What is the likelihood that I would be successful in declaring bankruptcy?

The chances of you declaring bankruptcy, depends on if you wish to go through bankruptcy to discharge the $3000 of credit debt. Your $40,000 in student loan debt will be another issue altogether in chapter 7 bankruptcy. Since student loan's are usually federally funded and these types of creditors usually cannot be discharged you will definitely have some issues with attempting to discharge a student loans. Getting your student loans discharged in bankruptcy is not the same as having other types of debts discharged from bankruptcy there are many more steps involved. First of all you need to actually request to have them discharged as it is not automatic, like other debts in bankruptcy. To have these loans forgiven, you must qualify under release following the criteria of the Nrunner standard. Basically they stay if you repay your loans, it will make you unable to maintain a minimal standard of living for you and your family. Your financial circumstances that led to being unable to forge a student loans is likely continue through the remainder of your payment term and you have made good faith efforts to repay your student loans. The third step is you must file an adversarial proceeding against the student loan company. This is not part of your normal bankruptcy filings say this is the usually an additional charge. The three circumstances that student loans are usually discharged under our bankruptcy filer was most likely to be unemployed, the bankruptcy filer is most likely to have a medical hardship or the bankruptcy filer's most likely to have a lower income the year before filing. So if your bankruptcy attorney has told you that you cannot discharge student loans in bankruptcy, that's a good indication that you do not have an experience bankruptcy attorney working on your case. Always hire an experienced bankruptcy attorney to handle your filing, you get what you pay for.   I have responded to your inquiry according to the laws of Massachusetts, where my firm is located. Laws can vary significantly from state to state and cases tend to be rather fact-specific, so you are best served by consulting with a knowledgeable attorney in weighing your options. Email messages/Online Correspondence are akin to conversations and do not reflect the level of analysis applied to formal legal opinions. Email/Online responses do not form an attorney-client relationship.    Joseph F. Botelho, Esq. BOTELHO LAW GROUP Attorneys At Law www.botelholawgroup.com 901 Eastern Ave.  Unit 2 Fall River, MA 02723  Office:  888-269-0688 FAX:    877-475-8147