Provides free legal assistance for low-income individuals who would otherwise be denied access to the legal system because of the inability to pay. Potential clients are screened to determine income and case eligibility. Referrals are made to local attorneys who volunteer their time. 

Provides legal assistance with the following: Family Law (includes family law class to anyone who is seeking help in having their family law court documents reviewed), Debtor-Creditor, Bankruptcy, Social Security/ Disability, Wills/Power of Attorneys, Guardianship, Landlord/Tenant, Child Support, Immigration, and Protection Order. 

* Does not assist with: Criminal matters (of any kind including traffic infractions), Termination of Parental Rights, or Adoptions.

Legal Assistance offered at Benton Franklin Legal Aid Society

Provides legal assistance with family law, will preparation, SSI, guardianship, power of attorney, protection orders, and credit issues.

Programs that help adults obtain an order from the police or the courts that protects them from abuse or threats of abuse from a current or former spouse, boyfriend/girlfriend, someone they have a child with, someone they live with or someone they are related to through blood or marriage. Included are emergency protective orders that police can obtain from the court to provide immediate protection to an abused family member for five to seven days until an application for a temporary restraining order can be made in court; longer-term temporary restraining orders issued in civil court that forbid contact with the protected person until the propriety of granting a permanent injunction can be evaluated; permanent or after-hearing restraining orders that make a short-term injunction granted in the temporary restraining order permanent (or specify the amount of time they will remain in effect); and criminal temporary protective orders which apply in situations where an abusive individual has been arrested and faces trial.

Domestic Violence Protective/Restraining Orders

Programs that provide assistance for people who are being evicted from their apartments or other rental property either wrongfully or with reason, e.g. nonpayment of rent. Included are programs that provide legal support in the form of information on tenants' rights, help to navigate the eviction process, and/or mediation services to negotiate a compromise between the individual and the landlord. Eviction prevention programs can also provide a Housing First approach and include various strategies designed to maintain individuals and families in their current housing, such as rent payment assistance, financial assistance with the cost of utilities, assistance securing other types of income support, third-party money management programs, and referrals to other types of community support.

Eviction Prevention Assistance

Programs that provide assistance for people who want to obtain custody of their children as a part of a divorce or separation action, who want to appeal all or a portion of the terms of a previous child custody decision, or in the case of a noncustodial parent, who want to establish or appeal the terms of a visitation award or a court-ordered visitation schedule. Included are programs that provide child custody/visitation assistance for people who are not legally married but have children together.

Child Custody/Visitation Assistance

Programs that help crime victims and/or witnesses obtain a protective order from the court which restrains an individual being tried for a criminal offense from harassing, molesting, intimidating or retaliating against witnesses or victims of a wide variety of criminal acts.

Crime Victim/Witness Related No Contact Orders

Programs that are staffed by lawyers who offer information and guidance regarding legal matters, proposed lines of conduct, claims or contentions including opinions on the party's rights, responsibilities and liabilities; and who offer suggestions for an appropriate course of action, but do not represent clients in court.

Legal Counseling

Programs that help older adults or younger adults with a physical or mental disability that impairs their ability to care for themselves obtain an order from the court that protects them from physical or financial abuse, neglect or abandonment, isolation, withholding by a caregiver of basic needs or services or harassment/stalking by a caregiver or other person. If the abuser is a spouse or partner, a child or grandchild or other close family member, the individual may also need a domestic violence protective/restraining order.

Elder/Dependent Adult Abuse Restraining Orders

Programs that provide assistance for prospective or current public financial assistance recipients who are having difficulty understanding and/or obtaining the full benefits to which they are entitled by law under various income support entitlement programs. The programs may help people understand the eligibility criteria for benefits, how much they can work without affecting their benefits (for some programs), the benefits provided by the program, the payment process and the rights of beneficiaries; provide consultation and advice; help them complete benefits application forms; negotiate on their behalf with public assistance benefits staff; and/or represent them in administrative hearings or judicial litigation. Included are welfare rights organizations that offer a range of advocacy services as well as legal aid programs that offer more formalized legal assistance. Entitlement programs include (but are not limited to) General Relief (GR), Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), Food Stamps/SNAP, Medicaid, Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI).

