Legal Services | Iowa Legal Aid

Free legal assistance with civil legal problems involving basic necessities for low-income individuals in all 99 Iowa counties.  Assistance ranges from providing counsel and advice to representation before various agencies and courts.

Community legal education presentations offered, as well as over 20 printed booklets on various legal topics; a wide variety of legal education materials are also available on the website.

Legal services are provided in all civil legal areas, including:
Consumer/Finance – debt collection, repossession, garnishment, contracts/warranties, predatory lending, and public utilities (including utility disconnection or shut off notices).

Education – expulsion/suspension, special education, learning disabilities, school fees, access, vocational education, and student financial aid.

Employment - employment discrimination, wage claims, earned income tax credit, and taxes. 

Family – adoption, custody, visitation, guardianship, domestic abuse, human trafficking and exploitation, family violence (child abuse, elder abuse, battered women/men), including assistance with restraining orders, and child support.

Health – Medicaid, Medicare, government children’s health insurance programs, long term health care facilities, nursing homes, supplemental medical insurance, and hospital care.

Housing – federally subsidized housing, homeownership, real property, landlord/tenant, public housing, mobile homes, housing discrimination, foreclosures, forfeitures, and mortgage predatory lending practices.

Benefit Programs – ADFC/FIP, Social Security, food stamps, Social Security Disability (SSD), Supplemental Security Income (SSI), unemployment compensation, veterans benefits, FEMA, government benefits, and utility assistance applications.

Individual Rights – mental health, disability rights, civil rights, human trafficking, AIDS/HIV issues, assistive devices, and institutional confinement.

End of Life Planning – wills, living wills, advance directives, and power of attorney.

Drivers License.

Advocacy and legal assistance for people with disabilities, people with Alzheimer’s disease, people with brain injury, people with mental illness, children, migrants, and veterans.