Interest on Lawyers Trust Accounts (IOLTA)
IOLA Grant Initiatives @ NYSDRA
Project Summary
The IOLA grant provides critical support that enables NYSDRA to strengthen New York’s statewide network of Community Dispute Resolution Centers (CDRCs) and expand access to justice for all New Yorkers.
About IOLA
Interest on Lawyers Trust Accounts (IOLTA) is a unique and innovative way to increase access to justice for individuals and families living in poverty and to improve our justice system. Without taxing the public, and at no cost to lawyers or their clients, interest from lawyer trust accounts is pooled to provide civil legal aid to the poor and support improvements to the justice system. Every state, along with the District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands, operates an IOLTA program.
In 1983, with the strong support of the New York State Bar Association, the legislature created the New York State Interest on Lawyer Account Fund ("IOLA") as a means to provide additional financial support to civil legal service organizations that had been decimated by federal budget cuts. The New York State IOLA program requires attorneys to deposit funds received from clients either in interest bearing accounts for the benefit of the clients or in interest bearing IOLA accounts, in accordance with the provision of the statute (Judiciary Law §497).
The interest on IOLA accounts is pooled and provides the money for grants made by the Board of Trustees of the IOLA Fund to non-profit civil legal services providers across the state. IOLA's current two-year grant cycle will provide $70 million in grants for providers of civil legal aid to low-income New Yorkers, furthering the goal of equal access to justice for all.
IOLA funding allows NYSDRA to:
- Subgrant funds to the CDRCs to support mediator recruitment, training, and community outreach efforts.
- Ensure language access by funding statewide LanguageLine services so residents can participate in mediation regardless of the language they speak.
- Invest in technology that improves service delivery, including development and implementation of the Online Contract Reporting System (OCRS), which reduced administrative processing time by over 90% and strengthened data accuracy across all programs.
- Support professional development and training, including Basic Mediation Training, advanced skills workshops, and continuing education programs for volunteers, mediators, and legal professionals.
- Enhance community awareness of dispute resolution services through outreach and education, including digital marketing campaigns and legal information resources to help individuals understand their options.
- Maintain and expand collaborative partnerships with courts, state agencies, community organizations, and legal service providers to ensure that mediation services are integrated into New York’s broader access-to-justice system.
Thanks to IOLA, NYSDRA and the CDRCs collectively serve approximately 50,000 New Yorkers through over 19,000 cases annually, providing timely, accessible, and community-based dispute resolution services that offer an alternative to litigation and promote peaceful resolution of conflict.