Texas has a real free legal help network, but it is fragmented across three regional legal aid organizations, a set of statewide programs, and a patchwork of county self-help centers. This page lists each one with its intake number, the counties it covers, and the eligibility rules it actually applies — then covers the options that remain if you are turned away.
This page is part of our complete SAPCR Texas guide. If you are looking specifically for paid representation and what it costs, see SAPCR lawyer in Texas.
Start here if you have a hearing coming up
Call the legal aid organization for your region first — Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas 888-529-5277, Lone Star Legal Aid 800-733-8394, or Texas RioGrande Legal Aid 956-996-8752. Intake takes time, so call as far ahead of your hearing as you can.
If you do not qualify on income, call the State Bar of Texas Lawyer Referral Service at 800-252-9690. The referral is free and the consultation costs no more than $20.
How Legal Aid Eligibility Actually Works
Every applicant is screened on four separate things, not just income. Understanding all four saves you from calling the wrong office or assuming you were rejected for the wrong reason.
- Income: The federally funded programs generally set the cutoff at 125% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines. That figure is revised every January, so check the current table on TexasLawHelp's poverty guidelines page rather than relying on a number you read last year. Some organizations serve applicants above the line through specially funded projects — domestic violence, veterans, and disaster work commonly have higher or no income limits.
- Geography: Each organization serves defined counties. Calling the one that does not cover your county wastes a call; the section below maps them.
- Case type: Legal aid handles civil matters only — no criminal defense. Family law, housing, public benefits, consumer, and employment are the common categories. Fee-generating cases such as personal injury are usually referred out.
- Conflicts and capacity: If the organization already represents the opposing party, it cannot take you. And demand exceeds supply everywhere in Texas: qualifying on paper does not guarantee an attorney. Many eligible applicants receive advice or a referral rather than full representation.
Ask what you are being offered when you are accepted. "We can help you" can mean full representation in court, a single advice session, or help completing forms. Those are very different things, and knowing which one you have determines whether you still need to plan for the hearing yourself.
The Three Regional Legal Aid Organizations
Between them, these three cover the entire state. Find your county's provider first.
Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas (LANWT)
- Intake line: 888-529-5277 · Administrative office: 817-336-3943
- Covers: 114 counties across North and West Texas — including Dallas, Tarrant, Denton, Collin, Lubbock, Amarillo, Midland, and Odessa
- Eligibility: Income-based, keyed to the federal poverty guidelines, plus residency in the service area and a qualifying civil case type
- Family law: Handles child custody, child support, divorce, and domestic violence matters
- Apply: legalaidtx.org/get-help — online application or by phone
Lone Star Legal Aid (LSLA)
- Applicant hotline: 800-733-8394 (toll free) · Houston local: 713-652-0077
- Covers: 72 counties across Southeast Texas, the Texas Gulf Coast, and Deep East Texas — including Harris, Galveston, Montgomery, Fort Bend, Jefferson, and Smith — plus 4 counties in southwest Arkansas. Their own materials sometimes quote 76, which is the combined Texas-and-Arkansas total.
- Eligibility: Household income within 125% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines, plus legal status requirements. Applicants above that line may still qualify under one of LSLA's special projects, so it is worth asking rather than assuming.
- Case types: Civil only — family law, housing, employment, consumer, disaster relief, and dedicated work for veterans, seniors, and domestic violence survivors. No criminal cases.
- Apply: lonestarlegal.org/get-help
Texas RioGrande Legal Aid (TRLA)
- Intake line: 956-996-8752 (956-996-TRLA), Monday–Friday 9:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. Central
- Family law callers: TRLA asks that applications for help with a family law problem be made on Tuesdays and Thursdays only during hotline hours. Calling on the wrong day is a common reason people give up after one attempt.
- Toll-free alternative: The Texas Access to Justice intake line, 1-888-988-9996, is listed for TRLA-area applicants by the Texas State Law Library and legal aid directories.
- Covers: 68 counties in Central and Southwest Texas — including Bexar, Travis, El Paso, Hidalgo, Cameron, Webb, and Nueces
- Practice areas: Family law, housing, employment, education, public benefits, disaster, taxes, and wills and estate planning
- Apply: trla.org/help
Statewide Programs
Texas Legal Services Center (TLSC)
TLSC is an Austin-based nonprofit that operates statewide and runs several of the resources Texans reach most often, including TexasLawHelp.org, legal kiosks, and rural legal aid clinics. All of its services are free to those it serves.
