Legal Services Agencies
What is Civil Legal Aid?
Legal Aid Agencies Partnered with MLP
What is Civil Legal Aid?
Civil legal aid refers to the free legal services provided by thousands of attorneys who work through local legal aid offices to help millions of low-income people gain access to justice. Civil legal aid helps low-income people resolve urgent, non-criminal legal problems that make a difference in their everyday lives, such as protecting the elderly from unlawful evictions, making sure women and children are protected from violence in their homes, and helping veterans receive the financial benefits they have earned and need.
Civil legal aid programs are state-based or community-based organizations funded in a variety of ways. Some receive grants from the United States Congress each year through the Legal Services Corporation (LSC). The LSC is a private, nonprofit organization established by Congress to ensure equal access to justice under the law by providing legal assistance in civil (non-criminal) matters to low-income individuals. Most federally funded civil legal aid programs also receive support from other sources, including individual donors, foundations, businesses, United Way contributions, state bar foundations and state and local governments.
Unfortunately, the total amount of legal aid available for civil cases is still grossly inadequate. According to LSC's widely released 2005 report "Documenting the Justice Gap in America: The Current Unmet Civil Legal Needs of Low-Income Americans", all legal aid offices nationwide, LSC-funded or not, are together able to meet only about 20 percent of the estimated legal needs of low-income people in the United States.
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Legal Aid Agencies Partnered with MLPs
There are more than 80 legal aid agencies partnered with MLPs across the country. Over half of the medical-legal partnerships in the MLP Network are partnered with an LSC-funded legal aid agency. The complete list of MLP legal aid agencies is below. You can filter the list by LSC/ non-LSC agency and/ or state.
Non LSC Legal Aid Agencies
- Access to Justice Foundation (Lexington)
- Advocates for Basic Legal Equality, Inc. (Toledo)
- Advocates for Human Rights (Minneapolis)
- Catholic Charities, Archdiocese of San Antonio (San Antonio)
- Center for Children's Advocacy (Hartford)
- Children's Law Center (Washington DC)
- Children's Law Center (Kentucky) (Lexington)
- Community Legal Aid Society, Inc. (Wilmington)
- Community Legal Aid, Inc. (Worcester)
- DNA - People's Legal Services (Shiprock)
- East Bay Community Law Center (Berkeley)
- Florida Legal Services (Tallahassee)
- Health & Disability Advocates (Chicago)
- Health Legal Services Law Foundation of Silicon Valley (San Jose)
- Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota (St. Paul)
- Indianapolis Legal Aid Society (Indianapolis)
- Jacksonville Legal Aid (Jacksonville)
- Law Foundation of Silicon Valley (San Jose)
- Lawyer's Committee for Better Housing (Chicago)
- Lawyers Committee on Civil Rights (Boston)
- Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights (Boston)
- Learning Rights Law Center (Los Angeles)
- Legal Advocates for Children and Youth (San Jose)
- Legal Aid Justice Center, Charlottesville (Charlottesville)
- Legal Aid Justice Center, Richmond (Richmond)
- Legal Aid of Marin (San Rafael)
- Legal Aid of Palm Beach County (West Palm Beach)
- Legal Aid Ontario (Toronto)
- Legal Aid Society of Columbus (Columbus)
- Legal Aid Society of Milwaukee (Milwaukee)
- Legal Aid Society of Minneapolis (Minneapolis)
- Legal Aid Society of San Mateo County (San Mateo)
- Legal Aid Society of Southwest Ohio, LLC (Cinicinnati)
- Legal Clinic for the Disabled, Inc. (Philadelphia)
- Legal Services of New Jersey (Edison)
- Manhattan Legal Services (New York)
- Medical-Legal Partnership | Boston (Boston)
- Minnesota Disability Law Center (Minneapolis)
- Neighborhood Christian Legal Clinic (Indianapolis)
- New Haven Legal Assistance Association (New Haven)
- New York Legal Assistance Group (New York)
- NH Legal Assistance (Manchester)
- Northeast Ohio Legal Services (Akron)
- Pisgah Legal Services (Asheville)
- Public Law Center (Santa Ana)
- Rhode Island Center for Law and Public Policy (Warwick)
- South Brooklyn Legal Services (Brooklyn)
- Southeastern Ohio Legal Services (Athens) (Athens)
- Southeastern Ohio Legal Services (Lancaster) (Lancaster)
- The Children's Law Center (Washington)
- The Legal Aid Society of Rochester (Rochester)
- Virginia Poverty Law Center (Richmond)
- Volunteers of Legal Service (New York)
LSC Legal Aid Agencies
- Appalachian Research and Defense Fund (Prestonsburg)
- Atlanta Legal Aid Society, Inc. (Atlanta)
- Bay Area Legal Aid (San Francisco)
- Colorado Legal Services (Denver)
- Community Legal Aid Services (Akron)
- Community Legal Services (Phoenix)
- Greater Boston Legal Services Elder Law Unit (Boston)
- Indiana Legal Services (Indianapolis)
- Iowa Legal Aid (Des Moines)
- Kansas Legal Services, Inc. (Topeka)
- Kentucky Legal Aid (Bowling Green)
- KIDS LEGAL at Pine Tree Legal Assistance, Inc. (Portland)
- Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance Foundation (Carbondale)
- Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance Foundation, Inc. (Champaign)
- Legal Aid and Defenders (Detroit)
- Legal Aid and Defenders Association (Detroit)
- Legal Aid Network of Kentucky (Lexington)
- Legal Aid of Arkansas (Jonesboro)
- Legal Aid of Nebraska (Omaha)
- Legal Aid of North Carolina (Durham)
- Legal Aid of Northwest Texas (Dallas)
- Legal Aid of the Bluegrass (Covington)
- Legal Aid of West Virginia (Charleston)
- Legal Aid of Western Missouri (Kansas City)
- Legal Aid of Western Ohio, Inc. (Toledo)
- Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma, Inc. (Tulsa)
- Legal Aid Society (Louisville)
- Legal Aid Society of Cleveland (Cleveland)
- Legal Aid Society of Greater Cincinnati (Hamilton)
- Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands (Nashville)
- Legal Aid Society of Orange County (Santa Ana)
- Legal Aid Society of San Diego, Inc. (San Diego)
- Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago (Chicago)
- Legal Services of Eastern Missouri (St. Louis)
- Legal Services of Greater Miami, Inc. (Miami)
- Maryland Volunteer Lawyers Services (MVLS) (Baltimore)
- Massachusetts Justice Project (Worcester)
- MidPenn Legal Services (Lancaster)
- Montana Legal Services (Billings)
- Neighborhood Legal Services Association (Pittsburgh)
- Neighborhood Legal Services of LA County (Glendale)
- Neighborhood Legal Services, Inc. (Buffalo)
- Northwest Justice Project (Seattle)
- South Brooklyn Legal Services (Brooklyn)
- Southeast Louisiana Legal Services (New Orleans)
- Southern Arizona Legal Aid, Inc. (Tucson)
- Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, Inc., Brownsville (Brownsville)
- Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, Inc., El Paso (El Paso)
- Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, San Antonio (San Antonio)
- Virginia Legal Aid Society, Lynchburg (Lynchburg)
- Virginia Legal Aid Society, Suffolk (Suffolk)
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In my 35 years of practicing pediatrics in Boston, the lawyers have been the missing link to really improve the health and well-being of the children.
Dr. Barry Zuckerman, Founder of MLP
