Vermont Legal Aid and Legal Services Vermont work together to provide free civil (not criminal) legal help to low-income people who live in Vermont. Our services are free.
Legal Services Vermont screens all requests for legal help. If we can help with a legal problem, we will refer you to lawyers and advocates at Vermont Legal Aid or Legal Services Vermont. We also might refer you to other programs.
We may be able to give you advice. We may be able to tell you where to find information to help you represent yourself in court.
We can’t help everyone who needs help. We may not be able to help you based on your income. We do not have enough lawyers to help everyone who asks us.
Problems we cannot help with and cannot reply to
We have limited funding and staffing. Unfortunately, that means we cannot help in all legal areas. Also, we may not be able to help depending on your situation.
We regret that if your case falls within any of the categories below, we will not respond to your request for help.
Instead, follow the links to legal information we provide online. Or, follow this link to other possible help.
We cannot help you with:
We cannot help you if:
When you ask for our help
If you have a different kind of issue, use our form or phone number to ask for help from Vermont Legal Aid and Legal Services Vermont. You must be a Vermont resident or have a legal issue in Vermont. We will reply as soon as we can.
- Use the Legal Help Tool. Use our anonymous guide to finding legal information and fill out a form to ask for legal advice on problems that we might help with.
- Explore our web pages. Choose from the menu of legal and health care topics.
- Contact us and leave a message.
You may get the fastest response if you fill out our Legal Help Request Form at any time. If possible, include your email address and/or a phone number where you can get a text message. This will help us reach you.
Or, leave a message on our legal helpline at 1-800-889-2047 during these hours:
- Monday: 8 - 1
- Tuesday: 12:30 - 7
- Wednesday: 8 - 1
- Thursday: 12:30 - 7
- Friday: 8 - 1
If you contact us today, most people should expect to hear from us within about 7 to 14 days.
- Please look above to see if your problem is on the list of issues we cannot help with.
- Please look at the information on our website at VTLawHelp.org to see if your questions are answered here.
- If you have an urgent problem, please give us as much detail as possible, including important dates and deadlines.
- Please do not leave a second message.
- Look for a call back from a phone number that you may not recognize! Your caller ID might say 1-800-889-2047, Legal Services or VT Legal Aid.
We will call you back during regular business hours as soon as we can.
When you leave a message or use the online form:
- Tell us your name and phone number.
- Tell us the safest way to reach you and whether we can leave you a message, send an email or send a text.
- Tell us the best time to reach you. We make callbacks from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, except holidays.
- Give us a description of the problem. Let us know if it’s an emergency.
- Let us know if you received paperwork, court papers or a hearing date and what the dates are on those documents.
- Keep those documents nearby so we can talk about them when we call you back.
We may not be able to call you back right away, so don't wait until the last minute to contact us about an emergency!