Welfare Rights Assistance

Programs that provide legal counseling and/or representation for low-income individuals who need assistance in routine legal matters, usually in the area of bankruptcy, housing, public benefits, family law, elder law or immigration/naturalization.

General Legal Aid

Programs that provide assistance on an individual or group basis for people who want to draft a Last Will and Testament which leaves instructions for the disposition of their property following their death and need assistance in ensuring that the document is properly written. Also included are programs that provide copies of the Last Will and Testament form that is valid in their jurisdiction.

Will Preparation Assistance

Programs that provide information and guidance for landlords who need to know their rights and responsibilities regarding leases and rental agreements, deposits, legal eviction procedures, rent control requirements and other issues that are of particular interest to landlords. Landlord rights counseling may also include assistance in completing forms, and advice regarding a particular dispute or regarding contact with offending tenants to notify them that they are out of compliance with landlord/tenant laws.

Landlord Rights Information/Counseling

Programs that provide assistance which helps to ensure that parents fulfill their mutual obligation to financially support and provide health care for their children. Included are services for people who want to locate an absent parent; establish paternity; establish a child support order; request that the non-custodial parent provide health insurance for a child in conjunction with a child support order; change the amount of a child support award; dispute a child support award; or enforce payment of child support monies in cases where the supporting parent is delinquent in paying or refuses to pay or make health insurance arrangements altogether. Child support is money paid by one parent to another for the maintenance, including the education, of their children following the dissolution of their marriage or other relationship. Non-custodial parents enrolled in an insurance plan at work may be required to include the child under this coverage while those not covered by any insurance plan may be required to obtain medical coverage, if available at a reasonable cost. Child support assistance/enforcement may be provided by private attorneys, legal clinics, family law facilitators' offices or child support enforcement programs which are available in all states, often as a component of the district attorney's office.

Child Support Assistance/Enforcement

Programs that provide assistance for people who want to draft a living will, also sometimes known as a personal directive, which describes in writing the forms of treatment individuals wish to receive or avoid at the end of their lives and the circumstances under which health care professionals should withhold or remove artificial life support or refrain from using heroic measures if the person is unable to provide informed consent due to incapacitation. The conditions in a living will take effect when the individual is in an irreversible condition and is not expected to survive, e.g., if they are in the last stages of a terminal illness, a coma or persistive vegetative state. Included are programs that provide copies of the necessary form as well as those that help people complete them. Not all states recognize the validity of living wills, but all have some mechanism such as a durable power attorney for health care which achieves the same objective.

Living Wills

Programs that provide assistance for people age 14 to 18 who are managing their own financial affairs, whose income is derived from activities not considered criminal, who are willing to live apart from their parents or guardians with their consent, and who want to petition the court to be considered over the age of majority. People younger than age 18 are automatically considered emancipated if they have entered into a valid marriage (whether or not the marriage was terminated by dissolution) or if they are on active duty with any of the armed forces.

Emancipation of Minors

Programs that provide assistance for women who want to initiate litigation to prove that a particular individual is the father of a given child and to enforce support obligations, or for men who want to establish that they are not the father of a particular child.

Paternity Suits

Programs that provide information and guidance for tenants who need to know their rights and responsibilities regarding leases and rental agreements, deposits, legal eviction procedures, measures to protect themselves from unlawful or retaliatory evictions, rent withholding rights, rent control requirements, privacy rights and other issues that may be of particular interest to tenants. Tenant rights counseling may also include assistance in completing forms, advice regarding a particular dispute and contact with the offending landlord to provide notification that she or he is not in compliance with landlord/tenant laws.

Tenant Rights Information/Counseling

Programs that help tenants and landlords resolve disputes regarding security and other rental deposits, unsanitary conditions, failure to make repairs, privacy, notice requirements, excessive rent increases, nonpayment of rent, neglect or damage to property, overcrowding or other grievances.

Landlord/Tenant Dispute Resolution

Programs that provide assistance for people who are initiating or responding to a suit for an annulment of their marriage, which establishes that a marital status never existed; a legal separation, which suspends the marriage so far as concerns the cohabitation of the two parties; or a divorce, which totally dissolves the marriage relationship. These programs may also discuss and represent the individual's interests regarding distribution of property assets and parenting issues regarding any children.