Board considers short-term Foundation help: opposes petition to raise Bar fees to fund legal aid.

The Bar Board of Governors voted to oppose a proposed petition to the Supreme Court to raise Bar annual membership fees by up to $100 to support struggling legal aid programs.

The vote came after the board heard that Bar leaders are exploring an up to $6 million short-term loan to The Florida Bar Foundation. Bar President Eugene Pettis also reported that the Bar is discussing with the Foundation and the Supreme Court undertaking a study to find alternative and more cost-effective ways of delivering legal services to the underserved.

The board, at its March 28 meeting in Palm Coast, voted to conceptually approve the idea of the bridge loan, with final details to be provided and formally approved at the board's May 23 meeting.

Pettis said Bar leaders met with Foundation officials to discuss the petition, now signed by 330 lawyers, calling for the increase in Bar fees. The Foundation Board of Directors voted to take no position on the petition.

While the Bar's Board of Governors is committed to legal aid, Pettis said, they do not see raising Bar fees to address the Foundation's shortfall as the best response to the funding crisis.

"It is critical, in my opinion, that we start looking at a new model of delivering legal services ... to reach people who need legal help," Pettis said. "The old model of throwing money and lawyers at it is not going to work. I don't think we can hire enough of them to reach the people who need legal services."

The problem is caused by the collapse of Foundation funding from its IOTA program due to historic low interests rates. Income from the Interest on Trust Accounts Program went from a high of more than $70 million a few years ago to $5.5 million now. Foundation President John Patterson told the board the Foundation, in its high-income years, established a reserve for hard times, but no one foresaw how long the effects of the Great Recession would last or how long those effects would keep interest rates on bank deposits depressed.

The suggested solution, Pettis said, is for the Bar to make a loan of $2 million a year for each of the next three years, to be repaid over the following five years.

"We have the clear capacity to do this and certainly can put together the documents to give us some comfort on doing this," Pettis said.

He added that the loan idea has already been referred to the Budget and Investment committees, which will report to the full board in May.

Patterson said the Foundation is funding legal...

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