Student loans now dismissible by bankruptcy!?!

Factual Questions
1

I thought they weren’t but know someone who recently wrote off $30,000 in student loans in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy. I have a copy of the complete filing.

She is a child protection services (CPS) case manager for the state. Despite uninterrupted income of approximately $70,000 per year and no hardships, she took advantage of the COVID eviction moratorium and stopped paying rent. She then used that $20,000 in unpaid rent to file chapter 7 and wrote off $30,000 in student loans from Navient. The student loan and unpaid rent made up the vast majority of her total debt.

She also cites $500 of presumably mostly monthly gas expenses that the state probably reimburses her at 50 to 60 cents per mile. …which is odd because she didn’t list a vehicle in the assets or liabilities section of the filing. But then she included in her monthly expenses $309 “car payment to father” - which sounds like a prohibited preference payment.

If student loan forgiveness via bankruptcy is prohibited (and the other stuff), how did her bankruptcy lawyer and the US Bankruptcy Court judge let her get away with it?

2

You can get student loans forgiven in bankruptcies

You may have your federal student loan discharged in bankruptcy only if you file a separate action, known as an “adversary proceeding,” requesting the bankruptcy court find that repayment would impose undue hardship on you and your dependents.

3

Thanks for the info!

Would an adversary proceeding show up as a separate case in a Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) search? Or would it be just a hearing or document within the bankruptcy case? There is only 1 record for this person in PACER (the bankruptcy filing).