Thousands of Texas parents have their parental rights involuntarily terminated each year. These terminations often begin with a report of alleged child abuse or neglect to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS), the umbrella agency that houses Child Protective Investigations (CPI) and Child Protective Services (CPS). From the initial report, parents may face investigations, extrajudicial services, lasting administrative findings, child removal from the home, and termination of their rights to their child. Families are separated and children are removed from their communities due to circumstances often stemming from poverty. 

Family Defense Project defends parental rights and preserves family integrity by representing parents involved with DFPS at a variety of stages. FDP prioritizes advocacy during the following five stages where an indigent parent is not otherwise entitled to a court-appointed attorney.

Click here for more information on the Family Defense Project.

To apply for representation, call TRLA’s intake line.

TRLA's Housing Group protects the rights of low-income tenants and homeowners with the aim of keeping them in their homes and reducing the number of people forced into homelessness.

Fighting discrimination by landlords, lenders, and government entities against tenants based on their race, color, religion, sex, familial status, disability, and national origin.

Enforcing tenant rights regarding landlord retaliation; repairs; late fee limitations; lease termination due to domestic violence, stalking, or military deployment; and catastrophes including hurricanes, fires, and tornadoes.

Defense of people who face eviction.

Defense of people who face termination of their Housing Choice Voucher assistance or have been denied access to subsidized housing programs.

Representing clients in administrative hearings with public housing authorities.

Click here for more information.

Free.

Since 1999, TRLA has partnered with rape crisis centers, shelters, and other agencies and organizations that provide direct services to victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking. The partnerships, known as LASA, provide important results in terms of providing services to survivors and strengthening the ability of partners agencies to expand their reach in their communities. Through LASA, survivors can apply for a full range of legal services at the agencies where they first turn for help, which promotes a safe, holistic, and victim-centered approach to their cases.

TRLA partners with medical providers in San Antonio as part of a national effort to improve the health and wellbeing of low-income people by combining the expertise of attorneys and medical practitioners. Our Medical-Legal Partnership program (MLP)-part of the National Center for Medical-Legal Partnerships-operates in recognition that poor health is linked to poverty and related problems such as substandard housing and inadequate education. In fact, research has established that about 60 percent of an individual's health is determined by social and economic factors such as personal and family stability, income and health insurance, immigration status, housing and utilities, and education and employment. As such, TRLA's MLP staff work with their medical partners-both hospitals and health clinics-to identify the legal problems that compromise the health of their patients. Once TRLA's medical partners have referred patients for free legal services, MLP staff work to resolve adverse legal and administrative problems to the benefit of both the clients and their families.

Medical-Legal Assistance for Families (MLAF) operates as a partnership between TRLA, the Children's Hospital of San Antonio, and the Baylor College of Medicine's Pediatric Residency Program at the Children's Hospital. Under the partnership, TRLA accepts patients for legal assistance by referral from the two pediatrics departments. TRLA also accepts referrals from the pediatrics department at UT Health San Antonio. Our legal priority areas are education, housing, public benefits, and guardianships for children transitioning to adulthood.

If you're an attorney who can provide pro bono services, our clients need your help. You can join the many private lawyers who are helping TRLA provide free legal services to low-income veterans, victims of consumer fraud, asylum seekers, and many others who otherwise would have no access to representation.

Since TRLA attorneys serve 68 Texas counties and work in at least 45 different practice areas, you can choose how you want to help. Through our Volunteer Form, you can indicate your area of expertise.

VOLUNTEER FOR DISASTER LEGAL SERVICES

TRLA has helped Hurricane Harvey survivors get nearly $450,000 in FEMA aid that was unfairly denied to them. But there are thousands more survivors who need our help to get the federal aid they deserve. Most recently, our Disaster Legal Aid Team has also been deployed to the Rio Grande Valley, where residents are struggling to recover from devastating June flooding. If you can help us represent Texas' many disaster survivors, please fill out our general Volunteer Form.

HELP STAFF FREE LEGAL CLINICS

Throughout our 68-county service area, TRLA operates free legal clinics to help people with divorces, wills, veterans' benefits and many other civil legal problems, If you'd like to help staff a free legal clinic, review our list to find one near you.

CLERKSHIPS

TRLA regularly hosts undergraduate and law students in offices across our service area for a semester, internship, externship, a mini-mester, a co-op, or the summer. Visit our Clerkships page for more information.

