Legal Question in Bankruptcy in California

You cannot be denied a student loan solely because you filed bankruptcy. If the loan you defaulted on 26 years ago was a student loan, it may not have been discharged in the bankruptcy, as student loans have been exempt from discharge in bankruptcy for as long as I have been practicing (16 years). In that case, the loan may still be defaulted, however, the statute of limitations for collection of the loan has long since passed. If the defaulted loan is not a student loan, then you need only dispute it on your credit report, and when they ask for proof, you will need a copy of the bankruptcy petition, the list of creditors (showing that creditor) and a copy of your discharge order. Those can be obtained, however, on a case this old, its going to take some work.

Most bankruptcy records are now available electronically through a system called Pacers. Unfortunately, a 26 year old case was probably never imaged, so you will have to get copies from the actual file which is being stored in a national archive somewhere. To get copies, you will have to contact the clerk's office of the bankruptcy court where the case was filed, ask them about the procedure for obtaining archived file copies, and they will walk you through the process. It's tedious - I've had to do it for clients and it involves getting a bunch of information from the Bankruptcy Court about the location of your file, then having to contact the National Archives to schedule an appointment to either view the file, or to request copies from the file. It takes some time, and is a real pain, but it is the only way you will be able to clear that loan if in fact it was discharged.

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