Vermont Bar Journal, Vol. 40, No. 2 Spring 2016, Volume 42, No. 1 | Page 23
by Therese M. Corsones, Esq. & Robert M. Paolini, Esq.
“Opt In” to Support the
Vermont Bar Foundation
You may recall the survey that was sent to
VBA members last fall, regarding an option
within attorney licensing statements to donate to the Vermont Bar Foundation. The
majority of responses favored an “opt-in”
versus an “opt-out” option, and favored an
open contribution versus a specified contribution amount. As a result, the licensing statements due this July 1 will include
an “opt-in” option, in an amount of the attorney’s choice. Following is some background as to how this new approach came
about, in the hopes that it will be helpful to
you (and that it will encourage you to “opt
in” to make a contribution to the Vermont
Bar Foundation if your license is up for renewal this year!)
All Vermont lawyers are members of the
Vermont Bar Foundation. In its thirty-fourth
year, the Foundation was created in 1982
“to support legal services for the disadvantaged.” The majority of VBF funding
comes from the interest earned on your
IOLTA trust accounts. Because bank account interest rates have been at an historic low in recent years, the amount generated by IOLTA accounts has been dramatically reduced from a high of $1.3 million
to less than $852,000. VBF Board members (most of whom are lawyers volunteering their time) have explored how to try to
make up the difference in funding, so that
the many different legal service providers who receive VBF funding can continue
their work. Incidentally, numbered among
the providers who receive VBF funding
are eight county bar associations that receive grants to pay participating lawyers a
reduced fee for representing low-income
Vermonters in landlord tenant, foreclosure,
collection, and other specified categories
of cases where courts consider representation most critical.
Board members learned that a number
of other states have either an opt-in or optout option for attorneys to make a contribution to that state’s bar foundation. It’s
considered a convenient way for attorneys
to (1) be reminded of the bar foundation,
and the wo