Welcome to the page for TRLA’s LGBTQ+ Civil Rights Project. This project is an intersectional effort within TRLA to combine expertise from various legal teams to serve the unique needs of low-income LGBTQ+ Texans in our service area. 

We know that being an LGBTQ+ Texan can be challenging at times, and we are here to see how we might be able to help you navigate legal issues, from changing your name and correcting your gender marker to reflect your identity to confronting discrimination in the workplace.

We can help with:

• Name Change & Gender Marker Correction Services
• Employment
• Education
• Civil Rights
• Family Law
• Services for Survivors of Domestic Violence or Sexual Assault
• Immigration
• Housing
• Reentry & Expunction

To learn more, click here or you can apply by calling 1-833-329-8752 to get connected to legal advice and assistance.

Texas CBAR is a statewide attorney referral program that provides free legal help to eligible nonprofit groups that cannot otherwise afford legal services. We connect volunteer attorneys with nonprofits that need assistance with transactional matters such as state incorporation, federal application for tax-exempt status, bylaws, contracts, internal policies, board compliance, and other matters that do not involve litigation.

HOW TO APPLY:

• Complete and return the Texas CBAR Group Application for Services (PDF) or (Texas CBAR Application (Word), both available for download here.
• Contact us by email [email protected] or call (512) 374-2712.

TRLA represents, advises, and advocates for young people facing a range of legal, educational, and economic problems.

• TRLA’s Education and Special Education Team helps students, including those with disabilities, handle school-related issues;
• The Juvenile Justice Team represents young people facing criminal charges, including Class C misdemeanors;
• Texas Foster Youth Justice Project helps current and former foster youth understand and protect their legal rights.
• TRLA may also be able to help if you’re a young person living in homelessness and need assistance with legal issues related to housing, securing CPS documents, and public benefits. For help with these problems, please call our general legal services hotline (888) 988-9996. TRLA staff will guide you through the application process.

The Texas Foster Youth Justice Project provides free legal services for current and former foster youth throughout Texas. The team helps youth with various legal and administrative matters such as obtaining copies of CPS records; erasing criminal and juvenile records; and accessing foster youth benefits and programs that help in the transition from foster care to independence.

LASSA's mission is to provide trauma-informed, client-centered legal services to victims from intake to case closing. To that end, LASSA case handlers and advocates focus on client safety, privacy, and legal goals.

Services and Activities:

• Advise and represent survivors so they can achieve their civil legal goals, including divorce, child custody, obtaining unpaid wages, maintaining benefits, fighting workplace discrimination, and obtaining work permits and immigration status for immigrant victims of violence
• Help survivors ensure their safety through protective orders and special safety requests at work and school
• Help survivors safeguard their privacy by protecting their health information and counseling records, and by assisting them in managing ongoing privacy concerns
• Provide survivors with access to legal services by conducting trauma-informed intakes through our LASSA hotline and by reviewing legal requests for survivors at shelters and rape crisis centers
• Help empower survivors and their families by coordinating cross-agency referrals from and to community partners
• Survivors of sexual violence can apply for our services by calling our intake number (800-991-5153). Legal advocates at shelters and rape crisis centers also conduct intakes for survivors.

For more information, please visit LASSA.

Legal aid for survivors of sexual assault (LASSA) call the hotline (800-991-5153) or click here to get free legal help.

The clinic serves homeless and low-income veteran populations in Bexar County. Staff work to remove barriers to obtaining driver's licenses by providing assistance in clearing outstanding citations and applying for DPS surcharge waivers; staff also assist in researching and resolving other issues that prevent individuals from obtaining a license.

Every Friday at 1:30 pm. Appointments encouraged. For information and/or appointments call (833) 329-8752.

For more information, please email [email protected].

A psychiatric advance directive (PAD) allows patients with serious mental illness to state their preferences and make other advance decisions about their care in psychiatric hospitals. TRLA is partnering with St. Mary's School of Law to host a weekly PAD clinic at the Haven for Hope courtyard. Clinic clients will have the opportunity to execute Psychiatric Advance Directive (PADs), Medical Power of Attorneys, and Declaration of Guardian.

The clinic serves low-income veterans and direct dependents with legal issues related to housing, foreclosure, veterans benefits, SNAP/TANF, family law, Social Security benefits, Medicaid/Medicare/CHIP, consumer law, and other legal issues.

The Clinic is held at the Audie L. Murphy Hospital Rec. Room.

For more information, please call (833) 329-8752.