In 2008, Attorney Richard S. Ravosa began seeing more clients showing up at his offices needing to file for bankruptcy due to unforeseen problems but had no money to pay for these services. These were people who had suffered catastrophic injuries and could not work or even pay their medical bills, or lost a breadwinner through death or divorce and had no way to pay their everyday living expenses and put food on the table. In response to this, Attorney Ravosa began to take on the cases himself free of charge and eventually became so busy that he started the Massachusetts Debt Relief Foundation with his staff, which is now an IRS approved 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and has grown to help low income individuals across Massachusetts overcome debt with dignity by filing their bankruptcy cases pro bono and petitioning the Court to waive all filing fees associated with the case. Attorney Ravosa’s philanthropic efforts help single mothers with school age children saddled with debt from job loss, veterans struggling with medical bills, divorced dads who want to work to support their kids, but cannot find a job, and individuals staying in shelters. His work has been profiled in the Boston Business Journal, The Republican newspaper in Springfield, Massachusetts and in his law school’s alumni magazine, Benchmark.

To learn more about the Massachusetts Debt Relief Foundation, please visit www.massdebtrelieffoundation.org