Arthur J. England Jr. was honored June 27 with the IOTA Founder’s Award at the Foundation’s 37th Annual Reception & Dinner.
A little more than a month after receiving the IOTA Founder’s Award at The Florida Bar Foundation’s annual dinner in Boca Raton, Fla., Arthur J. England Jr., 80, passed away Aug. 1 at his home in Coral Gables.
The Foundation recognized England June 27 for the pivotal role he played as a justice of the Florida Supreme Court in establishing Florida’s Interest on Trust Accounts (IOTA) Program, through which the interest earned on client funds held in lawyers’ trust accounts is used for the public good unless the funds can otherwise earn income for the client or third person in excess of the costs incurred to secure such income.
In July 1976 then-Justice England offered a detailed proposal to The Florida Bar’s Board of Governors for implementation of such a program, which at that time existed in Australia and Canada but not in the United States. In 1981 the Florida Supreme Court gave the Foundation the authority to administer the nation’s first IOTA program, which funds civil legal assistance, law student assistance, and programs to improve the administration of justice in Florida.
Since that time, IOTA, known as Interest on Lawyers Trust Accounts (IOLTA) outside of Florida, or the Interest on Lawyer Account (IOLA) Fund in New York, has spread to all 50 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands and has generated more than $350 million annually to help ensure access to justice.
England’s family has designated the IOTA Program administered by The Florida Bar Foundation as the beneficiary of memorial contributions, which will be used to supplement grants to Florida legal aid organizations through the Legal Assistance for the Poor Grant Program. Memorial donations can be made here.
“While we mourn his loss, we are exceedingly grateful for Arthur England’s legacy,” said Foundation President John Patterson. “He helped open the courthouse doors to many who otherwise would have been shut out, and through IOTA and IOLTA programs and the organizations they fund in Florida and throughout the nation he will continue to do so for generations to come.”
