Too many open files error / opened file checker

#!/bin/bash
COUNTER=0
HOW_MANY=0
MAX=0
# do not take care about COUNTER - just flag, shown should we continue or not
while [ $COUNTER -lt 10 ]; do
    #run until process with passed pid alive
    if [ -r "/proc/$1" ]; then
        # count, how many files we have
        HOW_MANY=`/usr/sbin/lsof -p $1 | wc -l`
        #output for live monitoring
        echo `date +%H:%M:%S` $HOW_MANY
        # uncomment, if you want to save statistics
        #/usr/sbin/lsof -p $1 > ~/autocount/config_lsof_`echo $HOW_MANY`_`date +%H_%M_%S`.txt

        # look for max value
        if [ $MAX -lt $HOW_MANY ]; then
                let MAX=$HOW_MANY
                echo new max is $MAX
        fi
        # test every second. if you don`t need so frequenlty test - increase this value
        sleep 1
    else
        echo max count is $MAX
        echo Process was finished
        let COUNTER=11
    fi
done