Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, February 14, 1994                   TAG: 9402160003
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

IN THE INTEREST OF VIRGINIA'S POOR

Up to $4 million annually for legal services will be produced by the mandatory, so-called Interest on Lawyers Trust Accounts rule, which the Virginia Supreme Court approved at the request of the bar last year. The rule requires that lawyers place clients' money held in trust into interest-bearing accounts.

These funds might consist of real-estate closings or personal-injury settlements which are pooled for a short time before being redistributed to clients. In the past, such funds were typically placed in non-interest-bearing accounts because the duration of deposit is short, the amounts are often small, and it would be unethical for lawyers to collect interest on their clients' money.

Under the new rule, the accounts are pooled and the interest goes to the Virginia Law Foundation, which funds legal aid for the poor and other law-related public services.

Low-income residents have the same legal rights as other Virginians, of course, but too often they are denied access to the justice system because they can't afford lawyers' help. By one estimate, only 20 percent of the state's poor who need legal advice get it. The foundation's fund can help.

This is not a radical idea. Voluntary trust-account programs exist in every state except Indiana, and mandatory programs have been established in 27 other states. In fact, 36 percent of Virginia lawyers participated in a voluntary trust-account program, providing $2 million annually for the Virginia Law Foundation, before it was made mandatory last June.

The Legal Aid Society of Roanoke Valley received $64,000 in 1993 from the voluntary program -10 percent of its total funding. The mandatory rule will mean, on top of that, an estimated $93,000 per year. That might allow Roanoke Valley legal aid to increase its services by one-third.

The Virginia Bankers Association seems to be the only bankers' group in the nation to claim that banks have a right to the interest from these accounts. Really, they have no more right to this than they have on the interest from the average person's checking account.

The trust-accounts rule is an innovative and painless way to support a much-needed service for low-income residents without imposing any additional taxes or fees. For the benefit of Virginia's poor, it should be preserved.