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Bankruptcy assistance in Maryland

TerryConaway — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 15:24:25 +0000

Article about assistance for pro se bankruptcy filers in Maryland:

DIY bankruptcy — with a little help from the state

By Eileen Ambrose

July 26, 2009

Many financial matters you can easily do on your own without professional help.

Filing for bankruptcy isn’t one of them.

But if you choose to do so, you’re no longer totally left on your own in Maryland to navigate the intricacies of bankruptcy. Thanks to a new Debtors Assistance Project, do-it-yourselfers can get a half-hour of free legal advice from a lawyer, who can answer questions or check paperwork.

“It’s not going to solve everybody’s problem on that day. That’s not what it’s designed to do,” says Jeff Sirody, a Pikesville lawyer who volunteers with the project. “It’s designed to give people an opportunity to speak with an attorney. Is there any easy solution? If not, what’s the next step? Where should they go to get help?”

The need for the program grew out of changes to the bankruptcy law in 2005. Congress made it more difficult for people to erase debts, piling on new requirements and paperwork. Lawyers raised their fees because of the extra work. And many courts across the country started seeing a rise in so-called pro se litigants, or debtors who file on their own often because they can’t afford a lawyer.

Pro se cases tend to take more time as court staffers try to steer novice litigants through the complicated process. Judges, too, have their hands tied when they come across a struggling pro se filer because they are supposed to be neutral and not give legal advice, says Chief Judge Duncan W. Keir of the bankruptcy court in Baltimore.

The big risk is for debtors. “They lose rights, privileges and property that they otherwise could protect and preserve if they had legal counsel,” said Mark Sammons, clerk of the court in Baltimore. Worse, pro se filers’ mistakes could cause their case to be dismissed.

Nationally, the number of pro se cases accounted for 6.5 percent of all bankruptcies filed in the 12 months ended March 31. During that same time, Maryland reported 1,889 pro se cases, making up nearly 10 percent of its bankruptcies.

Most of Maryland’s pro se filers seek relief under Chapter 13, a more complex filing where debtors repay all or some of their debt over several years. Last year, nearly one out of five Chapter 13 bankruptcies in Maryland was from do-it-yourself filers.

A year ago, the bankruptcy court in Maryland started looking at what programs were available here and around the country to help pro se litigants, particularly Chapter 13 cases where filers have more to lose if they make a mistake.

“Those were the cases that people were trying to save their houses,” says Bankruptcy Judge Robert A. Gordon.

Low-income debtors filing under Chapter 7, or liquidation, can qualify for free – pro bono – legal representation through long-running programs by Legal Aid or the Maryland Volunteer Lawyer Service. But there wasn’t much available for those wanting to file under Chapter 13 or earned a little too much to qualify for pro bono programs, says Jessica Vollmer, the court’s pro bono coordinator.

The result was the Debtors Assistance Project, a clinic on the eighth floor of the federal courthouse in Baltimore. The clinic opened in March in Baltimore, and another was launched last month in Greenbelt.

The clinics are open to any pro se litigants, no matter their income. They operate from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursdays in Greenbelt and usually on Mondays in Baltimore. To make an appointment, call 410-962-3813.

Lawyers volunteer for two-hour sessions, spending a half-hour with each debtor. “Usually, 30 minutes is more than enough time for those attorneys to give [debtors] an idea of what they are getting themselves into, whether bankruptcy is right for them, what chapter they should be filing and to help us get them the resources if they think they can’t do it by themselves,” Vollmer says.

The court has created a list of lawyers who agree to reduce their fees for debtors who earn too much for free legal representation but still not enough to hire a lawyer. The amount of the discount is up to each lawyer.

Eric Walker of Edgewood had about $40,000 in debt and creditors hounding him when he decided to file for relief under Chapter 7.

He called around to find an affordable lawyer with little luck. The least expensive attorney would charge $1,200, including the filing fee – money he didn’t have. The 30-year-old called the bankruptcy court about his plight and was told of the Debtors Assistance Project. He met with a lawyer last month.

“She had patience. I’m new to it. She had a lot of knowledge,” says Walker, a customer account representative at a rental store. The lawyer gave him information that he says he would never have been able to find on his own.

He wishes, though, that the program offered longer sessions. “You have to cram a lot of stuff in a half-hour,” he says.

