In 2013 the Board of Bar Commissioners of the Alabama State Bar approved a $50 opt-out contribution on the annual dues statement for the Alabama Law Foundation.
$45 goes to the Alabama Law Foundation’s grants program for civil legal aid. $5 goes to the Kids’ Chance Scholarship Fund to provide college scholarships to young people who had a parent killed or permanently and totally disabled in a work-related accident.
IOLTA revenue has declined 69% since 2008, but thanks to revenue generated by the checkoff we were able to maintain 2015 grants at nearly the same level as 2014 grants.
Over 90% of our grant funds go to legal aid providers including the Alabama State Bar Volunteer Lawyers Program, the Birmingham Bar Volunteer Lawyers Program, the Madison County Volunteer Lawyers Program, the Montgomery County Volunteer Lawyers Program, the South Alabama Volunteer Lawyers Program and Legal Services Alabama. They provide free legal assistance in civil cases to low-income residents of Alabama. People like the people below.
- A grandmother needed adoption papers for her grandchildren after her daughter died so that the children could register for school.
- A disabled woman needed help with a contractor that took her money and left her roof leaking.
- A woman who paid for her house on a rent-to-own agreement, but discovered that the individual she had been paying did not own the house and that the house had been sold. A lawyer negotiated a price the woman could pay for the house with the new owner.