Our Legal Assistance for Military Personnel program offers a limited number of referrals to volunteer attorneys and we also provide access to other legal resources for eligible veterans, active duty military personnel, as well as members of the National Guard and Reserve. Individuals must have legal issues that can be resolved by a Wisconsin lawyer and meet any applicable income requirements.
Generally, free legal assistance is only available to households that qualify as low income.. If your income is too high to qualify for free legal help, reduced cost assistance may be available.
You can ask a civil legal question and get free legal advice about Wisconsin law anytime through Wisconsin Free Legal Answers.
Be sure to check the legal resources listed under Other Resources below.
What kinds of issues do we help with?
Volunteers may be able to provide eligible individuals with free legal assistance on some civilian legal issues. Referrals for family law issues are done on a very limited basis with the first priority given to cases that affect or result from military service. Other areas of law that we may be able to help with include:
- tenant-landlord
- residential real estate
- debts and bankruptcy
- guardianship (adult or child)
- employment/unemployment
- simple wills and powers of attorney
We do not do referrals to volunteers for routine family law (custody, placement, divorce), criminal law, VA benefits, personal injury or medical malpractice claims. We cannot guarantee that a volunteer will be able to help with your legal issue. Depending on your income, the lawyer may charge for the assistance they provide.
Request Help
Your first stop should be Wisconsin Free Legal Answers. It's a free online legal clinic where you can post your request for legal advice about any civil (not criminal) law topic. In addition to answering your questions, volunteers can also refer you to helpful legal resources.
If you find that you need more help than can be provided through the brief advice in Wisconsin Free Legal Answers, then the our reduced cost Modest Means referral program may be able to help.
If you earn too much to qualify for a reduced cost referral through the Modest Means program, then you can request a regular Lawyer Referral attorney here.
You should also review the additional legal resources listed under Other Resources below.
Other Important Information
Volunteers work with low income service members on civilian legal issues only. Our volunteers do not handle issues related to military law, military discharges or open cases that are being handled by a military legal assistance office. We are also unable to help with family law issues at this time.
We will make our best efforts, but we cannot guarantee that a volunteer attorney will be available to help you. We rely on private attorneys who volunteer their time to help people who qualify for assistance through this project. In many instances, we may only be able to provide a referral to another resource.
