Actually, the Chp-11 Re-Org done by M/L and their creditors was the dumbest bankruptcy I have ever seen. They didn't "clear" (as you say) any of the debt, not one penny.
What we have done - since buying out the equity interest in M/L - is negotiate the debt down and begun the process of "lets pick a number and allow us to just buy it out". Its is going very well.
I would agree that it would normally be "standard operating procedure" to "clear the debt" but they just didn't do that (because they had really, really bad lawyers - IMHO.