Legal Aid Society of Hawai`i (LASH)

If you need assistance with a specific legal issue, please contact us for more information.  Call your local intake hotline number Monday-Friday, 9:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. and 1:00 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. You can also walk in to our downtown Honolulu office at 924 Bethel Street during intake hours.  Our staff will take a brief application to determine if you are eligible for our services.  If we can’t assist you, we will try to refer to someone who can.

LASH clients come from a broad range of financial backgrounds. LASH offers services to the following people:

Low-Income: LASH is traditionally known for helping people who are considered low-income (their income is at or below 125% of the federal poverty guidelines). In offering free legal services to the low-income people in our community, LASH focuses primarily on poverty law issues (family, consumer, housing, and public benefits law).

Moderate Income: LASH recognizes that many moderate income families in Hawai`i cannot afford to hire a private attorney, but make too much money or have too many assets to receive free legal services. As a result, LASH created its Affordable Lawyers project, which helps individuals and families of moderate means (those whose income is at or below 250% of the federal poverty guidelines). The Affordable Lawyers project offers limited legal services for a flat, reduced fee.  For more information, see the Affordable Lawyers Project section below.

Seniors: LASH offers free legal services to senior citizens (individuals age 60 and older) with their legal needs regardless of their income or assets. In assisting seniors with their legal issues, LASH focuses primarily on family law, consumer law, housing law, and public benefits law.

Others: Thanks to project-specific funding, depending on the legal issue LASH sometimes offers free help to people of any income or asset level. For example, individuals who want information on homeownership and foreclosures can receive free legal assistance no matter what their income or asset level is.

Affordable Lawyers Project

The Affordable Lawyers Project is a statewide project of the Legal Aid Society of Hawai`i. It offers quality low-cost legal services to persons who make too much money to qualify for Legal Aid's free services. Affordable Lawyers provides these services at very reasonable prices.

The Affordable Lawyers Project commonly handles the following legal issues: Chapter 7 bankruptcy, divorce, guardianship, adoption, changing a custody, visitation, or child support order, simple will, power of attorney, advance health care directive, name change, and more. Fees usually range from $50 to $500, depending on the type of service provided. To apply, call the Affordable Lawyers Project near you, or e-mail us at alawyers@lashaw.org: