You may qualify for a free lawyer if you meet the income requirements. Fill out a Declaration of Financial Status (Criminal) 1001CR and bring it to your court hearing
Finding Legal Help
You have options when you are facing a lawsuit. A lawyer (sometimes called an attorney) is a professionally trained and licensed person who advises you about your legal rights, prepares legal documents, and represents you in court or before government agencies.
This page can help you see if you qualify for a free court-appointed lawyer or explore other free legal options. It also provides resources for hiring a private lawyer on a budget, hiring a licensed paralegal practitioner (LPP), or representing yourself.
🔍 Need to find a lawyer or see if someone is a real lawyer?
You can use the Utah State Bar's Licensed Lawyer website. Choose Search by Legal Category to find a lawyer who handles your specific type of case. You can also use Search ALL attorneys by Name to verify that a person is legally allowed to practice law in Utah. Court staff cannot recommend specific lawyers.
What are you trying to do?
Court-Appointed Lawyers
Most people do not get a court-appointed lawyer. A court-appointed lawyer is a public defender or volunteer attorney assigned by a judge only if you prove you cannot afford to hire your own and your legal issue falls into one of these categories:
Utah Code 78B-22-201, Utah Code 78B-22-201.5, Utah Code 78B-22-202, and Utah Code 78B-22-203
You may qualify for a free lawyer. Ask for one at your court hearing
You may qualify for a free lawyer if you meet the income requirements. Fill out a Declaration of Financial Status - 1200JU and bring it to your court hearing
You may qualify for a free lawyer if you meet the income requirements. Fill out a Declaration of Financial Status - 1200JU and bring it to your court hearing
You may qualify for a free lawyer if you meet the income requirements. Fill out a Declaration of Financial Status - 1200JU and bring it to your court hearing
You may qualify for a free lawyer if you meet the income requirements. Fill out a Declaration of Financial Status (Criminal) - Declaration of Financial Status (Criminal) PDF Form | Fillable Form and file it along with your Motion to Intervene
You may qualify for a free lawyer. If you were appointed a free lawyer in your case, you have the right to a lawyer to help you with your appeal.
If you don’t have a lawyer, the court will appoint one for you. Lawyers are volunteers. If the court can’t find a volunteer to represent you then you might have to proceed without a lawyer.
If your case is not listed above, the court cannot assign a lawyer to you. However, you can still seek free help through legal aid or legal clinics, hire a private lawyer or licensed paralegal practitioner, or represent yourself.
More Ways to Get Help
If you don’t qualify for a court-appointed lawyer, explore other ways to get help below:
Court programs, legal aid, and volunteer clinics offer free legal help.
Some courts have "pro se" ("pro say") calendars where lawyers represent people for free at court hearings. But there are some limitations:
- Help is limited to the hearing - after the hearing you will represent yourself
- You must already have an open case and be scheduled for a hearing on the pro se calendar
- Help is only for a few types of cases and at a few court locations
Look at the list of Utah Pro Se Calendars to see if your case qualifies. If you qualify, attend the hearing and follow any instructions to get help.
There are some agencies that will represent you for free even if you are not entitled to a court-appointed lawyer. All of these organizations have restrictions on how much help they can provide, and many limit their help based on your income. See the Agencies and Organizations web page for more information.
There are also some agencies that will offer free advice, but not representation. Some of them also have income limits. See the Legal Clinics web page for information on free legal clinics where you can talk to a volunteer lawyer for free to receive limited advice.
When you hire a lawyer, you can pay them to handle your whole case, do part of the work, or adjust fees based on your income. You can also hire a Licensed Paralegal Practitioner (LPP) for help with specific legal matters. Explore your options below:
Instead of paying a lawyer to take care of everything from beginning to end, you can hire a lawyer to do only specific jobs for a predetermined fee. For example, the lawyer and client could agree that the lawyer will:
- only advise the client about the strength of the case, or
- help draft a document, or
- review a document the client has drafted, or
- coach the client for a negotiation, or
- help with the discovery process, or
- coach the client for a hearing, or
- appear in court on behalf of the client for one hearing only, or
- any combination of these kinds of services
You can find lawyers willing to provide limited legal help by using the Utah State Bar's Licensed Lawyer website. Look under the Payment Options section in the search filters and check the box for Unbundled Services.
