"The first duty of society is justice".

• Jurisdiction: United States
• Author: McGrane, Miles
• Date: 01 December 2003

Those words were penned by Alexander Hamilton, one of our nation's early architects and author of many of the Federalist papers.

Helping to ensure Hamilton's vision that all of our citizens deserve the opportunity to be heard and pursue justice in this great land is the mission of The Florida Bar Foundation, the only statewide organization that provides financial support for legal aid, that promotes improvements in how we address the civil legal needs of the poor and provides project support to help make the court system more responsive to the needs of the people it's pledged to serve. To do that takes time, effort, and--of course--money.

Today, thousands of low-income Floridians are trying to deal with difficult...