Legal Aid

Civil Legal Aid in the United States

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.

Legal Aid Agencies Partnered with MLPs

There are 107 legal aid agencies partnered with medical-legal partnerships across the country.  Over half of the MLPs 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.