Accessing Get Legal Help
If you click Get Legal Help, you will get help finding information, forms, or legal referrals in your area. You'll be asked questions about:
- The issue you're dealing with
- What type of help you're looking for
- Your location
Your income level
After answering some questions, you might get:
- A list of organizations to select from that will allow you to complete an application and schedule a callback, or get you application fast-tracked when you contact the program. Only vetted and approved legal aid partners, with detailed information on what types of cases are accepted participate in this program
- A list of organizations, both legal aid organizations and private bar referrals, that you can contact. These organizations have provided some information on their services and eligibility requirements but. not as much detail as our online application partners.
- Information about your issue to help you learn about the process to resolve it
- Links to Easy Forms
How do referrals from Get Legal Help work?
When you use Get Legal Help and ask for a lawyer, you will get a referral to one or more programs or services. These programs might be able to help with your legal issue for free, for a reduced fee, or through a paid service. The referrals are based on your answers to questions about:
- Your issue
- Your location
- Your income level
Some programs can only help people with a particular type of problem. For example, some help people who live in Cook County with eviction and foreclosure, and whose income level is below the federal poverty line and other programs can help Illinois residents dealing with domestic abuse, regardless of income or the county where they live.
What does it mean to apply for free legal help?
You can use our website to apply to a program that might be able to help you with your legal issue and won't charge you any money. When you apply, you'll answer questions about:
- Your issue
- Your location
- Your household size
- Your monthly income
- Other information about yourself
Based on your answers to those questions, you might qualify for free legal help from a legal aid program. This means that the program may offer you legal services that won't cost you any money, like:
- Information
- Advice from a lawyer
- Legal papers drafted by a lawyer
- Going to court with a lawyer
How much time will it take me to apply for free legal help?
Applying online for free legal help can take between 5 and 30 minutes. You will answer questions about yourself, your household, and your income. If you have your household and income numbers handy, applying online takes 5-10 minutes.
What information do I need to apply for free legal help?
To apply for free legal help, you'll answer a series of questions about yourself and your legal issue. You'll need to know:
- Your legal issue
- Your location
- Your monthly income
Depending on your location, issue, and income, you may be asked for more information.
Can I save my free legal help application and finish it later?
No. It's not possible to start to apply, save, and then finish later. You'll need to complete your application for free legal help in one session, from start to finish. When you have the right information on hand, applying online takes between 5 and 10 minutes.
Do I need to create an account?
You don't have to create an account but we encourage you to if you have submitted an online application to an organization. This is because they may ask you to upload documents through our site to be sent to them to review. You can also log back in and check the appointment time, phone number to call, and other information.
What if I missed my appointment call or the program didn't contact me?
If you missed your appointment call or the program didn't call you when you had an appointment time selected, you should call them. Log into your account and you can access their contact information. It should also be in your confirmation email. If you don't have that, contact us and we'll look it up.
Why didn't I qualify for free legal help?
When you apply, the questions about yourself and your legal issue will figure out if you can get free legal help from a program. Based on your answers to those questions, you may not qualify. For example:
- The legal aid program might not have anyone to help with your legal issue
- There is no legal aid program, or person at a program, able to help in your location
- The legal aid program can only serve people below a certain income and can't help because you make too much money
- You can also try to contact an attorney who offers limited scope representation
