Maryland Legal Aid

MLA handles civil (not criminal) cases involving a wide range of issues, including child custody, housing, public benefits, consumer law (e.g., bankruptcy and debt collection), and criminal record expungements to remove barriers to obtaining child custody, housing, and employment.

Many of MLA's local offices represent children in CINA (Child in Need of Assistance) proceedings. Other vulnerable populations, such as victims of abuse and domestic violence, seniors, migrant farmworkers, veterans, and nursing home and assisted living residents, also receive specialized representation. MLA’s services include representation before federal and state trial and appellate courts, brief advice and counsel, and referrals to other sources of assistance.

The Ryan White Project provides free legal services crucial to Maryland residents who are HIV positive or who have AIDS and live in Baltimore City or Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Harford, Howard, or Queen Anne’s Counties. Services are designed to provide peace of mind and enable individuals to focus on their primary struggle, free of discrimination - fighting the effects of HIV/AIDS and staying well.

Maryland Legal Aid’s Long-Term Care Assistance Project provides free legal assistance to help low-income people obtain long-term healthcare. Through this project, clients can get the services and supports they need, wherever they want to live, whether it is in their own homes, within the community through assisted living, or in nursing homes.

The Senior Legal Helpline is a free telephone service for persons living in Maryland, aged 60 years or older. Attorneys who staff the helpline provide legal advice, brief legal services, or a referral to another lawyer or to an appropriate public or private agency. By providing these services over the telephone, seniors can get help for their legal problems without having to leave home.

Maryland Legal Aid's Community Lawyering Initiative places highly-skilled lawyers directly in under-served neighborhoods to provide free, life-changing legal assistance. Attorneys also provide help with criminal record expungements to remove barriers to obtaining employment, affordable housing, and custody of children. The Community Lawyering Initiative includes a number of weekly and monthly expungement clinics coordinated and hosted in partnership with community organizations from around the state, as well as expansion of the Lawyer in the Library program to other library locations in Baltimore City, Baltimore and Montgomery counties.