Nevada Legal Services, Inc
The Nevada Legal Services, Inc, is a non-profit organization that has offices in Las Vegas, Reno, and Carson City, Nevada.
The Nevada Legal Services will provide low-income people in Nevada free legal services. The Nevada Legal Services works throughout the state of Nevada. They assist in every county within the state.
The Nevada Legal Services is fully funded through a variety of resources, but their primary funding will come from a grant by the Legal Services Corporation.
Because the Nevada Legal Services is primarily funded by grants, they do have income guidelines in place. The Nevada Legal Services will only work in people in Nevada who have an income at or below the 200% Federal Poverty Level.
The Nevada Legal Services also has restrictions when it comes to the number of asses you can have. However, with various grant funding these guidelines tend to change, so it is best to contact one of the offices and they will be able to tell you if you are eligible or not.
About the History of Nevada Legal Services Inc
Before 1980 in the state of Nevada, there were only three small legal services; Clark County Legal Services based in Las Vegas, Washoe Legal Services based in Reno, and the Indian-Rural Legal Services based in Carson City.
All the above organizations receive their funding directly from the Legal Services Corporation. However, in 1980, the Legal Services Corporation decided that these three smaller programs were not as effective as they would have wanted, and it was not the correct way to serve the entire state of Nevada. This is when they decide to create a statewide program.
It took about a year to complete the entire process and in 1981 was when Nevada Legal Services came into operation.
Then in 1982, the Legal Services Corporation awarded the Nevada Legal Services funding. This caused troubles with the Washoe Legal Services who opted not to merge with the Nevada Legal Services. Washoe Legal Services decided to remain their own separate program, who will help the residents of Washoe County with their family law matters.
From 1981 to 1986, the Nevada Legal Services was the main legal organization in the entire state.
It was not until 1996, when the Congress passed a restrictive Legal Services Corporations regulation which forced the Nevada Legal Services to share their funding and staff with the newly re-established Clark County Legal Services.
As of today, the Nevada Legal Services continues to be one of the main legal organizations in Nevada. It is all because the Nevada Legal Services provides people with a variety of legal services to all the counties within the state of Nevada.
Each office that the Nevada Legal Services own, they will perform an outreach and intake schedule. They will travel to all of Nevada with their self-help clinics, provide direct assistance to those who need it, and hold legal seminars.
The Nevada Legal Services direct assistance can be anything from drafting up a will to being representation at hearings in the federal tribal, or state court.
Then in 2006, the Nevada Legal Services came up with their Senior Legal Helpline. The Senior Legal Helpline was made to help seniors that may be living in the rural areas of Nevada.
The Senior Legal Helpline is a toll-free number where seniors can call, and the staff can help provide legal advice. If the caller needs more than just the standard legal advice, the staff member can open a case in the closest office for them.
This Senior Legal Helpline is here for ALL seniors no matter what their income level is.
What They Do
The Nevada Legal Services will provide free legal assistance to their clients.
First and foremost, the Nevada Legal Services is a statewide, nonprofit public interest firm that is solely funded by grants that come from the Nevada Bar Foundation, Legal Services Corporation, along with other federal state, or private grants.
To be eligible to receive the Nevada Legal Services, will solely be dependent on your income level. You will need to keep in mind that we do not do criminal law cases, we only handle civil law cases.
The Nevada Legal Services provides the following services:
Consumer Issues
- Fair Debt Collection and Credit Reporting
- Bankruptcy
- Garnishment and Attachment Exemptions
- Collection Defense
Community Development
- Start a nonprofit or small business
Elder Law
- Nursing Home Issues
- Wills and Probate
- Medicare
- Evictions
- Garnishment
Family Law Matters
- Pro Bono Program
- Guardianship Matters
Government Benefit Denials
- Veteran’s Benefits
- SNAP (Food Stamps)
- Unemployment Benefits
- Medicaid/Medicare
- Temporary Assistance for Needy
- Social Security Disability
IRS Tax Disputes
- U.S. Tax Petitions
- Administrative Settlements
Native American
- Individual Civil Cases in Tribal Courts
- Assistance with Tribal Code Drafting
- Criminal Cases in Tribal Courts
- Jurisdictional Issues
- Wills and Probate
- Federal Trusts
Ryan White Part B
- Employment Law
- Government Benefit Denials
- Discrimination
- Consumer Issues
- Limited Family Law
- Record Sealing
- Estate Planning
- Housing
- Name Changes
Subsidized Housing and Mobile Home Parks
- Evictions
- Termination of housing assistance
- Denial of housing assistance
Tenants’ Rights Center
- Families Habitability Issues
- Tenant Evictions
- Damages Defense
- Deposit Returns
Veterans and Rural Services
- Mortgage Foreclosure Counseling
- Evictions
- Collection Defense
- Denial of housing assistance
- Bankruptcy
Clark County Family Law Self-Help Center
First and foremost, the self-help center is operated under the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada and has been in constant operation since 1999.
