Legal Services of Northern Virginia

Help make equal justice a reality! We provide free legal assistance to low-income Northern Virginia residents with critical civil legal needs including domestic violence, child custody/support, housing, consumer and employment.

Why do we exist?

We provide free legal assistance to low-income residents of Northern Virginia who face the loss or deprivation of a basic human need, such as housing, health care, income, family stability and personal safety. The clients we serve cannot afford a private attorney. They are often in very desperate circumstances requiring the immediate assistance of an attorney.

What have you accomplished?

In 2000, we provided legal assistance to over 5,500 persons in Northern Virginia. An example of a local resident we helped last year is “Janet”. "Janet" is the mother of two children, ages five and eighteen months. For five years she had lived in a relationship in which her husband abused her. "Janet" went to court and filed for a protective order against the domestic violence. With the assistance of an attorney from Legal Services of Northern Virginia, the court granted “Janet" the protective order, custody of her children and child support.

At the time of this incident, "Janet" was unemployed, a virtual prisoner in her own home and in fear of losing her children. Today she has a full-time job and both of her children. She is independent and no longer living in fear.

Another example of a local resident we assisted last year is an 82 year-old woman who was living in a local nursing home. She was given a discharge notice from the nursing home for non-payment when she should have been receiving Medicaid assistance. After the Legal Services of Northern Virginia attorney visited her in the nursing home and investigated the case, he discovered that she had been improperly denied Medicaid coverage.

The attorney filed an administrative appeal, thus preventing her discharge from the nursing home, talked with officials from Medicaid and the nursing home, and later convinced the local Medicaid agency that she was eligible for coverage. As a result, the woman remains in the nursing home and her past due health care bills were paid by Medicaid. This is a case where an attorney’s assistance was critical.

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