Pub. 3 2012 Issue 3

fall 2012 19 Summer was just four months old when she was placed in foster care after being abused and neglected. A Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) volunteer was assigned to her case. F ive years later, when she was adopted by a Northern Panhandle couple, that same volunteer was still there, always ready with answers to the new parents’ questions. “Summer’s CASA volunteer not only went to court hearings, she supported our entire family,” adoptive mom Sherry Paull wrote in a recent CASA newsletter. “Without this organization, Summer’s life could have been totally different. I will always be grateful to CASA.” Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) are volunteers appointed by judges to protect the interests of chil- dren in child abuse and neglect court proceedings. The West Virginia CASA Network is one of seven groups that receive money from Interest on Lawyer Trust Accounts (IOLTA). When law- yers accept funds on behalf of clients, they put those funds into interest- bearing bank trust accounts, separate from their personal accounts and other business accounts. Each quarter, banks send interest on those accounts to the West Virginia State Bar for disbursement to the public service legal organiza- tions listed in Rule 1.5 of the Rules of Professional Conduct for Attorneys. Along with CASA, those organizations are Legal Aid of West Virginia, West Virginia Senior Legal Aid, Mountain State Justice, West Virginia Fund for Law in the Public Interest, Appalachian Center for Law, and ChildLaw Services of Mercer County. Legal Aid receives the biggest portion of IOLTA funds each, and it’s a criti- cal supplement to its shrinking federal budget, said Executive Director Adri- enne Worthy. It received $218,336 from IOLTA in 2011. Legal Aid closed 7,765 cases in 2010, the year of its most recent annual report. Its clients include those with civil legal issues involving domestic violence, housing, and public benefits. Legal Aid ombudsmen assist residents of long-term care facilities (19,500 individuals helped in 2010); a behavioral health advocacy unit (2,708 clients in 2010); and a service that refers clients to private attorneys who offer pro bono services (4,622 hours donated in 2010). Despite a decrease in funding from IOLTA and other sources, there was a 20 percent increase in de- mand for Legal Aid services in 2010. Among the clients who were helped by Legal Aid in 2010 was 57-year-old Dar- rell Torres, who lives alone in a mobile home and has limited mobility. Legal Aid helped him keep the Medicaid waiver that provides in-home daily help with- out which he would have to move to a nursing home. His story is featured in the organization’s 2010 annual report. Most West Virginia banks waive fees for handling IOLTA funds, and the State Bar would like to thank them for that, said Charles DiSalvo, a West Virginia University law professor on the State Bar IOLTA Advisory Committee. IOLTA: More Than Just an Interest Rate By Jennifer Bundy, Public Information Officer, Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia Q IOLTA — continued on page 22