How to Get an Attorney's Help with a Reduced Fee

We all know that attorney’s services are quite expensive. At this I want to show options to the people who have income and can pay, at least partly, for services of an attorney.

For those who have some funds available, there are four options.

1. Moderate Means Program. More information could be found here. To be eligible for the MMP, you must have issues related to family, consumer or housing law and your household income must fall between 200% - 400% of the federal poverty level.

Federal poverty levels could be found here. For a household with 1 person, the FPL is $12,410 annually. 200%-400% constitutes $24,280 - $48,560.

Please note that unless your income is very close to the poverty level, you will not receive free legal services but attorney’s fee will be reduced.

2. For family law issues, you can use limited license legal technicians. I wrote about them in one of my previous posts here. More information can be found here.  
They cannot represent you at the court hearings, but they can consult and advise you, complete and file all legal paperwork, help with court scheduling, and explain court rules to you.

3. For real estate matters, you can consult a limited practice officer. More information is found here . “A LPO is licensed to select, prepare, and complete approved documents for use in closing a loan, extension of credit, sale, or other transfer of real or personal property.”

4. For family law matter, in King County there are also Family Law Facilitators. More information could be found here. 

They help only with specific legal actions and only people who are not represented by an attorney. But they do not give legal advice you help you fill out legal forms. They also charge $30 per visit.

5. There are also self-help materials available here. They provide not only forms but also instruction on how to fill them out and what to do next.

It is important to understand that those materials are limited and rather general. Naturally, they do not give you any legal advice and do not help you to analyze the law applicable to your situation.

Additional help is available free of charge (pro bono) at 211 Legal Referral and Information Hotline here. You can call them at 211  from Monday through Friday from 8 am to 6 pm in the King County.

The other option is to talk to me. I do not provide pro bono help but I can reduce my fee, if necessary, or we can discuss a payment plan that will work for you.