For more than three decades, the Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Accounts program (IOLTA) has been one of the quiet engines of justice in North Carolina. It takes the interest from lawyers’ pooled trust accounts and directs it to civil legal aid programs that serve people who cannot 22 an attorney. These funds have never come from taxpayers. They come from the legal profession itself and reflect our shared commitment to fairness and access to justice.
IOLTA funds have long supported Legal Aid of North Carolina (LANC), Pisgah Legal Services, the Charlotte Center for Legal Advocacy, and other civil legal aid organizations. Together, we have built a statewide system that protects families escaping violence, helps seniors and veterans stay safe and secure, and guides disaster survivors as they rebuild their lives. Our work is nonpartisan and rooted in a simple belief: everyone deserves access to justice.
The NC General Assembly has enacted a freeze on IOLTA grant funding after objections from a few legislators about certain grantees. The freeze applies to every program that depends on IOLTA funds. It affects every corner of our state.
A Fairness Issue
Members on both sides of the aisle have expressed deep respect and gratitude for the work of LANC and our partner organizations. It is heartening to hear lawmakers acknowledge that access to civil legal services is not a partisan issue. It is a fairness issue, a justice issue, and an NC issue.
The State Bar, which administers IOLTA, has already shown a willingness to reform its grant criteria in response to some of the concerns raised. We welcome that process. But we must not throw the baby out with the bathwater. We cannot let an entire statewide system of civil legal services collapse while reforms are being made.
LANC operates 24 offices across the state. Twelve of those offices are in rural counties. Many have served their communities since the 1970s. In some counties, we are the only source of free civil legal help for miles. When disaster strikes or a family faces violence, we are there.
IOLTA funds pay for the lawyers and paralegals who meet with clients in courthouses, libraries, and community centers. They allow us to reach people who cannot travel long distances or take time off work. Without IOLTA, the most rural and economically challenged areas of NC will lose access to justice first.
Large cities like Raleigh, Durham, and Greensboro can provide local funds to help legal aid. Rural areas rarely can. Small towns and county governments simply do not have extra money to spare. IOLTA dollars fill the gap for the places that have no other safety net.
Nowhere to Turn
The loss of IOLTA funding will not only close offices. It will leave people to face the legal system alone. Without legal aid, courthouses across NC will see a surge of unrepresented people trying to navigate complex procedures without guidance. Judges, clerks, and court staff will do their best to help, but the result will be slower dockets, longer hearings, and a system stretched to its limits.
Last year, LANC closed more than 24,000 cases. Without IOLTA funding, many of those clients will have nowhere to turn. We may see thousands of people literally wandering courthouse hallways, confused, afraid, and desperate for someone to listen. That is not efficiency. It is not justice. And it is not the NC we believe in.
Justice in NC has always been a shared project. Judges, lawyers, and community partners have worked together for generations to make sure our courts are open to all. Let us make sure we continue to do so for generations to come.
The post North Carolina’s IOLTA Freeze Puts Rural Justice at Risk appeared first on Attorney at Law Magazine.
