A discharge in United States bankruptcy law, when referring to a debtor's discharge, is a statutory injunction

Injunction

An injunction is an equitable remedy in the form of a court order that requires a party to do or refrain from doing certain acts. A party that fails to comply with an injunction faces criminal or civil penalties and may have to pay damages or accept sanctions...

 against the commencement or continuation of an action (or the employment of process, or an act) to collect, recover or offset a debt

Debt

A debt is an obligation owed by one party to a second party, the creditor; usually this refers to assets granted by the creditor to the debtor, but the term can also be used metaphorically to cover moral obligations and other interactions not based on economic value.A debt is created when a...

 as a personal liability of the debtor. The discharge is one of the primary benefits afforded by relief under the Bankruptcy Code

Bankruptcy Code

Bankruptcy Code may refer to:*Bankruptcy in Canada*Bankruptcy in the United States or Title 11 of the United States Code *Bankruptcy in China*Bankruptcy in the United Kingdom...

 and is essential to the "fresh start" of debtors following bankruptcy that is a central principle under federal bankruptcy law. A discharge of debts is granted to debtors but can be denied or revoked by the court based on certain misconduct of debtors, including fraudulent actions or failure of a debtor to disclose all assets during a bankruptcy case.

The benefit of the discharge injunction is narrower than (but similar to) the benefit afforded by the automatic stay

Automatic stay

In bankruptcy law, an automatic stay is an automatic injunction that halts actions by creditors, with certain exceptions, to collect debts from a debtor who has declared bankruptcy. Under section 362 of the United States Bankruptcy Code, , the stay begins at the moment the bankruptcy petition is...

 in bankruptcy.

U.S. law also provides for specialized discharges in bankruptcy (see below).

Bankruptcy discharge for the debtor

In the United States, there are generally seven kinds of debtor discharges in bankruptcy, found in the following statutes:

(relating to liquidation bankruptcies for individuals);

(relating to municipal bankruptcies);

(relating to discharges resulting from confirmation of a Chapter 11 plan of reorganization);

(relating to certain family farmer or fisherman cases);

(relating to certain family farmer or fisherman cases);

(relating to certain cases involving adjustment of debts of an individual with regular income);

(relating to certain cases involving adjustment of debts of an individual with regular income).

The effect of the debtor's discharge is provided for at . In addition, certain limitations on the debtor's discharge are described at .

For more information on the debtor's discharge, see Bankruptcy in the United States

Bankruptcy in the United States

Bankruptcy in the United States is governed under the United States Constitution which authorizes Congress to enact "uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States." Congress has exercised this authority several times since 1801, most recently by adopting the Bankruptcy...

.

Other discharges in bankruptcy

In the United States, with respect to taxes incurred by the bankruptcy estate (as opposed to the debtor) during case administration, a specialized discharge for the trustee, the debtor, any successor to the debtor, and (for cases commenced on or after October 17, 2005) the bankruptcy estate is provided in .

At the conclusion of a case the trustee (if any) may be discharged as trustee under .