Some lawyers charge a sliding scale fee based on your income. This means how much you pay depends on how much you earn. Some lawyers will also provide a free consultation. Others will charge a flat fee for services. You can search for lawyers by payment options using the Utah State Bar's Licensed Lawyer website. Choose Search by Legal Category, then choose Payment Options and search options you want.
A licensed paralegal practitioner (LPP) is a professionally trained and licensed person who helps people with legal problems. They advise people about their legal rights and options and prepare legal documents in debt collection, family law and landlord-tenant cases. You can read more about what LPPs can and cannot help with on our Licensed Paralegal Practitioner page.
You can look for an LPP using the Utah State Bar's directory. Click the option for Licensed Paralegal Practitioners. You can ask if your LPP is willing to provide unbundled services, free consultations, a flat fee or other options.
If you do not qualify for a lawyer or cannot afford one you can try representing yourself using these resources.
The Utah State Courts Self-Help Center provides free legal information to people who do not have a lawyer. Self-Help Center attorneys can answer questions about court processes, help you find the right court forms, and explain how to fill them out. They cannot give you legal advice or represent you in court. You can contact them by phone, text, or email.
Go to the Self-Help Directory on the Utah Courts website to find topics such as divorce, eviction, or protective orders. Self-Help pages help you understand your options, explain basic court processes, and link directly to related forms.
You can also use MyPaperwork, our free online interview tool that walks you through answering simple questions to automatically generate your court forms in some kinds of cases.
If you need to look up court rules, court cases, or specific state laws, law libraries offer free access to legal books and online research tools when you visit in person. Law library staff can't give you legal advice, but they can show you how to use their resources. You can visit these law libraries in Utah:
- Utah State Law Library: Matheson Courthouse, 450 South State Street, Salt Lake City. 801-238-7990.
- James E. Faust Law Library: 383 South University Street, University of Utah, Salt Lake City. 801-581-6184.
- Howard W. Hunter Law Library: Brigham Young University, J. Reuben Clark Law School, Provo. 801-422-3593.
If you have a problem with a lawyer or Licensed Paralegal Practitioner (LPP), these programs can help depending on your situation:
Start with the Utah State Bar's Consumer Assistance Program (CAP) if your lawyer or LPP won't return your calls, you need help getting your case file back, or you are having trouble working with them. CAP will work with you and your lawyer or LPP to help resolve the problem.
Resolves disagreements between clients and lawyers or LPPs about legal bills. Request help through the Utah State Bar's Fee Dispute Resolution Program.
The Utah Office of Professional Conduct (OPC) investigates complaints against lawyers or LPPs for breaking ethical rules, stealing funds, abandoning cases, or other serious misconduct.
Only lawyers and Licensed Paralegal Practitioners licensed by the Utah State Bar can practice law in Utah. Paralegals, notarios, immigration consultants and others may not give legal advice or otherwise practice law unless they are licensed lawyers or Licensed Paralegal Practitioners. You can use the Utah State Bar's Member Directory to see if someone is a licensed Utah lawyer or Licensed Paralegal Practitioner (LPP).
Supreme Court Rule of Professional Practice 14-802 defines the practice of law. The rule also says that giving clerical help to fill out court forms is not the practice of law if no fee is charged.
Utah law has strict rules to stop this, and to protect you if you hired someone who acts as a lawyer but doesn't have a license:
If you hired an unlicensed practitioner, you can sue them in court to get your money back and make them pay for any harm they caused.
If a judge finds that an unlicensed person filed paperwork in your case, the judge can throw those documents out. The judge must also order the unlicensed person to pay back any money spent on attorney fees and court costs.
The Utah State Bar can take unlicensed practitioners to court to force them to stop and make them pay fines.
Because practicing law without a license is illegal, local prosecutors or the Attorney General can investigate and file misdemeanor or felony criminal charges. Utah Code 78A-9-103
If you believe someone is practicing law without a license, you can report them on the Utah State Bar's Unauthorized Practice of Law web page.