Foundation grant helps to demystify bankruptcy process.

In 2006, when then Florida Bar Foundation Secretary Kathleen McLeroy first heard about the uphill battles faced by those who file pro se bankruptcy cases, she knew something had to be done.

A year earlier, the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act brought higher legal fees and costs. Coupled with a slumping economy, that would only create more problems in pro se bankruptcy cases.

Since then, McLeroy--with encouragement from Chief Judge Paul M. Glenn of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Florida--led the Tampa Bay Bankruptcy Bar Association (TBBBA) and Bay Area Legal Services to apply for a grant from the Foundation to fund the Bankruptcy Pro Bono Pro Se Assistance Project.

The project comprises a video called "Bankruptcy Basics" that takes the pro se filer step-by-step through the bankruptcy filing process, and a series of pamphlets on topics from the video.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Catherine Peek McEwen, also on the Middle District bench in Tampa, was the script writer, adapter, and producer, and bankruptcy court employees and a host of volunteer lawyers from the TBBBA also helped with the project.

"What I saw was some sort of program the Foundation could fund that would provide assistance for individuals who would file bankruptcy petitions without counsel," McLeroy said.

Through its Improvements in the Administration of Justice Grant Program, the Foundation provided $14,500 to create the video and pamphlets, and another $15,000 last year for the video to be translated into Spanish and Haitian Creole. The grant for the translations was coordinated by Judge Laurel M. Isicoff, of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida, and was supplemented with funds from the Bankruptcy Bar Association of South Florida.

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The Bankruptcy Basics video is available on DVD from the bankruptcy courts in Florida and is also available online through their Web sites and at legal aid agencies in Florida. The Spanish and Haitian Creole versions have been produced and will soon be available. The pamphlets are still in production.

Judge McEwen said the creation of the bankruptcy video and the Foundation's funding couldn't have come at a better time--when the economy was teetering.

"Our filings were ramping up and the economy is going haywire," McEwen said. "It is intimidating to be a part of the bankruptcy process. It takes the stress factor down a little for those who have the opportunity to...