Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, Inc.

Who We Are

Texas RioGrande Legal Aid (TRLA) is a non-profit organization that provides free legal services to low-income residents in sixty-eight counties of Southwest Texas, and represents migrant and seasonal farm workers throughout the state of Texas and six southern states: Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas. In addition, TRLA operates public defender programs in several Southwest Texas counties, representing the poor who are accused of felonies, misdemeanors and juvenile crimes.

TRLA is the third largest legal services provider in the nation and the largest in the state of Texas.  TRLA serves approximately25,000 clients each year. However, over 2.6 million residents of Southwest Texas are considered eligible for TRLA services, a ratio of almost 21,000 potential clients per lawyer.

There are more than three dozen practice areas in which TRLA attorneys specialize including colonias and real estate, civil rights, environmental justice, labor and employment, public benefits, disaster assistance, federally subsidized housing, foreclosure, bankruptcy, wills and estates, border issues, human trafficking, international child abduction.

Program headquarters are in Weslaco, Texas with branch offices located throughout the state. TRLA also serves migrant and seasonal farmworkers in six southern states with its Southern Migrant Legal Services office in Nashville, Tennessee.

TRLA is funded in principal part by the Legal Services Corporation and the Texas Access to Justice Foundation. TRLA also receives smaller grants from a variety of federal, state and local agencies, foundations, and corporations. In addition, TRLA receives funding from the Texas Task Force on Indigent Defense to provide public defender services in criminal cases.

Texas RioGrande Legal Aid is recognized by the US Internal Revenue Service as a tax-exempt organization and contributions are tax deductible to the donor. For more information on how you can support TRLA click here.

Applicants for service and those wishing to refer clients to TRLA should call our toll-free hotline at 1-888-988-9996.

 

Eligibility

Career Phase:
  • No Requirement
Discharges Allowed:
  • No Minimum Discharge
Military Branch:
  • No Requirement
Programs for Family Members:
Service Counties:
  • Bastrop
  • Blanco
  • Williamson
  • Burnet
  • Caldwell
  • Hays
  • Travis
  • El Paso
  • Hudspeth
  • Atascosa
  • Bandera
  • Bexar
  • Comal
  • Frio
  • Guadalupe
  • Kendall
  • Medina
  • Wilson
  • Cameron
  • Hidalgo
  • Willacy
  • Calhoun
  • DeWitt
  • Goliad
  • Jackson
  • Lavaca
  • Refugio
  • Victoria
  • Aransas
  • Jim Wells
  • Kleberg
  • Nueces
  • San Patricio
  • Crockett
  • Edwards
  • Kinney
  • Sutton
  • Terrell
  • Val Verde
  • Dimmit
  • Duval
  • La Salle
  • McMullen
  • Jim Hogg
  • Webb
  • Zapata
  • Kimble
  • Gillespie
  • Kerr
  • Llano
  • Mason
  • Bee
  • Gonzales
  • Live Oak
  • Karnes
  • Brooks
  • Kenedy
  • Starr
  • Real
  • Maverick
  • Uvalde
  • Zavala
  • Brewster
  • Culberson
  • Jeff Davis
  • Pecos
  • Presidio
  • Reeves
Services Category:
  • Legal-Criminal and Vet Courts
  • Legal-Civil & Family Law
  • Legal - Discharge Upgrades
VA Disability Rating Requirement:
  • No Disability Requirement
Vet Plus:
  • No Requirement