17 January 2012,
Question
Husband’s ex-wife is filing Chapter 13. She owes him $22,000 for student loan debt incurred during their marriage. Can she get that ‘forgiven?
When my husband left his ex-wife over six years ago, he left her debt free. She had nothing but rent and utilities to pay. In their divorce decree, the judge ordered her to pay back about $22,000 of his student loan borrowed during their marriage. For the first five years after their divorce, the $179.20 a month she owed him was taken out of monthly alimony. March of 2011 her alimony ended, and she needed to start paying him. The last payment she made was June. Does my husband have any chance of making her pay him back?
Answer
He should file a claim for the remaining money his owed, he should have received a claim form in the mail when she notified him of the bankruptcy filing. If not call the court or the trustees office and request one, complete it and turn it in.
Your husband is going to be treated as an unsecured creditor so he might get anywhere from pennies on the dollar back to the whole amount depending on her chapter 13 bankruptcy repayment plan. Unfortunately the rest will be discharged, if and only if she completes the complete term of the plan which allot of debtors do not do.
