New Rules Governing Iolta Program Adopted by the Utah Supreme Court

• Jurisdiction: Utah,United States
• Citation: Vol. 18 No. 5 Pg. 9
• Pages: 9
• Publication year: 2009

Utah Bar Journal Volume 18.

Vol. 18, No. 5 - 9. New Rules governing IOLTA program adopted by the Utah Supreme Court

New Rules governing IOLTA program adopted by the Utah Supreme Court

by Steve Sullivan, Utah Bar Foundation President and Kim Paulding, Utah Bar Foundation Executive Director

On June 27, 2005, the Utah Supreme Court executed an Order setting out new rules to govern the IOLTA (Interest on LawyersÃ. Trust Accounts) Program. The Order is effective upon signing and the new set of rules clarifies many of the questions that have arisen during the 22-year history of the program.

The new IOLTA rule no longer allows attorneys to opt-out of the IOLTA program and still maintain a non-interest bearing trust account. It now states that all client trust accounts must be interest bearing with the attorney making one of two choices of where the interest should be directed. The first option is that the interest be generated for the benefit of the client if it is a large enough sum of funds or is being held for a long enough period of time to generate net interest on behalf of the client. (Net interest would be the remaining funds left after the bank has taken their service fees and other charges associated with administering the account). If the first option is not viable, the second option is to direct the interest to the IOLTA program. The Utah Bar Foundation enjoys a good relationship with the Utah Banker's Association and at this time, most of the participating banks in the IOLTA program waive all services fees associated with the IOLTA accounts helping to generate even more funds for legal services for the poor and law related education.

The IOLTA program was created in 1983 by the Utah Supreme Court Opinion In The Matter of Interest on LawyersÃ. Trust Accounts, 672 P.2d 406 (Utah 1983). It allowed attorneys to pool client funds that were to be held for a minimal amount of time or were of small amount in an interest-bearing client trust account. The interest from this account is directed to the IOLTA Program.

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