- Legal Hotline for Texans: 1-800-622-2520, Option 3 — for Texans age 60 or older, or Medicare recipients
- Veterans Legal Assistance Project: 1-800-622-2520, Option 2 — for low-income Texas veterans and their families
- Coverage: All Texas counties
- Subject areas: Family, parenting, and child welfare; government benefits; senior care and estate planning; violence, abuse, and stalking; military and VA benefits; housing and financial matters
- Website: tlsc.org
Read the gating carefully. TLSC's main hotline options are restricted by age, Medicare status, or veteran status — they are not a general-purpose family law intake line for adults of any age. If you are a parent under 60 with a custody matter and no veteran status, your route through TLSC is TexasLawHelp.org and its clinic and kiosk programs, not the hotline.
TexasLawHelp.org
Free to everyone, with no income requirement. A program of TLSC, built with contributions from legal aid organizations statewide.
- Plain-language articles on family law, housing, benefits, and more
- Court-accepted forms and guided interviews that assemble filings for you
- A searchable legal aid directory to find the provider for your county
- Live chat with legal staff during posted hours
The limit is inherent to what it is: TexasLawHelp gives you information and forms, not an attorney who is responsible for your case. Using its forms does not put anyone on the hook for whether your filing is right for your situation.
Texas Free Legal Answers
A virtual advice clinic at texas.freelegalanswers.org. You post a civil legal question and a volunteer Texas-licensed attorney answers it in writing, at no cost. It covers family, divorce, and custody questions along with housing, consumer, employment, health, civil rights, and education law.
Two constraints matter: the volunteer attorneys cannot call you and cannot represent you in court, and the site cannot guarantee an answer before a court deadline. Use it for a question you have time to wait on, not for something due this week.
State Bar of Texas Lawyer Referral & Information Service
- Phone: 800-252-9690, Monday–Friday, 8:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m. Central
- Cost of the referral: Free
- Cost of the consultation: The attorney you are referred to provides up to a 30-minute consultation for no more than $20. Anything beyond that is negotiated between you and the attorney.
- Web: texasbar.com/LRIS
This is the single most useful option for people who earn too much for legal aid but cannot fund a retainer. A $20 consultation with a family law attorney who reviews your specific facts is often the difference between filing something workable and filing something that has to be undone later.
Help Specific to Family Violence
If family violence, sexual assault, or stalking is part of your situation, these programs frequently have looser income limits than general legal aid because they are separately funded.
- Texas Advocacy Project — Family Violence Legal Line: 800-374-4673; Pro Bono Attorney Line: 800-374-4674. Monday–Friday, 9 a.m.–5 p.m.
- Legal Aid for Survivors of Sexual Assault (LASSA): 844-303-7233, Option 1
- National Domestic Violence Hotline: 1-800-799-7233, 24 hours
- CPS Family Helpline: 844-888-6565 — for questions about a CPS investigation
County Self-Help Centers and Law Libraries
County law libraries are the most under-used free resource in Texas. They are open to the public, they hold the forms and the statutes, and staff can point you to the right procedure — though as a rule they cannot tell you what to do in your case, because the staff are librarians rather than your attorneys.
- Harris County — Robert W. Hainsworth Law Library: 713-755-5183. 1019 Congress, 1st Floor, Houston, TX 77002. Monday–Friday, 8 a.m.–5 p.m. Self-help legal information, forms, community resource listings, and copy/print/scan services for family court litigants. harriscountylawlibrary.org
- Dallas County Law Library: 214-653-7481. Courts Building, 600 Commerce Street, Suite B40, Dallas, TX 75202. Monday–Friday, 8 a.m.–4:30 p.m.
- Travis County Law Library and Self-Help Center: 512-854-8677. 314 West 11th St., Suite 140, Austin, TX 78701. Monday–Friday, 8 a.m.–5 p.m. Helps self-represented litigants in Travis County civil courts research questions and locate forms. lawlibrary.traviscountytx.gov
- Bexar County Law Library: 210-227-8822. 100 Dolorosa, 5th Floor, San Antonio, TX 78205.
For counties not listed, the Texas State Law Library maintains a directory of every county and court law library in the state at guides.sll.texas.gov, and the statewide self-help portal is at txcourts.gov.
What to Do If You Do Not Qualify for Legal Aid
Most people who call legal aid do not end up with a legal aid attorney — either their income is over the line or the office has no capacity. That is not the end of the road. These are the routes that remain, roughly in order of how much they get you for what they cost.
1. Pay for a consultation, not a case
The Lawyer Referral Service consultation described above costs at most $20 for 30 minutes. Prepare for it: bring your case number, the orders already entered, the dates that matter, and a written list of questions. A focused 30 minutes with your actual documents in front of an attorney is worth more than hours of general research.
