, 2010, commentators were perplexed.2 On the one hand, the Court upheld the 9th Circuit’s ruling allowing a hardship discharge of student loans in a chapter 13 plan. The Court held that even though the discharge was not done by means of an adversary hearing under Rule 7001(6), and the Court did not make a finding . . .

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