I had a chapter 7 bankruptcy discharged in 2006 in TX. Included in the bankruptcy were fees owed to a TX public university. Now, I was recen...

Question

I had a chapter 7 bankruptcy discharged in 2006 in TX. Included in the bankruptcy were fees owed to a TX public university. Now, I was recently contacted by the TX State Comptrollers Office that I had unclaimed funds in my name. I requested the funds but received a letter saying that most of the funds would be held to pay for the old university fees. Can the state keep these funds if the fees were discharged in a bankruptcy?

Answer

Here's your problem: (a) the "unclaimed funds" were probably not listed in your schedules and were probably not claimed by you as being exempt; (b) they aren't exempt anyway, even if you had tried to claim an exemption.

Question: did you list the University fees in your bankruptcy schedules? If you did, then they were possibly discharged, and the money should belong to you.