Law School Dropout Gets Student Debt Wiped Out Because of Asperger’s Syndrome

A University of Baltimore law student who dropped out and later obtained a Ph.D. from an online school won’t have to repay $339,000 in student debt.

Usually student debt may not be discharged in bankruptcy, but U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Gordon found that Carol Todd was eligible for an “undue burden” exception, the National Law Journal reports. Todd, who was 63 at the time of the trial, has Asperger's syndrome and was unable to get a job, Gordon said.

"To expect Ms. Todd to ever break the grip of autism and meaningfully channel her energies toward tasks that are not in some way either dictated, or circumscribed, by the demands of her disorder would be to dream the impossible dream," the Maryland bankruptcy judge wrote in a May 17 decision.