Foundation receives $23 million from BOA settlement.

The Florida Bar Foundation received $23,048,159 on April 26 to be used for foreclosure prevention and community redevelopment, as mandated by a 2014 national settlement among Bank of America and the U.S. Department of Justice and six states.

"Our staff will be developing plans for the use of the funds and the grantmaking process," Foundation CEO Bruce B. Blackwell said. "We will continue to work closely with our Grants Committee and with key stakeholders. We are thrilled to receive these funds and are determined to be strategic about how they will be invested."

The Foundation, one of 56 legal assistance organizations receiving a total of $490 million under the settlement, has been consulting with its peer Interest on Lawyers' Trust Account (IOLTA) programs around the country on strategies for the effective use of the funds. Each state, along with the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands, operates an IOLTA program, and each program received a payout based on poverty population.

The distributions were triggered in December by President Obama's signing into law an act extending federal tax relief through 2016 to homeowners who otherwise would have incurred income-tax liability from mortgage debt forgiveness they received under the consumer-relief provisions of the settlement. A fund set aside for tax assistance then became surplus. The settlement's independent monitor, Eric D. Green, was required under the settlement to distribute 75 percent of the surplus to eligible legal-assistance organizations in each state and 25 percent to NeighborWorks America, which provides training and...