Pikesville lawyer Sirody has volunteered twice so far. “Invariably in every pro se case mistakes are made. There is so much involved,” he says.

In one case, a woman came in wanting to file under Chapter 7, unaware that if she did so, her house would be quickly sold off by the trustee to repay creditors. As it turns out, she decided not to file for bankruptcy at all.

And one man came in with papers from the court, which showed he failed to undergo the required credit counseling before filing. His case was dismissed. The man will be able to file again, although he’ll need to take an additional step as a repeat filer if he wants to keep creditors at bay for more than one month. Sirody told him how to do it.

Join Eileen for an online chat on bankruptcy at noon Tuesday on the Consuming Interests blog. She and bankruptcy attorney Jeff Sirody will answer your questions. You can submit your questions in advance to Article from the Vallejo Times-Herald describes the popular “Lawyer in the Library” program to help patrons handle their own legal problems:

The legal system is a baffling process for most, even before they walk through the front courthouse doors.For those with limited finances, resources can be thin locally — which is why attorneys here and nationally have tried to fill the gap between government-funded, legal-aid programs and those in need.

“Legal aid in this country has been emaciated,” Solano County Superior Court Judge Paul Beeman said. “If they don’t have legal aid and they don’t have money, they’re going to lose. It’s a terrible thing when you think about all the wealth and resources in this nation.”

In Vallejo, the Lawyer in the Library program, started by former Vallejo librarian Michael Senturia with help from Beeman, has provided free one-time legal advice and referrals for the past 13 years.

“Everybody thought it was a good idea from the beginning, but once it got started, it knocked your socks off because peoplemassively appreciated the help,” Beeman said. “For most lawyers, it was real simple advice that gave direction … and they were genuinely appreciative.”

The service, offered at the John F. Kennedy Library, is in high demand. At least 25 residents often settle into chairs lining a library lobby at least an hour before the twice-monthly events — and that’s just in hopes of signing up.

Vallejo resident Tom Boruta said at one session, he was surprised to learn he would have only up to 20 minutes with an attorney.

“What I want him to explain, there’s no way

he can do it in 20 minutes,” Boruta said.Nearby, Jaime Valle was a third-time visitor to the program. He said his questions had previously taken about 12 minutes to answer. Valle added that he could not imagine how much an attorney would charge for the same service.

The local program’s attorneys are often hit with questions that run the gamut of legal specialties, said Nancy Atkins, the reference librarian who now leads the program. She said she tells participants that the attorneys are only theirs for the length of the appointment.

“We are a beginning for people who need legal services … It does happen that problems are solved,” Atkins said.

Vallejo criminal law attorney Amy Morton said she volunteered regularly for the program until about four years ago.

“The bureaucracy is really hard, and they don’t know who to turn to,” Morton said. “I can’t even imagine what the lines must look like now.”

Morton said one difficulty for her was answering civil law-related questions, like landlord/tenant disputes, disability issues and divorce law — specialties she does not practice.

“I’m not trying to pass the buck, but if more civil attorneys in the area would donate one day every six months, it would help out tremendously,” Morton said.

The Vallejo office of federally funded Legal Services of Northern California serves as the more in-depth version of Lawyer in the Library. That office is restricted in whom it serves and for what issues, and is staffed by only two full-time attorneys for the entire county, Managing Attorney Bob Stalker said.

Stalker said the number of eligible applicants have increased in the past year, as local unemployment and foreclosure rates have risen. Attorneys’ pro bono work and the Lawyer in the Library program help — but are only a “drop in the bucket” compared to the need, he said.

“A lot of times, the majority of people that need legal assistance are just not going to get help,” Stalker said. “A lot of what our office does is give advice, resource material, self-help material. It’s really kind of a triage approach — we’re like a legal emergency room.”

Contact staff writer Jessica A. York at (707) 553-6834 or Bankruptcy Court, Northern District of Alabama

Alaska

Alaskalawhelp.org

Bankruptcy Court, District of Alaska

Arizona

Bankruptcy Court, District of Arizona

Arkansas

Legalconsumer.com

California

Bankruptcy Court, Northern District of California

Foreclosure Self-Help: a hot topic in legal self help

TerryConaway — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 02:05:23 +0000

Thanks to the recent bursting of the housing bubble, we find that many of the pro se patrons who come to our library do so seeking help fighting foreclosure.

