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Bankruptcy court urged to forgive $246K in student loan debt for unemployed man

DUXBURY, Mass. — A local man’s fight to dissolve his student loans in bankruptcy court has garnered national attention.

This week, a federal appeals judge urged a bankruptcy court to approve a settlement between Robert Murphy and the US Department of Education.

The ruling comes after Murphy, a Duxbury businessman who amassed $246,000 in student loans while putting his three children through college, has fought the federal government for nearly four years, claiming the loans put an “undue hardship” on his family.

“This was a guy who borrowed these loans a long time ago. He lost his job and he’s been unemployed for quite a while, and his argument is he has no chance of ever being able to pay it back,” attorney Adam Minsky told FOX25.

Minsky, who specializes in student loan debt, said the ruling shows a new pattern of bankruptcy court judges finally recognizing that student loan debt is a national crisis.

“It should give some people that there’s a way out,” Minsky said. “I think we are going to see this very slow, incremental reform, court by court, judge by judge.”

The bankruptcy court judge still has to accept the settlement before Murphy’s debt can be dissolved.