NCSB Journal Spring 2026

The funding freeze has already cost the residents of small towns and rural communi ties across the state their in-person access to Legal Aid of North Carolina attorneys and advocates, as the organization has been forced to close several offices and reduce staff. These offices provided critical legal services to low-income North Carolinians including veterans, seniors and survivors of domestic violence. While LANC is doing everything they can to provide access to their services in other ways, the difficult truth is that many folks in rural areas will have an even harder time accessing the legal help they need this year. And while LANC has long been NC IOLTA’s largest grantee, serving all 100 counties, the detrimental impact of the freeze is not limited to them. In fact, some recent NC IOLTA grantees are small, scrappy oper ations that do truly transformational legal work on very lean budgets. While many of them are looking to make up the funding in other ways, the loss of an anticipated NC IOLTA grant in 2026 means they could be forced to trim their operations as well.

Office closures, layoffs and reduced client intake are chipping away at a network of support that we know is already severely strained in too many of our communities. As the State Bar has already done, I urge you to do what you can to support your local legal aid organizations through pro bono efforts and/or financial support. Share your own call to action within your professional network. And, finally, I hope you will stand with me in defense of our NC IOLTA pro gram, a proven funder and partner in the access to justice community for more than 40 years. n Shelby Duffy Benton has practiced family law in Goldsboro, NC, for 40 years with Benton Family Law. She has served as president of the NCBA/NCBF, as a trustee and chair of NC IOLTA, and as a NC State Bar councilor. She is currently a commissioner on the NC Domestic Violence Commission and a member of the NC State Bar Family Law Specialization Committee. Learn more about NC IOLTA at nciolta.org.

the incredibly important work described above have been awarded any grant money for 2026. This legislation means that North Carolina is now the only state in the nation that is not funding civil legal aid through the IOLTA program. Peter Bolac, executive director of the State Bar, has previously shared the Bar’s assessment of the impact this funding freeze will have on legal aid organizations, low income North Carolinians and our state’s court system. I encourage you to read his Nov. 6 communication, which is available on the Bar’s website, if you have not already done so. As of this writing in early January 2026, the General Assembly has not taken further legislative action on this matter. Good-faith efforts by State Bar and NC IOLTA leader ship to address legislators’ concerns and potentially shorten the duration of the freeze do not appear to have moved the needle. As the weeks pass, the harm being done to the legal aid landscape of North Carolina grows — harm that will likely take years to undo.

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THE NORTH CAROLINA STATE BAR JOURNAL