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Legal Services Trust Fund Commission reports funding surge and program outcomes
Summary
The Legal Services Trust Fund Commission told the Judicial Council it administered about $200 million to nonprofit legal‑aid and defender programs in 2024 and expects to administer roughly $313 million in 2025, expanding core funding and several targeted grants including Care Court and homelessness‑prevention efforts.
The Legal Services Trust Fund Commission reported a significant increase in grant administration and discussed outcomes of several programs that provide civil legal services to low‑income Californians.
Erica Connolly, co‑chair of the Commission, and Dwan Nguyen, program director at the State Bar’s Office of Access and Inclusion, said the commission administered about $200,000,000 to 110 nonprofits and public defender offices in 2024 and will administer approximately $313,000,000 to 115 grantees in 2025, including expanded core funding. "This includes $127,000,000 in core funding to address the most pressing civil legal needs in each county," Connolly said.
The presenters described several grant programs: the Equal Access Fund (statutory IOLTA funding with stable distributions), discretionary partnership grants to support court‑based clinics for self‑represented litigants (serving roughly 32,000 litigants per year and ~1,800 workshops annually), Care Court grants (planning grants and multi‑million dollar allocations to legal services and public defenders), and homelessness‑prevention grants that helped prevent over 10,000 evictions and assisted 110,000 households since inception. "Through these partnership grants, we're able to assist over 32,000 litigants per year," a presenter said.
Council members thanked the commission and discussed collaboration opportunities, including co‑sponsored convenings and technical assistance. Presenters noted that some homelessness‑prevention funding recently ended, resulting in program reductions and layoffs in some local programs, and urged continued coordination between the Judicial Council and the Commission.