Every month the self-help center helps thousands of people who represent themselves in their own family court proceedings by providing these individuals with legal information, legal materials, and helpful family court practice procedures. They do this by providing proper court forms and holding informational programs and classes.
You should know that the self-help center will provide these services and programs to anyone who is self-representing themselves in family court, even those who are going to be on the opposing parties side.
You should also note that the self-help center does not have ANY attorney-client privilege between you and the center. The self-help center will not provide you legal advice either, they will only provide you with accurate resources and information.
Where is the Clark County Family Law Self-Help Center Located?
You can find the Clark County Family Law Self-Help Center nestled on the first floor in the Family Courts and Services Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The Clark County Family Law Self-Help Center is open for operation from Monday through Friday between the hours of 8 am to 4 pm.
The Clark County Family Law Self-Help Center will assist walk-in consumers on the first come first served basis. The Clark County Family Law Self-Help Center will not provide you with any assistance over email or telephone. But if you need recorded information you can call 702-455-1500 for that.
What They Do & Do Not Do
The Clark County Family Law Self-Help Center main mission is to educate individuals, provide legal forms, give out community referrals, and provide other support services to those looking to represented in family court in the Clark County area no matter of his or her income, citizenship or assets.
The Clark County Family Law Self-Help Center will provide these following services to those looking to represent his or herself:
- Provides Educational Materials
- Provides Legal Information
- Provides Training Regarding Family Court Rules
- Provides Training Regarding Family Court Procedures
- Provides Education on Family Law Topics
- Provides Help with Completing Legal Forms
- Provides Resources (whether they are non-legal or legal)
- Offers an Ask-A-Lawyer Program
- Provides Information and Forms on their website (guardianship, divorce, name changes, custody, etc.)
The staff here at the Clark County Family Law Self-Help Center are not permitted to give you legal advice. Staff members will not be permitted to tell you if you should or should not file a case, what you should file, or even recommend you a law firm or a certain attorney. Staff members are prohibited from giving you any opinions on your case or go as far as to predict how the judge of the case may rule.
All staff members here at the Clark County Family Law Self-Help Center are to remain neutral.
The information that you will get from the Clark County Family Law Self-Help Center is not to be taken as legal advice that you would receive from an attorney whatsoever. The Clark County Family Law Self-Help Center will encourage you to speak to an attorney prior to taking any sort of legal action.
About the Ask a Lawyer Program
The Clark County Family Law Self-Help Center holds every Thursday their “Ask a Lawyer” program between the hours of 2 pm to 5 pm.
This program will allow you, a free 15-minute consultation about your family law matters. You cannot bring your children to this consultation and the consultations will begin directly at 2 pm.
To register for this program, please call 702-386-1070 ext. 1731.
Washoe Legal Services
Washoe Legal Services is commonly referred to as WLS for short.
Washoe legal Services was founded in 1965 in reno, Nv. It is a non-profit legal aid organization. Washoe Legal Services believes that the justice system was put into place to protect the rights of every citizen, not just those who have the money to hire an attorney or lawyer such as Jennifer Garcia.
In the year of 2016, Washoe Legal Services assisted more than 7,000 individuals with legal help. Within these people that were assisted 282 were adult guardianship cases, 982 foster children cases, and 307 domestic violence victims.
About Washoe Legal Services
Washoe Legal Services strives to have everyone in the community to have access to legal help. It should not matter if they are elderly, indigent, immigrants, children, victims of various crimes, or disabled. Everyone should have access to legal help when needed.
No woman should ever feel stuck in an abusive relationship, no elderly couple should ever feel like their voice is not heard, immigrants should be able to work, and children should have a voice as well. This is exactly why Washoe Legal Services wants to ensure all these individuals from all walks of life have the tools they need to have their voice heard loud and proud.
Many of the people that the Washoe Legal Services handles come to them out of desperation. They have no one else to turn to, they feel forgotten, powerless, worthless, and even irrelevant.
Washoe Legal Services tries to empower everyone that walks through their door. They want to make it out that you have a voice, even if you may not feel like you do. They do not care, if you do not even have a penny to your name.
They want you to feel as if you matter and that you can certainly take control of the situation you are in, even if you feel like it is taking control over you.
If you or someone you know needs a safe place to go and talk about legal matters, Washoe Legal Services is the place to go.
