The Florida Bar News October 31, 2025

‘$96.4 million set aside as legal aid groups receive $125 million in 24-25 funding.’

The Supreme Court has approved a Funding Florida Legal Aid (FFLA) request to set aside $96.4 million of the $260.4 million in IOTA funds collected in the 2024–25 fiscal year to maintain a rolling reserve.

Acting October 29 in AOSC25-66, the court found that FFLA’s distribution and additional reserve amount “are at this time reasonably prudent to promote stability in distribution of IOTA funds.”

After the reserve and administrative costs are deducted, Florida’s legal aid organizations will receive $125 million under a new IOTA rule the Supreme Court approved in 2023.

“FFLA seeks to distribute an amount greater than the five-year rolling average because, according to FFLA surveys, its grantees collectively indicated they can reasonably spend $125,000,000 to serve the grantees’ clients and build capacity,” justices noted in the order.

Bar rules impose an annual deadline by which FFLA must distribute to qualified grantee organizations all IOTA funds collected during the fiscal year, subject to express exceptions for certain program expenses. The rule also authorizes FFLA to request the court’s permission to withhold “an additional reserve amount.”

FFLA received $260,414,122.79 in IOTA collections for its fiscal year ending June 30, 2025. If the court had not granted the reserve request, FFLA would have been required to distribute $221,352,005 to its grantees by December 31.

FFLA asked the Court instead to permit it to distribute $125 million to its qualified grantee organizations and to place the remaining $96.4 million in reserve “for the exclusive use and benefit of its present and future qualified grantee organizations.”

FFLA says the $125 million distribution represents an approximately 31% increase over last year’s grants.

The organization said withholding the remaining $96.4 million in additional reserves aligns with its Spending and Reserve Policy and provides future distribution certainty for its grantees, as it forecasts diminishing IOTA collections.

VIEWS AND CONCLUSIONS EXPRESSED IN ARTICLES HEREIN ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHORS AND NOT NECESSARILY THOSE OF FLORIDA BAR STAFF, OFFICIALS, OR BOARD OF GOVERNORS OF THE FLORIDA BAR.