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When you need a lawyer and can’t pay
For anyone in the United States with a legal problem and no money for a lawyer, and for the people helping them. Where free legal aid is, what to do with court papers, who to call about a home, a job, a debt, a family or an immigration case, and the words to say when you call. You don’t need to know the law to take the first step.
A word with a dotted line under it, like this, opens its official definition, quoted from a U.S. government glossary.
Right now
- In danger? Call 911. Not safe at home: the National Domestic Violence Hotline, 1-800-799-7233, any hour.
- Holding court papers? Find the date on them. Answer by that date and go to court, even if you have no lawyer yet.
- Need the legal aid office for your area? Call 211 and ask. Free and confidential.
- Too much to bear? Call or text 988, any hour.
More help
- Nowhere to stay, or facing eviction? When you need a place to stay.
- Bills, benefits and debt collectors? When the money runs out.
- Lost the papers that prove who you are? When your ID is gone.
- Looking for work with a record? The Fair Chance Job Kit.
- A letter, call or website asking for money? Is this a scam?
- Everything feels too big to start? One step at a time.
- Might not have signal? Save our tools on your phone.
- All our free tools and Get help now.
Other guides on this site that go with this page
Free to read. We chose these ourselves; no professional did. Each guide was written with AI and has not been reviewed by a professional. They are general information, not advice.
- When a medical bill is too much: what to check before you pay, the financial help nonprofit hospitals must offer, surprise bills, and debt collectors.
- Taxes: free help, and what to do if you can’t pay: whether you need to file, the credits many people miss, where a return is done for free, and what to do when you owe.
- When someone you love is in jail or prison: for the family and friends outside: finding where they are, calls, letters, sending money, visiting, and what to tell the children.
- Coming home from jail or prison: the first days after release, in order: ID and papers, health insurance, work with a record, and a place to stay.
- If someone is forcing you to work or to sell sex: being made to work or to sell sex by force, lies or threats: the signs, a hotline at any hour, and options if you are not a U.S. citizen.
- When a debt collector calls: a debt collector: court papers, the first call, disputing a debt, making the calls stop, old debts, and what they can and can’t take.
- When you might be evicted: rent you can’t pay, an eviction notice or court papers: help with rent, free legal aid, talking with your landlord, and what a landlord cannot do.
- When something is wrong at work: unpaid wages, unsafe work, harassment or retaliation: which federal office takes which problem, the phone numbers, and how long you have.
- If someone is stalking you: someone who follows, watches, tracks or will not stop contacting you: what to do first, the record to keep, and who to call.
- When it’s about child support: a child support order, from either side: where to start, how to ask for a review when your income changes, past-due support, and staying safe.
- When you’re leaving foster care: aging out of foster care: your transition plan, your papers, Medicaid until 26, staying or coming back, housing and money for school.
- When you have to go to court without a lawyer: going to court without a lawyer: answering court papers, filing and serving, evidence, the hearing, video court, and appeals.
- When you’re young and have nowhere safe to stay: who answers at any hour, where you can walk in, youth shelters, and staying in school.
- When it’s divorce or custody: divorce and custody: how a divorce goes, how a judge decides custody, moving with the children, and finding free legal help.
- Registering and voting: voting: registering with no home address, with a conviction or with a disability, and what to ask your election office.
- Clearing your record: sealing, expungement, pardons, and fixing mistakes: clearing your record: sealing, expungement, pardons, seeing your own record, and fixing a wrong background check.
- Immigration help without getting cheated: who is allowed to help, free forms, your case and your court date: immigration help without getting cheated: who is allowed to give advice, the free lists, the scams, checking a case or a court date, and finding someone who was detained.
This page and its wording were written with AI (Claude) for Scarlet Beast (our AI policy). The facts come from the government’s own pages (USAGov, the Legal Services Corporation, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the federal courts and the Justice Department’s immigration court office), and the phone numbers were checked on those pages on September 30 and October 1, 2026. Two of the sites we link to (the American Bar Association’s directory of law school programs and the Pension Rights Center) and the USCIS page on finding legal services would not open for our checker, so for those we give the links USAGov gives and say only what USAGov says. Rules and deadlines change, so check with the court or with legal aid. This page saves nothing: no account, no cookies, nothing you tick is stored or sent, and no analytics (privacy). Scarlet Beast is not a government agency, a court or a legal service. Found a mistake? Email [email protected].