However, the truth is that the ACLU has used the government (the Florida Supreme Court) to operate a multi-million dollar foundation which strips monies from unsuspecting Floridians so that it can fund legal efforts to oppose common sense legislation passed by the elected representatives of those same unsuspecting citizens. READ MORE
All while FL hasn't the money to see to children they remove from homes of their parents into foster care.
Political realities hurt.
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Truly stunned. I am at a loss for words.
"sort of".
The money is int the attorney's trust account. The interest from that account is turned over to the IOTA fund. The monies themselves are not pooled.
It is worth noting that the money usually remains for very short times (days) AND the client usually has the option of having an interest bearing account created when large amounts are at issue. When you have very small amounts, (ie filing fees) the interest is pennies.
It is ever worth noting that in the past the attorneys USED to include an interest clause where the attorney recieved the interest for those very short times.
That said, there is ZERO reason to directly fund the ACLU. It is bad enough they fund legal aid.
What an outrage - there are blatant conflicts of interest involved, not to mention a despicable mis-appropriation of public funds to support anti-American leftist whackos.... this should be on the front page of every paper in the country, but of course they love the ACLU and will not even report it....
Thanks for this very timely and relevant report.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST! Contemptible.
MSM will have to acknowledge this if Bill O'Reilly gets ahold of this one.
Nothing in Florida politics, or the Dems' behaviour, surprises me anymore.
I see your webpage is "stop the ACLU".
You might have seen a post I made recently about the ACLU and the Ten Commandments. If you feel the ideas would be of use in stopping the ACLU, I'd love to know...
Cheers!
nice work. stories like these will stop the gravy train. keep it up. God bless your efforts.
More grubworms under the rocks.
Tax money is used to pay public defenders. Is anyone outraged?
"Incredibly, the Florida Supreme Court approved these appropriations, despite the fact that the Court often issues rulings in cases argued by the ACLU’s legal director."
Talk about a conflict of interest. What a bunch of Gore loving commies.
ACLU has become so outrageous in its actions that it needs to be investigated.
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ping...
Before everyone gets suckered by sensationalism. (yes funding the ACLU is always wrong. period)
Here is the direct website to the department that administers IOTA. If we are to condemn them for doing something then it shold be for what it is, not what anyone's spin says it is.
http://www.flabarfndn.org/
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The Florida Bar Foundation
Overview
Mission
The mission of The Florida Bar Foundation, a philanthropic organization established in 1956 by Florida lawyers and the Supreme Court of Florida, is to provide greater access to justice. The Foundation will accomplish its mission primarily through funding of programs that:
expand and improve representation and advocacy on behalf of low-income persons in civil legal matters;
improve the fair and effective administration of justice; and
promote service to the public by members of the legal profession by making public service an integral component of the law school experience.
Membership and Governance
Membership is open to all persons interested in supporting the charitable purposes of the Foundation. Members are eligible to hold office and serve as directors of the Foundation. Participants in Florida's Interest on Trust Accounts (IOTA) program, administered by the Foundation, automatically are entitled to membership. Membership also is available through annual Foundation dues, including reduced-rate dues for law students, and through the Foundation's Fellows program. As a 501(c)(3) public charity, the Foundation is eligible to receive tax-deductible contributions.
The Foundation is governed by a statewide volunteer board of directors that works through ad hoc and standing committees. The board is composed of judges, bar leaders, lawyers in private practice and the lay public. Foundation directors and committee members play a key leadership role statewide in program and policy development and in promoting the Foundation's mission to various stakeholders and constituencies.
Foundation Grant Programs
Revenue from Florida's IOTA program is the chief source of support for Foundation grant programs. Other support comes from gifts from lawyers, including the Lawyers' Challenge for Children, and other individuals, law firms, cy pres awards, foundations and corporations.
IOTA grant funds are calculated from IOTA revenue received in the previous 12 months, less IOTA's share of Foundation operating expenses not defrayed by IOTA investment income for the same period. Grant programs have separate Foundation committees that recommend eligibility criteria, funding policies and individual funding decisions for action by the full Foundation board.
