student loans and bankruptcy timing

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Q. I think I have a fairly good chance of having my $45,000 in student loans discharged in a bankruptcy. I'm currently disabled (severe depression) and unlikely to be able to repay the loans in the future. But, of course, you never know what a particular judge will decide. I'm in Olympia, WA (Thurston county). Here's where I'm confused. I don't want a bankruptcy on my record for 10 years if I can't get my student loans discharged. I have about $13,000 in credit card debt and owe the IRS $5,000 (I don't think that can be discharged). What I'm trying to say is that the bankruptcy being on my credit report for 10 years is not worth it to me UNLESS my student loans are discharged to. As much trouble as I'm going to have just paying off the other $18,000, I'm willing to try. But it's my understanding that the decision about the student loans doesn't come until AFTER the regular part of the bankruptcy is filed and approved, etc. Is that really the case? Any ideas what I should do?

A. The case law is not encouraging. There's actually a specialized treatise on the subject, which you might find in your county law library or university law library; perhaps you can get it by interlibrary loan from your pubic library: Discharging Student Loans in Bankruptcy — 2nd Edition http://tinyurl.com/2ld53 Since you're in Washington, I'll add that there are two reported cases of Americans trying to discharge their US student loans in Canadian bankruptcy proceedings. One succeeded, the other failed (based on an analogy by the judge with Canadian law that forbids such discharges). In neither case did the US Government file proof of claim; but the Lloyd's-invetor bankruptcy cases teach us that a bankruptcy judge can pretty much do whatever s/he wants, knowing that most debtors haven't the money to appeal. In re Bialek, (1994) 25 CBR(3d) 271; In re Taylor, (1988) 68 CBR (NS) 93 (PEI (SC). (A discharge in Canada would not affect the collectibility of a US debt later in a US court if the creditor has not filed any proof of claim or otherwise appeared in the case. Or so it seems; in Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp. v. Simon (In re Simon), 153 F.3d 991 (9th Cir. 1998) the creditor was said to have "participated" in the US bankruptcy.)

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