History

The Wisconsin Supreme Court created the Interest on Lawyers' Trust Accounts (IOLTA) program in 1986 as a way to help our legal system open its doors to those who could not afford to pay for an attorney. The proliferation of IOLTA programs was an international movement which had begun in the state of Florida.

The Court adopted rules which established the Wisconsin Trust Account Foundation (WisTAF) as a key player to "aid in the administration of justice" by administering IOLTA in Wisconsin. For the first time, funds generated by a certain type of attorney trust account in Wisconsin automatically went toward grants for civil legal aid.

Over WisTAF's lifetime, we have overseen funding and administered grants totaling tens of millions of dollars to help people who can't afford to pay for attorneys nonetheless achieve fair resolutions to legal problems.

Our state continues to work to make justice more universal by creating other sources of support for civil legal aid.