The Foundation board allocates revenue generated by the IOTA program annually to the three Florida Supreme Court approved uses of IOTA funds:
2004-05
Free Civil Legal Assistance to the Poor (LAP) and Loans and Scholarships for Law Students (LSA) $10,483,068
Improvements in the Administration of Justice (AOJ) $ 500,000
Legal Assistance for the Poor (LAP)
General Support:
Foundation legal assistance for the poor general support grants cover every county in Florida and are awarded to a network of approximately 35 local, not-for-profit legal aid programs. These grants support a broad range of legal assistance for low income Floridians, including family law, housing, individual rights, consumer, and income maintenance. Funding levels for general support grants are based on the number of poor persons in the county who meet financial eligibility guidelines. Grantees include bar-sponsored legal aid programs, federally funded legal services providers, law school civil clinics, and private and church-related legal assistance programs. Foundation legal assistance for the poor general support grants represent roughly one third of all legal aid funding in Florida.
Children's Legal Services:
Support for projects serving the legal needs of children is a separate focus of the Foundation's legal assistance for the poor grant program. Projects include legal assistance for children denied their legal rights to health care or diagnostic testing and treatment for learning disabilities or behavioral problems which impair school performance, or legal assistance for foster children who do not receive mandated medical services, mental health treatment or independent living skills training.
Post-Graduate Law Fellowships:
Legal assistance for the poor funds also provide matching support for two-year post law-graduate fellowships sponsored by the Washington, D.C. based Equal Justice Works. EJW provides funds for approximately one-half of the cost of a two-year fellowship. Foundation funds, together with support from leading Florida law firms, Foundations, and The Florida Bar, provide the balance of the Fellowship costs. Fellows are placed at Foundation legal aid grantee organizations and undertake special initiatives they have designed to provide legal advocacy for especially vulnerable low-income clients and client groups.
Loan Repayment Assistance Program:
The Foundation supports a loan repayment assistance program for newer legal aid lawyers to enhance lawyer recruitment and retention by Foundation legal assistance for the poor grantees. The program provides benefits of up to 75% of a participant's annual law school loan repayments in the form of a loan. The Foundation forgives the loan annually for participants who remain employed full-time for 12 months at a Foundation legal aid grantee organization
Support for Legal Services Delivery in Florida:
In addition to specific grant programs, the Foundation funds substantive law and appellate training for legal aid advocates, leadership development training, and evaluation of innovative delivery techniques such as centralized telephone intake systems for clients. The Foundation also provides support for technical assistance as part of its program of regular on-site peer evaluation of its legal aid grantees. And, from time to time, the Foundation collaborates with major national foundations to administer specialized subgrant programs.
Law Student Assistance (LSA)
Public Service Fellows:
This program provides stipends for students at accredited law schools in Florida. Law students must provide direct public service work and also organize programs to educate other law students about the importance of public service by the legal profession.
Legal Services Summer Fellows:
The Legal Services Summer Fellows program funds ten weeks' summer employment of law students at its legal aid grantee organizations. The primary goal of the program is to increase student interest in and awareness of the legal problems of the poor and to promote their future commitment to pro bono representation of the poor.
Improvements in the Administration of Justice (AOJ)
Administration of justice grant funds are awarded in the following categories:
Improvement in the operation and management of the court system;
Improvement and reform of the criminal, civil, and juvenile justice systems;
Public education and understanding about the law, including law related education;
Promotion and support for public interest legal representation, and
Promotion and support for voluntary bar association sponsored community-service initiatives to improve the operation of the civil or criminal justice systems and for education, outreach or service-delivery projects which enhance the administration of justice in Florida (in development).
In addition, special areas of emphasis within the administration of justice are identified from time to time. Currently, such emphasis is being placed on projects which center around improving Florida's juvenile justice system.
Administration of justice grants are generally limited to start-up funds or seed money and applicants are encouraged to seek matching funds.
The IOTA Program
In 1981, the Foundation implemented the Florida Supreme Court's IOTA program; the nation's first. Today, 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands operate programs modeled on Florida's, 26 of which are mandatory. Nationwide, free civil legal assistance for the poor is the chief beneficiary of IOTA funds.
Under IOTA, client or third-party trust deposits, determined by the attorney or law firm to be too small in amount or expected to be held for too short a time to make investment for the individual client practical, are pooled by the attorney or law firm into an interest or dividend-bearing account at an eligible financial institution benefitting IOTA. The Florida Supreme Court requires all nominal or short-term client trust funds to be deposited into IOTA accounts unless the funds can otherwise earn income for the client in excess of the costs incurred to secure such income. Attorneys or law firms may invest trust funds for the benefit of individual clients whenever practical and are precluded from depositing such funds into IOTA accounts.
