Legal Aid

Legal Aid is generally defined as free or low-cost legal services.  Not all programs are created equal.

If you can get legal aid resources to resolve your situation – use it.

Legal Aid is great if you can get it and if it actually helps to resolve your situation.  Thousands of people have benefited from legal aid.

Legal Aid Eligibility Requirements

Legal aid is typically only available to indigent people.  In Texas, indigent is defined as 125% of the poverty level.

An individual household must receive a total of less than $16,100 per year, including gross income before taxes, financial assistance, housing assistance, child care assistance, food stamps, and other forms of financial assistance, to qualify for legal aid, according to the 2021 Financial Income Guidelines published by the Texas Access to Justice Foundation.  And then, legal aid helps only a very small percentage of those people who financially qualify.

Legal Aid is prohibited from helping illegal immigrants and some others with family law situations.

Legal aid is prohibited from helping with some types of cases.

America Family Law Center can help where Legal Aid cannot

America Family Law Center is not constrained by the restrictions of legal aid.  Call us and see what we can do for you.

Legal Aid in Texas

Texas has three prominent legal aid organizations: Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas, Lone Star Legal Aid, and Texas RioGrande Legal Aid.

More about Legal Aid

According to authorities, less than about 15% of the people who qualify for assistance receive services.  Oftentimes, legal aid is lacking in meaningful outcomes. Too often, they do little more than refer you to other legal aid resources until you realize you are just being sent from one to another.

Typically, legal aid organizations try to help people with situations involving violence, food, clothing, shelter, personal freedoms, and human rights violations. Many civil cases are considered discretionary and do not receive help. Some types of cases traditional legal aid services do not assist with include divorce, auto accidents, traffic tickets, real estate purchases, or personal injury cases.  

People will sometimes refer to programs or organizations by the type of case they are looking for, such as child custody legal aid, 

For most free programs you must income qualify to receive services.  According to the 2021 poverty guidelines, in Texas, a single household cannot receive more than $16,100 per year or two people combined cannot receive more than $21,775 per year.  This leaves many Texans unqualified for traditional third-party payer legal aid programs.

Types of Funding

The term free or low-cost refers to the cost to the person who is using the service – someone is always paying for the service.

Legal Aid is generally structured as a third-party payer model – meaning that the general public pays rather than the person receiving the assistance.  Legal aid is not free – just ask any legal aid attorney if they work for free.

Most states have government-funded programs/organizations.  These organizations operate much like a traditional law firm but receive government funding.  Often there are strings attached to the funding, such as the income level or types of cases that the organization is allowed to help.  Indeed much of the funding may go to overhead as opposed to services.  

There are 3 such programs in Texas.  They are Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas, Lone Star Legal Aid, and Texas RioGrande Legal Aid.

Currently, a growing number of private nonprofit legal aid organizations have started to provide legal services. They are doing so in various hybrid models.  For instance, one of the most prominent of these is America Family Law Center.  Equally important is that these private nonprofit organizations obtain funding through private donations and/or low-cost. In addition to the non-traditional funding, the nonprofit may also subsidize its program through some type of government/public funding or grant.

Accordingly, a distinct advantage of these types of organizations is they are able to help a lot more people. They operate more efficiently. In contrast, government-funded organizations truly become constrained in offering services. This is because of conditions related to state or federal funding requirements. Private nonprofit organizations can often assist people who could otherwise not afford to hire an attorney. Not just those below the poverty line.

Lastly, remember that this article is for information purposes only. This is not intended to be a substitute for legal advice.  Please consult with an attorney for legal advice.

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