English
EspañolThe Legal Referral and Information Service (LRIS) can give referrals to lawyers who have been screened and selected to provide competent, ethical legal advice and representation. This service is available to the general public, especially to Asian American communities. LRIS also hosts free legal clinics in Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn; the clinic calendar can be found at https://probono.aabany.org/.
Lawyer Referral Services
Updated:
October 28, 2015Below we list a few different lawyer referral services in New York state but there are many more. If you do not see your county represented below, you can find a listing of each county’s Bar Association Lawyer Referral Service on the American Bar Association website. If you are a victim of abuse, you may want to ask the Bar Association’s Lawyer Referral Service whether or not they screen for lawyers who are experienced in handling domestic violence cases. For a suggested list of questions to ask regarding the lawyer’s fees and experience when interviewing an attorney, go to our Choosing and Working with a Lawyer page.
Asian American Bar Association of New York (AABANY)
Legal Referral and Information Service (LRIS)
45 Rockefeller Plaza, 20th Floor
New York, NY 10111
Phone:
(718) 228-7206
Email:
LGBT Bar Association of Greater New York (LeGaL)
New York, NY
Phone:
(212) 459-4873 (Legal Helpline)
Email:
LeGaL sponsors a lawyer referral service directing clients to private attorneys in NYC who are sensitive to LGBT issues. They also offer several pro bono legal clinics devoted to serving the LGBTQ community.
Nassau County Bar Association Legal Referral Service
Mineola, NY
Phone:
516-747-4832
Email:
Can get an initial half-hour consultation with an attorney in Nassau County who is referred to you for $50. Bring all of your relevant paperwork to that meeting.
New York City Bar Association Legal Referral Service
42 West 44th Street
New York, NY 10036
Phone:
English (212) 626-7373
Phone 2:
Spanish (212) 626-7374
Email:
Provides lawyer referrals within the NYC metropolitan area. You can get referred to a lawyer who will provide you with an initial consultation for $35 that will last up to 30 minutes. (Consultations are free for the following legal matters: Personal Injury, Medical Malpractice, State Workers’ Compensation, Social Security Disability (SSD) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) claim denials.) They also offer free legal clinics on Monday nights where volunteer lawyers provide free consultations on the following topics: Employer and Employee Law, Divorce, Matrimonial and Family Law, Bankruptcy, Consumer Law, Landlord-Tenant, Small Business Matters. To sign up, see here: http://www.nycbar.org/get-legal-help/our-services/monday-night-law/ To see other services offered, go to: http://www.nycbar.org/get-legal-help/our-services/
New York State Bar Legal Referral Service
1 Elk Street
Albany, NY 12207
Phone:
1 (800) 342-3661
Email:
Provides referrals to attorneys who will provide you with a half-hour consultation for $35. (Free consultations are given for personal injury, social security, medical malpractice, veteran’s and military law, unemployment or workers’ compensation.) Our service covers the following counties: Allegany, Cattaraugus, Cayuga, Chautauqua, Chemung, Chenango, Clinton, Columbia, Cortland, Delaware, Essex, Franklin, Fulton, Genesee, Greene, Hamilton, Herkimer, Jefferson, Lewis, Livingston, Madison, Montgomery, Niagara, Oneida, Ontario, Orleans, Oswego, Otsego, Rensselaer, St. Lawrence, Saratoga, Schenectady, Schoharie, Schuyler, Seneca, Steuben, Tioga, Tompkins, Ulster, Warren, Washington, Wayne, Wyoming, and Yates. We do not serve the following counties but you can find local referral services for those counties: Albany, Bronx, Brooklyn, Broome, Dutchess, Erie, Monroe, Nassau, New York, Onondaga, Orange, Putnam, Queens, Richmond, Rockland, Suffolk, Sullivan, and Westchester.
The Suffolk County Bar Association Legal Referral Service
560 Wheeler Rd.
Hauppauge, NY 11788
Phone:
631-234-5577
Fax:
(631) 234-5899
Email:
You can get a referral to a lawyer by completing their online form or by sending an email to the Lawyer Referral Service. When you have a consultation with the lawyer you are referred to, the lawyer will charge you no more than $25 for the first 30 minutes of the consultation. During the consultation, you and the lawyer can decide if you want to work together. If you hire the lawyer, the lawyer will charge you his/her regular fees for additional work.
