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FFLA Awards $33.9 Million To 35 Florida Legal Aid Organizations

FFLA is distributing $33.9 million to 35 Florida civil legal aid clinics, up from the $7.7 million in grants the organization awarded to many of the same organizations last year. The board of directors of FFLA, formerly known as The Florida Bar Foundation, approved the awards on December 8. FFLA is also adding one new program to its award list this year: St. Michael’s Legal Center for Women and Children will receive a $169,555 grant in 2023. “These IOTA grants will enable qualified legal aid providers to serve more clients, pay their legal aid staff salaries commensurate with their experience and increase the availability of pro bono lawyers,” said FFLA President Murray Silverstein. The money originates from interest earned on attorney trust, or IOTA, accounts and the FFLA distributes the income to entities offering free civil legal representation to Floridians in need. The IOTA program brought in more money this year as interest rates rose along with inflation. The Florida Supreme Court also changed the rule governing these accounts in March requiring attorneys to keep their clients’ money in higher-yield IOTA accounts. FFLA’s fiscal year runs July 1 to June 30.

2023-12-12T11:13:27-05:00December 12th, 2023|News, Partners in Justice Spotlight, Uncategorized|

Jacksonville City Council set to vote on eviction diversion program

Debbie-Lynn Hamm hit a rough patch this year. A mother of four young boys, the former Marine Corps servicewoman says when she lost her job as a corrections officer back in August, getting behind in her finances led to an eviction notice in September. “When you get those notices, I think that you just kind of get a numb feeling and you kind of shut down,” Hamm says. “It’s hard to think because you’re just scared.” Hamm eventually found help to stem the eviction proceeding through local nonprofit Changing Homelessness and a Veterans Affairs program that the organization administers, but she says the court notice hit her initially as a state of depression. But court deadlines couldn’t wait as she reflected on her life.  “I have been working hard, you know? I served my country. I got honorably discharged,” says Hamm. “I have all these skills and everything. What did I do wrong?”

2023-12-12T10:56:18-05:00December 12th, 2023|Fair Housing, News|

JALA Annual Report

Many of your Northeast Florida neighbors are safe, housed and healthy today because of your contributions to JALA. Thank you! Protecting & Strengthening INDIVIDUALS | FAMILIES | COMMUNITIES

2024-01-04T11:04:16-05:00December 10th, 2023|News|

Delores Barr Weaver Legacy Fund offers $25,000 challenge match for the Freed to Run Challenge supporting Jacksonville Area Legal Aid

Local philanthropist Delores Barr Weaver has offered a multi-year challenge grant to encourage donations to the Nov. 17-18 Freed to Run Challenge, the proceeds of which will benefit Jacksonville Area Legal Aid’s Shelter for Elders endowment to fund legal aid for area seniors facing housing instability. The Delores Barr Weaver Legacy Fund will match $25,000 in donations to the 2023 Freed to Run Challenge, provided the event raises at least $75,000 from other donors. In addition, over the following two years, the fund will match a gift of up to $25,000 from a single donor each year, dollar-for-dollar, provided that at least $50,000 can be raised from additional donors. The challenge grant is designed to help the Freed to Run Challenge meet its $100,000 fundraising goal each year. Weaver, former co-majority owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars, has a history of raising funds through running that goes back to 1990, when she offered a dollar-for-dollar matching challenge grant of up to $50,000 to a group of runners who would compete in the Boston Marathon. All the funds raised would go to the Claudia Adams Barr Program in Innovative Basic Cancer Research, which Weaver had established in 1987 at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in memory of her mother, Claudie Adams Barr, who died of breast cancer.

2024-01-04T11:07:33-05:00November 12th, 2023|Endowment, Freed To Run, News, Shelter for Elders, Uncategorized|

‘Zombie debt’: How a judgement from 2004 came back to haunt a former Duval County resident 17 years later

Could your old debt come back to haunt you? A man who used to live in Duval County said “zombie debt” appeared in his life seemingly out of nowhere. Justin Purser said a debt of a few thousand dollars from close to 20 years ago had ballooned with interest to more than $11,000 when a debt collector came knocking for the first time in 2021. An attorney at Jacksonville Area Legal Aid said they see “zombie debt” cases locally every week, and with the pandemic putting other types of debt collection on hold, like for mortgages and student loans, some collectors began resurrecting debt consumers might have thought was dead and buried. “Honestly, I thought it was a joke,” Purser told the I-TEAM of his reaction to a notice in 2021 of an $11,000 debt from 2004. “I was never never notified that I had any debt. Like, how is this possible? So I thought it was a joke, but unfortunately, it wasn’t,” he said. Court records show a judgment against him in 2004 for a debt of about $2,800, and with attorneys’ fees, interest, and other costs, the total came to nearly $4,900.

