In Maryland, former college student Carol Todd claimed that she could not repay her student loans because of her mental condition and inability to hold a job. The older woman attended the University of Baltimore School of Law in the 1990s but eventually dropped out. She accumulated about $340,000 while attending this school and a host of others, but now claims that she is unable to satisfy the debt.

Todd presented her situation in a bankruptcy court. She explained that she would suffer “undue hardship” if she was compelled to repay the debts. This claim has been used in many bankruptcy and financial cases, but it is often not upheld. This is because “undue hardship” is a relative phrase. It’s hard to exemplify exactly what undue hardship means, except by looking at the claim on a case-by-case basis. Yet the bankruptcy judge on the case in a Maryland district court agreed that Todd shouldn’t have to repay the loans because of the trials that would befall her if she was forced to relinquish the money.

He determined that Todd’s Asperger’s disease, which is an autistic disorder that causes social difficulty and an inability to communicate effectively, was a disability that affected her ability to repay her loans. He agreed that the condition would make it difficult for her to hold a job, especially a job that could accumulate enough income to repay her mountain of debt. The judge wrote in his statement that it would be almost impossible to expect Carol Todd to overcome her mental condition and put her efforts into a job so that she could afford her student loans.

According to the Baltimore Sun, Todd received her high school equivalency degree at the age of 39, and earned her associates degree and multiple Bachelor’s degrees. Supposedly she has also received a Ph.D. from an online school and a Master’s degree from Towson University. Yet Todd claims that she is not able to hold a job and maintain a minimum standard of living. She was forced to file for a Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2009 in order to repay her expenses. At the time of her court date, she was 63-years-old and owed $339,361 dollars to three student loan creditors.

What makes Todd’s situation so unique is the fact that student loans are hardly ever dischargeable through bankruptcy. While they were dischargeable before 1976, Congress altered the bankruptcy code so that loans that were made by the government and other non-profit colleges or universities could never be discharged within their first five years. In 1984 the code was altered again to declare that all private student loans were not dischargeable. In 2005, this code was built upon once again when the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act made it so that no student loan could be discharged through bankruptcy at any point unless the borrower could prove undue hardship.

Cases where undue hardship has been proved are rare, which is what makes Todd’s situation so special. It almost always takes a physical or mental disability in order for the undue hardship clause to be proved true in any case. Most claims of this nature are unsuccessful, so if you are trying to get rid of student-loan debt with your bankruptcy, chances are that you won’t have an easy time of it. Right now, the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys is asking Congress to pass legislation that would allow graduates to discharge any loans that they took out from private lenders and for-profit businesses like Sallie Mae. However, the request has yet to make much progress.