A public legal fund, the IOLA Fund provides grant funding for over 80 legal nonprofits that represent low-income and indigent New Yorkers in their civil cases. But the IOLA Fund had requested $102.5 million, part of which is for the development of legal services infrastructure projects. IOLA funding is not generated from taxes – the money is generated through interest on attorney escrow accounts. The NY Legal Services Coalition, a nonprofit legal services organization that provides representation to low-income persons and families, called on Hochul to grant the additional requested funding to avoid potential disruptions for their clients. “Knowing the governor's appreciation for the civil legal services, the state's reliance on civil legal services providers to do really crucial work, it very much came out of nowhere,” Brown told the Eagle.