2024-01-04T11:09:02-05:00October 31st, 2023|News|

Jacksonville set to fight ‘predatory’ PACE loan program

At least 160 Jacksonville homeowners this year have participated in what officials are calling a “predatory” home-improvement loan program. But this week, the Jacksonville City Council took steps to stop that loan program from doing any further business in the city. Officials also are making strides to help the property owners who have already taken out the loans that, in some cases, threaten to raise the homeowner’s tax bill by 1,000% and possibly risk their homeownership. The Property Assessed Clean Energy loan program — also known as PACE — began in Florida in the city of Kissimmee and Flagler County as a way to allow property owners to make upgrades to their house for zero down payment and full financing. The Florida PACE Funding Agency — special districts created under state law to administer the program — is in charge of the loans. But the program is exempt from the federal Truth in Lending Act, which requires lenders to make sure borrowers can knowledgably pay back loans. The program also is a tangle of public and private entities, third-party firms, contractors and salespeople, according to a Tampa Bay Times report on the lack of oversight.

2023-11-13T14:48:42-05:00October 6th, 2023|Fair Housing, News|

Mayor Deegan To Appoint JALA Board Member Michael Fackler As General Counsel

Mayor Deegan is announcing her appointment of Michael Fackler to become the City of Jacksonville’s next General Counsel. A long-time commercial litigator, Michael Fackler has practiced law for nearly 20 years and is a partner at the established local law firm of Milam Howard Nicandri & Gillam P.A. Previously, he was a law clerk for the Honorable Harvey E. Schlesinger, United States District Court Judge for the Middle District of Florida. Mr. Fackler has also served as the Jacksonville Federal Bar Association President and as an Adjunct Professor at Florida Coastal School of Law. He has been honored as a “Super Lawyer” since 2016 and as part of the “Florida Legal Elite” in 2012, 2020, and 2021. Outside of the legal arena, Mr. Fackler has a deep connection to the community. He is a current board member for the Jacksonville Area Legal Aid and Riverside Presbyterian Church Basketball League. He has also served as a board member, President, Vice President, and Treasurer of the Jacksonville Historical Society. From 1996 to 1998, Mr. Fackler served in the United States Peace Corps in Rybnik, Poland. Afterwards, he served as a board member and President of the First Coast Returned Peace Corps Volunteers.

2024-01-04T11:10:29-05:00September 22nd, 2023|News|

Jacksonville Area Legal Aid launches new branding with its latest annual report

Fifty years after adopting its current name, Jacksonville Area Legal Aid is updating its branding with the release of its 2022 annual report, the first document to bear JALA’s new logo. Titled “Housing Takes Center Stage,” the report shines a spotlight on JALA’s work to prevent unlawful evictions and foreclosures, ensure fair housing laws are enforced, and resolve other landlord-tenant issues. Out of 6,724 cases JALA handled in 2022, JALA closed 2,618 housing cases, representing nearly 40% of its closed cases. “Preserving shelter is our highest and best use, and we remain focused on that mission,” the report states. JALA’s annual report also cites a recent report by the City of Jacksonville’s Special Committee on Critical Quality of Life Issues, which states that, “The City should work with and financially support the Jacksonville Area Legal Aid office in efforts to reduce eviction rates, human displacement and homelessness.”

2023-11-13T15:09:18-05:00September 5th, 2023|News, Uncategorized|

Jacksonville Office

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Duval & Nassau Counties
126 W. Adams St.
Jacksonville, FL 32202
(904) 356-8371

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St. Johns County Legal Aid

Serving Residents of
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222 San Marco Avenue
St. Augustine, FL 32084
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Clay County Legal Aid

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Green Cove Springs, FL 32043
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Nassau County Legal Aid

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Fernandina Beach, FL 32034
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