Attorney Mark Scurti lends a Pro Bono Hand to those facing Bankruptcy

January 17th, 2012. By BrendaC

Attorney Mark Scurti has donated countless hours of his time to help people through tight spots with creditors over the last decade. Since 2001, Scurti has handled more than 50 bankruptcy cases pro bono and has eight more on the docket for 2012. “I didn’t realize it had been that many,” says Scurti. “You do what you need to do especially in times when people really need help.”

Not only has he personally handled pro bono cases, he’s also helped hundreds of other people avoid costly legal expenses by teaching them how to represent themselves in bankruptcy court.

Scurti, who is a bankruptcy lawyer with the firm of Hodes, Pessin & Katz, was recently chosen as the Maryland Volunteer Lawyers Service (MVLS) volunteer of the year. The award is in recognition of the volunteer attorney who has done the most to further assistance to pro bono clients through the MVLS. Modest to the core Scurti says, “I was very honored and humbled by that award but I am just one of many lawyers who do pro bono work. The Maryland Bar Association and MVLS are both very passionate about seeing that people are represented and making sure that the system works.”

As many as 1,500 people a month in Maryland appear in bankruptcy or debtor court—many cannot afford a lawyer and there aren’t enough pro bono lawyers to go around. Up to 16 per cent of those people opt to represent themselves pro se—that is, advocate for themselves. “Finding volunteer lawyers to take all intake cases can be difficult,” says Scurti.

Scurti set up some “pro se” clinics where lawyers give filers a quick primer on what they need to know about going to bankruptcy court. “I harangued some fellow attorneys of mine to come in and provide 15 to 20 minute consultations,” says Scurti. “They can talk to an attorney after and get some guidance—is this something I should really do by myself—or do I need to get an attorney to do?”

And how do they do? “Well, they do pretty well,” says Scurti.”

“Obviously the forms are overwhelming to them but many times it is just a matter of unlocking some of the mysteries of what these forms are, where they go, and a lot of the folks can do it successfully,” he adds. “But there is a lot of support for them, too.”

Bankruptcy and debt problems are Scurti’s areas of expertise. For lawyers whose practices don’t typically handle those kinds of issues, but who would like to help the thousands of Americans struggling with debt problems, Scurti and the MVLS recently set up a workshop to get attorneys up to speed on bankruptcy court. “We actually got about 55 new attorneys who came in for the workshop on how to prepare a simple chapter 7 bankruptcy application,” he says. “We were able to place about 30 cases with pro bono attorneys and we got rid of a lot of cases that were back-logged in the system.”

Scurti and the MVLS even produced a video several years ago for pro se filers. It can be found on the US Bankruptcy court website.

Attorney Mark Scurti is a member of the Hodes, Pessin & Katz Corporate and Business Services Group. He primarily practices bankruptcy law. He also practices same-sex/LGBT law. He received his law degree from the University Of Baltimore School Of Law and holds a B.A. in Marketing/Business and an M.B.A. from Loyola College in Maryland.

Tags: Attorney Mark Scurti, bankruptcy, Hodes Pessin & Katz, Mark F. Scurti, Maryland Attorney, Maryland Volunteer Lawyer Service, Pro Bono, pro se

This was posted on Tuesday, January 17th, 2012 at 10:56 am and is filed under Emerging Issues, Lawyers Giving Back . Feel free to respond, or trackback. Read our comments policy.