2. Hire an attorney for part of the case
Limited-scope representation — also called unbundled services — means paying an attorney to handle one piece rather than the whole matter. Common arrangements are having a petition or response drafted, having your filings reviewed before you submit them, or being coached before a temporary orders hearing. It costs a fraction of a full retainer and is frequently the best available option when full representation is out of reach. Ask directly: many attorneys who offer it do not advertise it.
3. Law school clinics
Supervised student attorneys handle real cases at no cost. Texas programs include the Earl Carl Institute at Texas Southern University’s Thurgood Marshall School of Law (apply here), along with clinics at UT Austin, Texas Tech, SMU, and Baylor. Clinics run on the academic calendar and have limited slots, so apply early in a semester rather than mid-break.
4. County bar association call-in nights
Several county bars staff free legal advice phone lines on set evenings, open to callers regardless of income. The Houston Bar Association's LegalLine runs at 713-228-0735 on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays, 5–8 p.m., and Fridays 1–5 p.m. The Austin Lawyer Referral Service runs LegalLine at 512-472-8303 on the first Tuesday of the month, 5:30–7:30 p.m., for Bastrop, Hays, Travis, and Williamson County residents. Dallas and Tarrant County bars run comparable programs — check their sites for current schedules, which shift more often than the numbers do.
5. Ask the court to waive your costs
If the obstacle is court costs rather than attorney fees, file a Statement of Inability to Afford Payment of Court Costs under Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 145. It is a sworn form, filed with your case, that can waive filing fees, service fees, and court reporter costs. It does not get you an attorney, but it removes the fee barrier to filing at all. The form is available free through TexasLawHelp.org.
6. Do the work yourself, with the right materials
Self-representation is permitted in Texas civil courts, and in agreed or uncontested matters it is often a reasonable choice. It is materially harder when the other side has counsel, because courts hold self-represented parties to the same rules of procedure and evidence. If you are proceeding this way, work from our SAPCR response checklist and document templates, and read the filing process step by step before you file anything.
Deadlines do not wait for funding. If you have been served or a hearing is set, the date controls regardless of whether you have found an attorney. File something on time — even a bare answer preserving your right to be heard — rather than letting the deadline pass while you look for help. See what happens if you do not respond and how default judgments are entered.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who qualifies for free legal aid in Texas?
The federally funded legal aid programs generally set their financial cutoff at 125% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines, which change every January. Income is only the first screen. The organization must also serve your county, handle your type of case, have no conflict of interest with the opposing party, and have capacity to take the case. Meeting the income limit makes you eligible to apply; it does not guarantee representation.
Which legal aid organization covers my county in Texas?
Texas is divided among three main providers. Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas covers 114 counties across North and West Texas, including Dallas, Fort Worth, Lubbock, and Amarillo. Lone Star Legal Aid covers 72 Texas counties across Southeast Texas, the Gulf Coast, and Deep East Texas, including Houston and Beaumont, plus 4 counties in southwest Arkansas. Texas RioGrande Legal Aid covers 68 counties across Central and Southwest Texas, including San Antonio, Austin, El Paso, and the Rio Grande Valley.
What can I do if I do not qualify for legal aid?
Several routes remain. The State Bar of Texas Lawyer Referral Service connects you to a screened attorney for a consultation of up to 30 minutes for no more than $20. Limited-scope or unbundled representation lets you hire an attorney for one part of your case rather than all of it. Law school clinics, county bar association LegalLine call-in nights, and Texas Free Legal Answers provide free advice without a strict legal aid income test. If court costs are the barrier, a Statement of Inability to Afford Payment of Court Costs under Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 145 can waive filing and service fees.
Is TexasLawHelp.org free and does it have income requirements?
TexasLawHelp.org is free to everyone and has no income requirement. It is a program of the Texas Legal Services Center and publishes plain-language articles, court-accepted forms, and guided interviews for family law, housing, and public benefits matters. It provides legal information and forms rather than representation, so no attorney takes responsibility for your case through the site alone.
Do county self-help centers give legal advice?
Generally no. County law libraries and self-help centers provide forms, research assistance, procedural information, and access to legal databases, but their staff are typically librarians rather than attorneys and cannot advise you on what to do in your specific case. They are most useful for locating the right form, understanding filing procedure, and reading the statutes and rules that apply to you.
Contact details and eligibility rules on this page were verified against each organization’s own published information in August 2026. Income limits are revised annually and hotline schedules change; confirm current details with the organization before relying on them. This page is legal information, not legal advice.