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Interest on Lawyer Trust Accounts (IOLTA) is an idea that originated in British, Canadian and
Australian jurisdictions in the 1960s. In the US,
IOLTA was pioneered in Florida and now exists in every
state in the country. The New Mexico IOLTA program was created
by the State Supreme Court in 1984, and, until April 1, 2002, was a voluntary
program.
Rule 16-115 (D) of the Rules of
Professional Conduct requires that all New Mexico attorneys either
participate in IOLTA or affirmatively "opt
out" by submitting a letter to the State
Supreme Court by January 10 of the year in
which the attorney wishes to decline
participation.
Attorneys and law firms enrolled in IOLTA
are eligible to place client funds that are
"nominal in amount or to be held for a short period of time" in
interest-bearing trust accounts. The interest is remitted to the Center for
Civic Values and is distributed under supervision of the Court to provide free
civil legal assistance to the poor, law-related education for the public and
improvements in the administration of justice.
Annual grant allocations are based on
the recommendations of a
Grant
Committee
composed of lawyer and nonlawyer members appointed by the State Supreme Court, CCV and
the State Bar of New Mexico. More than $3.7 million has been awarded since the
program's inception, and IOLTA has long been one
of the largest non-governmental funders of civil legal services
for poor people in the state.
Learn more
about IOLTA grants.
Learn more
about IOLTA (for attorneys).
Learn more about IOLTA (for
financial institutions).
Equal
justice under law . . . is not merely a caption on the
facade of the Supreme Court building. It is perhaps the most
inspiring ideal of our society. . .It is fundamental that
justice should be the same, in substance and availability,
without regard to economic status.
Justice
Lewis Powell, Jr. |