IOTA Revenue
The Florida Supreme Court required participation by attorneys in IOTA starting in October, 1989. Annual IOTA revenue grew from $3.5 million as a voluntary plan to $19.4 million in the first full year of the mandatory program in 1990-91. In 1991-92, however, the drop in bank interest rates reduced IOTA revenue to $16.2 million. Revenue in 1992-93 was further cut to $10.2 million. In 2004-05, IOTA revenue is projected to be $11.0 million.
Foundation Investments
Foundation short-term and long-term funds are invested by professional investment managers under policies approved by the board of directors. The investment policies are developed with assistance from outside consultants who also work with the Foundation's investment committee and board to evaluate investment managers' performance.
The Florida Bar Foundation Endowment Trust
Established in 1991, The Florida Bar Foundation Endowment Trust is a fund in which all principal, including gift additions, is maintained as a permanent investment with income supporting Foundation grants and programs. Although the Endowment Trust is a separate 501(c)(3) charitable entity, its trustees, who must be current or past Foundation directors, are appointed by the Foundation. Endowment trustees distribute income to the Foundation, its sole beneficiary. The Foundation's board of directors determines which of its charitable purposes Endowment Trust income will support. Endowment Trust investments are professionally managed by the Foundation's long-term fund managers.
Fundraising
In late 1999, the Foundation established its fundraising program based on the positive outcome of a fundraising feasibility study.
Foundation fundraising supports a range of programs including:
Assisting in obtaining greater access to the legal system by the poor;
Launching pro-active grant programs which assist in assuring stable funding for legal aid to society's most vulnerable, and
Focusing on the legal needs of children.
The Foundation provides prospective donors with a variety of ways to make gifts they can be assured will be used to address problems faced every day in the legal system:
The Foundation Fellows Program
Planned Giving
The Florida Bar Annual Fee Statement Check-Off Lawyers' Challenge for Children
Major Gifts initiatives for special projects and programs
The Foundation takes great pride in recognizing its donors in a variety of ways each year.
Communications
The primary goals of the Foundation's communications program are:
To bolster visibility among members of Florida's legal community
To create an environment that encourages philanthropic gifts to the Foundation
To build a base of support for the Foundation's mission among key opinion leaders
To become more responsive to ongoing media opportunities in order to comment on and support legal assistance to low-income clients, particularly work conducted by Foundation grantees
Foundation communications activities will be coordinated with grantee efforts and with The Florida Bar and voluntary bar associations.
Medal of Honor Awards Program
The Florida Bar Foundation Medal of Honor Award was established in 1977, and has two award categories. The first is for a member of The Florida Bar who has demonstrated his or her dedication to the objectives of The Florida Bar as set out in the Rules Regulating The Florida Bar: "...to inculcate in its members the principles of duty and service to the public, to improve the administration of justice, and to advance the science of jurisprudence."
The second is for a non-lawyer or person not actively engaged in the practice of law who has made an outstanding contribution to the improvement in the administration of justice through research, writing, or other deeds of such character and quality that, in the judgment of the Foundation, warrant the highest award that can be bestowed by the Foundation.
Steven M. Goldstein Award for Excellence
Established in 1999, the Steven M. Goldstein Award for Excellence recognizes high quality, significant impact work by an IOTA legal assistance for the poor grantee program in memory of Steven M. Goldstein. Secretary-elect of the Foundation when he died in 1994 at age 49, Steven M. Goldstein was a tireless advocate for the poor throughout his career as a legal services attorney, as a professor of law at Florida State University, and through his extensive pro bono service, particularly as an anti-death penalty advocate. The biennial Goldstein award carries with it a general support grant of $15,000 to the IOTA Lap grantee program whose staff work is being recognized, and a $1,500 training scholarship for the benefit of the individual staff persons primarily responsible for the work or project.
Staffing & Administration
The Foundation employs 5 professional and 9 support staff. The 2004-05 management and general and fundraising expense budget of $1.92 million is 15% of total projected program activities in 2004-05.
Foundation professional and support staff are organized into six areas: executive department activities including communication, development, administration of justice grants and general administration (7), legal aid and law student assistance grants (2.5), and finance and IOTA operations -- IOTA remittances, attorney and financial institution services (4).
BTTT!