How Can I be Eligible for Washoe Legal Services?
Washoe Legal Services has a pretty strict eligibility criterion you must fit in to be permitted to use their services. The criteria will be based on a few things, but as a rule it will go by the following:
Income
If your income comes in below the 200% of the federal poverty guidelines, you will be heavily prioritized.
But, if your income is at or above this income threshold, do not fear you may still be eligible for some services. You will not be eligible for all services, but some services will still be open to you, so it is better than nothing.
You will need to contact the Washoe Legal Services directly to see what services you will be eligible for.
Assets
Washoe Legal Services will consider all your assets. This will include your cash, your property, and anything else of value you may own.
If you have a decent amount of assets, you should not fear, there really is not any asset limit here as of today.
Immigration
If you are an immigrant, do not worry. Washoe Legal Services does not care about your immigration states when they are accepting or rejecting applications. Apply no matter what your immigration status is. You are welcomed here.
Age
There will be some programs that Washoe Legal Services offers that are only offered to the seniors. If this is the case, seniors are going to be people who are over the age of 60 years.
What They Do at Washoe Legal Services?
As we have previously mentioned prior, Washoe Legal Services offers a wide variety of legal services and programs. Below we are going to list what services can be found here at the Washoe Legal Services and what they entail.
Adult Guardianships & Seniors
In the case of adults who in this sense would be the protected person because they are under the protection and jurisdiction of a guardian.
Washoe Legal Services will ensure that this adult will have their rights respected and have the chance to refuse guardianship petitions, if they so choose.
Child Advocacy
The Child Advocacy Program will be all about adoptions, guardianships for minors, and Child Protective Services cases as well.
Anything that has to do with a child, will be handled under this program at the Washoe Legal Services.
Domestic Violence
Washoe Legal Services will have Domestic Violence attorneys ready to protect the clients from any further domestic violence, by removing the financial and legal obstacles that stand in the way of people leaving these toxic relationships.
Washoe Legal Services will represent domestic violence survivors with their protection order proceedings, divorce cases, and even custody cases.
Washoe Legal Services also will have various community services and resources on hand for those who have been a victim of domestic violence.
Housing & Consumer Protection
Washoe Legal Services will also provide assistant to low-income families who are either facing eviction or foreclosure.
Washoe Legal Services will also help with consumer protection cases as well. These sort of cases and issues that will be in this program will be the following:
- Unsanitary living conditions
- Uninhabitable living conditions
- Evictions
- Housing discrimination
- Wrongful lockouts
- Turning off utilities
- Deceptive trade practices
- Consumer fraud
- Fair debt collection practices
Immigration
Washoe Legal Services will aid immigrants looking to either gain or maintain their legal immigration status.
This immigration program will focus on victims of domestic violence to get special legal protections. But this does not mean they will not help you if you are not a victim either. There will be a fee to use this service, but the fee will be discounted.
Services offered in the immigration program are as follows:
- Permanent Legal Resident Applications
- U-Visas
- Naturalization
- T-Visas
- Special Immigrant Juvenile Petitions
- VAWA Self-Petitions
Inmate Assistance
Washoe Legal Services will also aid inmates who are housed in the Washoe County Detention Facility with their non-criminal legal matters that need to be taken care of while they are in the facility.
However, you should know that the Washoe Legal Services does not directly represent inmates, but they will provide the inmates with legal resources. The services that can be provided to an inmate is only going to be about civil matters.
Washoe Legal Services will not be able to provide any representation or advice to the inmate’s criminal case.
Medical Legal Partnership
Washoe Legal Services Medical Legal Partnership will be about the social determinants of their health that puts on extreme hardships for the vulnerable population.
The healthcare staff is highly trained to triage and screen many of these legal issues that could have a negative impact on a person’s overall health.
All referrals will be made thanks to the Northern Nevada HOPES.
Self Help Center
Sadly, Washoe Legal Services wish they can represent everyone that walks in their door, but they do not have the manpower to do so. If you are a DIYer you can take advantage of the self-help center. The center will help you with everything you need to do from filling out forms to filing them. The self-help center is open to the general public for their walk-in services.
If you do not meet the above income guidelines, there may be a small fee to use this service.
What type of law does WLS practice?
If you are wondering if Washoe Legal Services covers the type of law you are looking for, look no further. Washoe Legal Services will help ONLY in civil matters, but they primarily focus on the following:
- Landlord/Tenant
- Child Advocacy
- Immigration
- Consumer Protection
- Guardianship
- Elder Law
- Family Law Involving Domestic Violence
- Estate Planning
Visit their official website: washoelegalservices.org