About Legal Aid for Women
Legal aid in the United States is delivered through Legal Services Corporation (LSC)-funded nonprofits, law school clinics, pro bono panels, and court self-help centers. Most programs serve women at or below 125–200% of the Federal Poverty Level and handle family law, housing, public benefits, immigration, and protective orders. The American Bar Association's Commission on Women in the Profession and the National Women's Law Center supplement local services. For women, the most common legal aid needs are custody, divorce, child support, VAWA-based immigration relief, and DV protective orders — all areas LSC grantees regularly handle. This directory aggregates state legal aid offices, women's legal clinics, and bar referral panels.
15 Resources
VLSH operates the state's largest pro bono attorney panel, matching low-income women on Oahu, Maui, Hawaii Island, and Kauai with volunteer lawyers who handle full representation in family, housing, and consumer cases. The Queen Street intake office screens by phone first — call 808-528-7046 weekdays 8am to 4pm and have your most recent tax return or benefit letter on hand. Cases are reviewed weekly by the placement committee.
808-528-7046 · 545 Queen St Suite 100, Honolulu, HI 96813 · Mon-Fri 8am-4pm · Visit Website
UH Manoa's Richardson Law School runs supervised student clinics on the Dole Street campus including a Family Law Clinic, Native Hawaiian Rights Clinic, and Immigration Clinic — all open to qualifying women at no cost during the fall and spring semesters. Call 808-956-6545 to learn which clinic is currently accepting intake. Cases are handled by 2L and 3L students under faculty attorney supervision and can include full court representation.
808-956-6545 · 2515 Dole St, Honolulu, HI 96822 · Mon-Fri 9am-5pm (semester) · Visit Website
Run by the ABA in partnership with Legal Aid Society of Hawaii and VLSH, this portal lets a qualifying mother post a specific civil legal question and receive a written answer from a Hawaii-licensed volunteer attorney within a few days. Best for one-off questions — what does this court notice mean, how do I respond to a motion — rather than ongoing representation. Free account; income screen runs at signup.
Online Service · Online 24/7 · Visit Website
Disability Rights Hawaii is the federally designated Protection & Advocacy agency for the state, and its Bishop Street office handles cases where a woman with a disability — physical, intellectual, or psychiatric — has been denied housing, employment, education, or Medicaid services. Call 808-949-2922 Mon-Fri 8:30am to 4:30pm. Common case types include IEP disputes, ADA accommodations at work, and Med-QUEST denials. Free for clients with qualifying disabilities.
808-949-2922 · 1132 Bishop St Suite 2102, Honolulu, HI 96813 · Mon-Fri 8:30am-4:30pm
NHLC has represented Native Hawaiian women, families, and communities since 1974 on matters tied to kuleana lands, DHHL homestead waitlists, water rights in traditional ahupua'a, and access to wahi pana sacred sites. The Bishop Street office takes intake by phone at 808-521-2302 — staff prioritize cases that protect Native Hawaiian cultural and property rights. Open weekdays 8:30am to 4:30pm.
808-521-2302 · 1164 Bishop St Suite 1205, Honolulu, HI 96813 · Mon-Fri 8:30am-4:30pm · Visit Website
The Access to Justice Commission, housed within the Hawaii State Judiciary, doesn't take individual cases but it funds and coordinates every legal aid program in the state — meaning their staff at 808-539-4860 know exactly which intake line is currently open and which has a waitlist. Call when a mother has been told one program is full and she needs to know the next door to knock on. Weekdays 8am to 4pm.
808-539-4860 · Honolulu, HI · Mon-Fri 8am-4pm · Visit Website
LSC is the congressionally funded grantmaker that underwrites Legal Aid Society of Hawaii. Their public site lets a woman confirm she is reaching the official LSC-funded program rather than a scam referral, and it explains the federal 125% poverty income cap that applies to most LSC-funded family law cases nationwide. Useful background before a Hawaii intake call.
Nationwide · Online · Visit Website
LawHelp.org's Hawaii landing page pulls together every free legal resource in the islands — Legal Aid, VLSH, Richardson clinics, neighbor island self-help centers, and the Disability Rights office — into one searchable list filterable by legal issue. A mother can identify whether her problem is family law, housing, or benefits-related and pick the right intake number without trial and error.
Nationwide · Online
The ABA's Free Legal Help portal is the national umbrella behind Hawaii Free Legal Answers and is the right place to look when a mother needs help with a federal issue — immigration, Social Security disability, federal student loans — that local Hawaii legal aid may not staff in-house. Searchable by topic and state.
Nationwide · Online · Visit Website
Pro Bono Net hosts the back-end technology behind LawHelp Hawaii and Hawaii Free Legal Answers, and its public site includes self-help packets and form-completion tools a mother can use for routine matters like name changes after divorce, fee waivers, and pro se appearance forms. Free at probono.net.
Nationwide · Online · Visit Website
Justia's directory cross-lists every legal aid office, law school clinic, and pro bono panel in Hawaii alongside the full text of the Hawaii Revised Statutes. The combination is useful for a mother who has already identified the statute she needs to cite and now wants to find the closest organization that handles that case type. No registration required.
Nationwide · Online · Visit Website
WomensLaw's lawyer-finder is built specifically for survivors and includes filters for attorneys who handle TROs, divorce from abusive partners, and immigration relief like VAWA self-petitions and U-visas — all relevant in Hawaii where the Domestic Violence Action Center makes regular referrals. Bilingual English-Spanish.
Nationwide · Online · Visit Website
NCADV's legal advocacy hub explains state-by-state how protective orders work, and the Hawaii section walks a mother through filing a TRO at any Family Court division across the four judicial circuits, what evidence to bring, and how the temporary order converts to a permanent one after a hearing. Free online, available 24/7.
Nationwide · Online · Visit Website
Stateside Legal is a useful entry point for women veterans living on Oahu near Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam or transitioning out of Schofield Barracks who need help with VA claims, discharge upgrades, or family law issues complicated by deployment. The directory cross-references Hawaii legal aid programs that prioritize military and veteran intake.
Nationwide · Online · Visit Website
The DOJ's directory lists every Hawaii nonprofit recognized by the Executive Office for Immigration Review — useful for a mother filing a green card petition, naturalization application, asylum case, or VAWA self-petition tied to abuse by a US-citizen or LPR spouse. Searchable by Honolulu and neighbor island offices.
Nationwide · Online · Visit Website