For Californians, one helpful document, A Self-Help Guide to Preventing Foreclosure, can be found here. This document is provided by the California Senior Legal Hotline and Legal Services of Northern California. LINK FIXED

The American Bar Association has published a page of useful links to Foreclosure Resources and Information.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development also provides a useful page of recourses entitled “Guide to Avoiding Foreclosure.”

Your Public Law Library

Tammy Pettinato — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 00:04:35 +0000

I just discovered a wonderful self-help web-site, sponsored by the Council of California Law Librarians, called Your Public Law Library. The site covers California in depth, but it also has information for other states. The site includes information on self-help centers, guidance for legal research, including a mini-research class, and on-line reference services.

Best of all, the site is available in eight languages: English, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, German, French, Japanese, and Korean.

Evidence for pro se litigants

Tammy Pettinato — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 23:28:48 +0000

The Montana Public Interest Law Blog had an interesting article recently on one of the trickiest rules of evidence: relevance. The author was inspired to write the post because, as a new prosecutor in a small town, he often sees people losing minor court cases because they don’t understand the rules of evidence.

The article is a great overview of the relevance rule, putting it in simple, easy-to-understand language while also deciphering some of its complexities. The author writes only on the Federal Rules of Evidence, however. As he points out, anyone going into the courtroom should make sure to check their state rules as well, because sometimes there are major differences.

Debt collectors and consumerist.com

Tammy Pettinato — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 21:32:27 +0000

While trolling the news for useful information to post on shlep, I came across this blog post at Consumerist.com. It advises people who are being pursued by debt collectors to make sure that the company who is trying to collect really owns the debt that it’s claiming the person owes. They also point to this great article offering tips for people being sued by debt collecters over at Alabama Consumer Law Blog.

I have heard about Consumerist before, but today was the first time I visited their web-site, and I highly recommend it. They analyze new products, discuss the customer service of various companies, and as the above article indicates, offer useful tips for consumers who are dealing with various sorts of problems related to buying and selling. It’s a great web-site for all things related to consumer rights.

A quick perusal of the archives showed pages dealing with debt collection, early termination fees, fraud, and identity theft, and much more. You can also send them tips when a company treats you unfairly. Check it out.

Law Libraries sponsoring pro se programs

Tammy Pettinato — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 22:03:22 +0000

In 2005, the American Association of Law Libraries held a Joint Roundtable on Service to Pro Se Patrons and Prisoners at their annual meeting. As a part of that roundtable, they conducted an email survey, in which law libraries with pro se programs described their programs and any associated costs.

I have attached the results of that survey, which includes information from respondents in the following states: California, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. Note that I updated the original results, deleting any links that no longer worked.

Pro Se Programs in Law Libraries

In praise of legal research guides

Tammy Pettinato — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 23:15:24 +0000

Legal research guides, sometimes called “pathfinders,” are exactly what they sound like – guides to legal research. A number of different organizations publish these guides, but a consistent source for particularly thorough and helpful guides is academic law libraries. As a new academic law librarian myself, I consistently use the guides published on the web-sites of other law schools when researching an unfamiliar topic. Almost every academic law library publishes them to some extent or another, and they can be a great resource for pro se patrons in learning how to find things like cases, laws, regulations – or even just in developing a research strategy when you don’t know where to begin.

If you need help with a particular type of problem, try googling for a research guide. For example, say you are going through a divorce – try googling “family law” and “research guide” or “family law” and “pathfinder.” I just tried the first search, and a number of helpful options came up.

If you need to find something more directly about your state (and most of the time, that is the case), you could try adding the name of the state to your search. Another, and probably more helpful, option, is to go to the home page for an academic law library in your state. Most such law libraries will have state specific, as well as more general, research guides, but they may not appear in Google. Because each law library works differently, you will probably have to poke around the web-site to see where the research guides are located, but usually, they are listed in the “Reference” or “Search” section of a given law library’s homepage.

As an example, check out the research guides on the UCLA Law Library web-page, which cover a variety of California and federal topics.

HALT on Living Trusts

Tammy Pettinato — Tue, 29 May 2007 20:51:59 +0000

HALT.org has a great new guide out on planning a Living Trust. As the abstract explains:

Like a will, a living trust is an estate-planning tool that lets you transfer property after you die. But unlike a will, property placed in a trust passes directly to your beneficiaries without first having to go through probate.

This is a great new Estate Planning tool!