Central Jersey Legal Services

Central Jersey Legal Services, Inc. is a nonprofit law firm that provides free representation in civil cases to low-income people who live in Central New Jersey. Central Jersey Legal Services has provided legal help to Central Jersey Residents for more than 40 years. If you have a legal problem and cannot afford an attorney, we may be able to help. Our attorneys and paralegals can help you understand your legal rights and explain what actions you can take to solve your problem.

Free Legal Services for Central Jersey Residents

If you live in Mercer, Middlesex, or Union County and cannot afford a private attorney, call or visit one of our offices to find our more about how we can help. Central Jersey Legal Services has offices in Elizabeth, New Brunswick, Perth Amboy and Trenton. We have more than 40 attorneys and 20 paralegals that specialize in Housing, Family, Consumer, Senior and Disability, Education, Labor and Health Law. Our support staff will introduce you to our services, determine whether you are eligible for our services, and be an important point of contact for you during your case. There are also approximately 300 private attorneys who have volunteered their time and expertise to provide legal services to eligible clients free of charge. Each of our offices has bilingual staff to assist people who speak languages other than English.

Our Services

Our case handlers provide legal advice and representation in many kinds of civil cases. The most common types of cases that we handle are:

Housing
Housing discrimination, eviction, rent collection, repairs, other landlord/tenant disputes, Section 8 and other public housing problems.

Welfare
TANF, General Assistance, Food Stamps, HEAP, Medicaid/Medicare, State disability and welfare overpayment collections.

Family
Divorce, child custody, child and spousal support, family reunification, DYFS actions, Restraining Orders and other support for victims of domestic violence.

Consumer
Bankruptcy, credit access, foreclosure, collections, unfair sales practices, utility shut-offs, and Anti-Predatory Lending.

Senior & Disability
SSI/SSD denial, termination or overpayment, wills, guardianships, advance directives, nursing home issues, institutional/residential mental health issues.

Special Projects
Our case handlers in special project areas can help if you:

are a victim of predatory lending;
are a victim of domestic violence;
have an employment law issue such as unlawful termination, employment discrimination, or wage dispute;
have an education law issue such as access to special education, expulsion, or bullying;
have problems with health care access, including issues with insurance coverage or refusal of service; or
have a family law dispute that involves the Division of Youth and Family Services.
have a chronic mental illness and need legal help with problems that involve entitlements, housing, consumer and family matters, or other problems like those listed on this site.

Limitations on Services

Central Jersey Legal Services receives money from several funding sources to pay for the cost of providing services.

As a condition of this funding, we can only provide services to people who have income or assets below certain limits. We therefore must ask for financial information from people who request our services before we can provide those services. In this way, only those people who can least afford to pay for an attorney will be served.

Unfortunately, the funding we receive is not enough to provide assistance to all residents of Central Jersey who are financially eligible. Therefore, we are forced to give some cases a higher priority than others. Depending on the type of problem you have, we may be able to help you right away, you may have to wait before we can assist you, or we may only be able to provide you with advice about your problem. However, if you contact us with a problem, we will try our best to assist you.

If we cannot provide you with legal services, we will try to refer you to other agencies where you may be able to get help.