If you cannot afford legal assistance, here are options for free legal services available in Indiana.
Reach out to a librarian with any questions or for one-on-one assistance navigating these resources!
Call 574-282-4646
Email library@sjcpl.org
Visit any library location
Indiana Legal Services
Indiana Legal Services is a nonprofit law firm that provides free legal assistance for a variety of civil legal matters. Eligibility: Income within 125% or 200% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines depending on expenses and type of legal problem
- Call 1-844-243-8570 (M-F, 10am-2pm)
- or apply online at indianalegalservices.org/applyonline
Indiana Legal Help
Indiana Legal Help connects Hoosiers to free and low-cost civil legal help, court forms, and information. Resources can be found for the following legal issues at our website:
- Divorce
- Protection Order
- Driving
- Housing
- Continuance
- Child Support
- Name and Gender Mark Change
- Parenting Time
- Expungement
Notre Dame Clinical Law Center
Notre Dame Law School’s second- and third-year students receive academic credit while providing free legal services to individuals, small businesses, and nonprofit organizations who cannot afford legal counsel.
- Applied Mediation: Provides mediation services to individuals litigating civil matters such as child custody, parenting time, landlord-tenant disputes, and contract disputes.
- Community Development: Offers non-litigation services to nonprofit organizations and small businesses.
- Economic Justice: Provides legal services to low-income clients in consumer law matters.
- Exoneration Justice: Committed to correcting the miscarriage of justice and investigating, litigating, and overturning wrongful convictions.
- Intellectual Property and Entrepreneurship: Offers counsel to businesses and entrepreneurs on IP-related issues.
- Religious Liberty: Protects not only the freedom for individuals to hold religious beliefs but also their right to exercise and express those beliefs and to live according to them.
Volunteer Lawyer Network
The Volunteer Lawyer Network promotes and organizes free legal services in Elkhart, LaPorte, Kosciusko, Marshall, Starke, and St. Joseph counties.
- The VLN takes phone calls and messages on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays between 8am and 1pm, and Fridays between 1-5pm. Call within those hours, or e-mail at vlnsouthbend@probonoindiana.org.
The VLN can place cases with volunteer attorneys in these areas:
- Adoptions
- Guardianships
- Dissolution (Divorce)
- Landlord/Tenant
- Consumer/Collections
- Small Business Legal Needs
- Estate Law
- Wills/Powers of Attorney/Health Care Directives
- Contracts
- Bankruptcy
- Real Estate
- Expungements/Special Driving Privileges
IN Free Legal Answers
IN Free Legal Answers is a website operated by the American Bar Association.
- Post a question about a civil legal issue and have it answered for free by an attorney.
- In order to qualify, you must be unable to afford to hire an attorney.
- To see if you are eligible and to ask a question now, visit IN Free Legal Answers.
