Mark Bullman Helps Crime Victims’ Families
Stay on Their Feet
Atlanta attorney’s efforts ease the financial aftershocks of violent acts
Mark Bullman had a mission: He was determined to prevent murderers and other violent offenders from harming multiple generations of the same family. When a parent or provider is killed in a shooting, DUI accident or other catastrophic event, it's the family members who suffer the long-term consequences. Without the emotional and financial support of their mothers or fathers, the children of crime victims often have a difficult time getting through childhood and the early years of adulthood. Violent acts can have an echo effect, not only leading to senseless deaths, but also preventing the victims' children from going to college and leading successful lives.
As a wrongful death lawyer, Mr. Bullman had witnessed this problem all too often, and he wanted to do something to change it. “When you work with victims of crimes,” he explains, “it's hard not to feel the need to help them however you can…to do whatever you can to make it better.”
His client was the family of a woman and her unborn child who were killed by a drunk driver. Though the family received an insurance settlement, Bullman felt that the driver himself should be held to account for his reckless behavior. “It was not a good message to send to this young man that he would bear no personal responsibility for his actions,” he says.
The solution? Bullman and his client demanded as a condition of settlement that the driver put all of his savings and a percentage of his future earnings into a scholarship fund. The fund would be managed by the Crime Victims' Advocacy Council (CVAC), a very special organization devoted to helping the families of crime victims. In addition to the scholarship fund, CVAC also provides free counseling, tutoring, mentoring and other services to victims, as well as to their children and other family members (co-victims).
Bullman has since been named President of CVAC, a position he is proud to have. “I work with a great board of volunteers from the community,” he says. “This includes other attorneys, a former judge, and victims who have benefited from the efforts of the organization and decided to volunteer their time.”
Bullman's work with CVAC is not limited to the scholarship fund he helped to establish. He also lends his expertise to help define the organization's mission and support legislative initiatives. With Bullman's help, CVAC was recently able to get a statute passed in Georgia that allows family members of crime victims to provide testimony via videotape in order to prevent mistrials stemming from emotional testimony in court. Due to his efforts, other states are now looking at passing similar statutes. Bullman also directs CVAC's annual memorial service.
As if his efforts with CVAC weren't enough, he also works with MUST to feed the hungry and sends boxes of gifts to kids around the world through Operation Christmas Child. His firm, Glaser, Currie & Bullman, LLP, also gives discounts on legal fees to crime victims. But despite his enormous contributions to his own community as well as others, he doesn't feel that he should be praised. “I feel it's important for people like me who have achieved success to help those who haven't had such good fortune,” he says. “When God's been good to you, you should give back.”
About the Firm
Based in Atlanta, Georgia, Glaser, Currie & Bullman, LLP, is a prominent law firm specializing in personal injury and wrongful death cases. The firm is proud to offer victims the strength in numbers of a large firm with the personalized attention of a smaller firm. If you or a family member has been harmed in an auto accident, workplace incident or other catastrophic event in the State of Georgia, please visit the website of Glaser, Currie & Bullman, LLP.
