The Louisiana Bar Foundation expects to receive roughly $6.5 million from a Bank of America mortgage settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice and six states.
The distribution to Louisiana is mandated under the settlement to provide legal assistance in foreclosure prevention and community development, according to a news release.
The Louisiana Bar Foundation is one of 56 state-based legal assistance organizations receiving funds from the settlement.
“The distributions—totaling more than $490 million nationwide—were triggered in December by President Obama’s signing into law an act extending federal tax relief through 2016 to homeowners who otherwise would have incurred income-tax liability from mortgage debt forgiveness they received under consumer-relief provisions of the settlement,” the release reads.
Co-signatories to the settlement, besides the bank and the Department of Justice, were the Attorneys General of California, Delaware, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland and New York. Eligible legal-assistance organizations in all six “settling states” have received their distributions, as have organizations in a number of other jurisdictions.
