Legal Resources
The California Innocence Project is often asked to assist in matters that are outside of our scope of service due to the Project’s limited resources. Listed below are some resources that may assist an inmate or someone advocating on behalf of an inmate in various legal matters.
Immigration Law
Casa Cornelia Law Center
Provides pro bono legal services to victims of human and civil rights violations with a commitment to the indigent within the immigrant community.
Immigration Clinic (USD)
Helps clients with immigration-related issues.
Assistance for Low-Income Families and Individuals
Catholic Charities Diocese Assistance Programs
Supports low-income families and individuals who are trying to improve their living situation and who are working towards self-sufficiency.
Community Law Project
Provides free legal information in a variety of practice areas to low income and indigent communities throughout San Diego County.
Legal Aid Society of San Diego
Provides low-income clients with free civil legal assistance. Specialties include housing, debt collection, repossession, sales contracts, housing discrimination, family law, immigration, federal tax problems, CalWorks/CalFresh/general relief, conservatorships, restraining orders, and SSI.
San Diego Volunteer Lawyer Program
Provides free civil legal services to disadvantaged families, seniors, persons with disabilities, persons infected with HIV or AIDS, and domestic violence survivors.
Thomas Jefferson Small Claims Clinic
Provides free limited legal assistance for low to moderate income individuals and businesses with small claim issues.
Worker’s Rights Clinic (USD)
Assists lower-income workers with a variety of employment law issues.
Taxation Law
Federal Tax Clinic (USD)
Assists low-income taxpayers who have on-going disputes with the Internal Revenue Service.
State Income Tax Clinic-California (USD)
Under the supervision of an attorney from the California State Board of Equalization’s Taxpayers’ Rights Advocate Office, clinic students represent clients with Sales and Use Tax appeals before the Board of Equalization.
Youth Legal Services
Child Advocacy Clinic (USD)
Advocacy organization working to improve the lives of children and youth.
Think Dignity
Provides services for the homeless, including community legal education, and represents youth clients impacted by homelessness.
Other Types of Legal Resources
Center for Community Solutions
Aims to end relationship and sexual violence.
Civil Clinic (USD)
Law school clinic where students interview, counsel and represent clients at Superior Court or in administrative hearings in a variety of cases under the supervision of an adjunct professor/attorney.
Clean Slate Clinic
Provides free post-conviction legal assistance to individuals who continue to be affected by the criminal justice system.
Education and Disability Clinic (USD)
Specialties: School Discipline (Suspensions And Expulsions), Special Education Placement And Services, Regional Center and Early Start Services and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act.
Elder Law & Advocacy
Provides free and low-cost civil legal services, Medicare and Medicare-related counseling and advocacy, referrals to community senior service providers and community education.
Entrepreneurship Clinic (USD)
Law school clinic that provides transactional legal services targeting high technology business startups and other emerging growth companies.
Family Law Facilitators
Helps unrepresented parents and parties who have questions about family law issues, prepares court forms, and provides general legal information.
Jewish Family Service of San Diego
Provides a wide range of human services to empower people of all ages and faiths to reach their goals and build better lives.
Veterans Clinic (USD)
Represents veterans in disputes with a for-profit education company over the use of GI Bill® funds or related education loans, and provides free assistance navigating VA disability claims appeals and applying for a correct characterization of their military service discharge.
Immigration Law
Central American Resource Center
Helps secure legal status for Central Americans fleeing the torture and brutality of civil war.
El Rescate
Offers a wide range of services, from filling paperwork to calling government agencies.
Immigration Legal Assistance Project
Provides, for a nominal fee, legal assistance and counseling to all categories of low income persons.
Loyola Immigrant Justice Clinic
focuses on providing representation to individuals who are unable to obtain immigration legal services elsewhere with an emphasis on immigrants with certain immigration and criminal complications who reside in the East Los Angeles area.
Assistance for Low-Income Families and Individuals
Inner City Law Center
Provides legal services to the underprivileged on Skid Row and throughout Los Angeles County.
Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles
Provides legal assistance to low-income people.
Los Angeles Center for Law and Justice
Specializes in providing free legal representation in family, housing, and government benefits matters to Los Angles residents.
Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County
Provides free legal services to low-income residents of Los Angeles County.
Pepperdine University School of Law Legal Aid Clinic
Serves the homeless population of downtown Los Angeles.
Taxation Law
Legal Aid Society of Orange County
Provides free legal services, including tax services, to low-income individuals and seniors through its offices in Santa Ana, Anaheim, Compton, and Norwalk.
Youth Legal Services
The Alliance for Children’s Rights
Protects the rights and futures of abused and impoverished children throughout Los Angeles County
Other Types of Legal Resources
Asian Pacific American Legal Center of Southern California
Provides legal information, counseling and representation to individuals, especially those who speak little or no English, on the telephone or in person.
Bet Tzedek Legal Services
Provides free assistance to the most vulnerable citizens of Los Angeles County. Assists with AIDS/HIV, adoption, bankruptcy, elder law, and more.
California Rural Legal Assistance Inc.
Offers a variety of services and programs to California’s low-income communities.
Cancer Resource Center
Provides free information and resources on cancer-related legal issues to people with cancer, their families, friends, employers, health care professionals, and others coping with cancer.
Disability Rights Legal Center
Promotes the rights of people with disabilities and the public interest in and awareness of those rights by providing legal and related services.
Harriett Buhai Center for Family Law
Offers family law and domestic violence assistance to low-income families in Los Angeles.
Los Angeles LGBT Center
Offers a broad array of services, including legal services, for the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community in Los Angeles.
Mental Health Advocacy Services
Assists people with mental and development disabilities.
California State Bar
(415) 538-2000
Search for California attorneys by using the search bar on the left side of the page.
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Inmate Locator
(916) 445-6713
Search for someone in a California prison.
Northern California Innocence Project
(408) 554-1945
For claims where the conviction occurred in a northern California county.
Prison Law Office
Provides free legal services to adult and juvenile offenders to improve their conditions of prison confinement.
Send letters to Prison Law Office, General Delivery, San Quentin, CA 94964
Three Strikes & Justice Advocacy Project
Represents people serving “Three Strikes” and other unjust sentences.
Post-Conviction Justice Project
Advocates for clients at parole hearings, on habeas corpus in state and federal courts, at resentencing hearings, and in prison workshops.
International Human Rights Center
The International Human Rights Center’s work involves litigation of human rights violations before a wide array of international bodies, and advocacy and international policy-making on pressing human rights issues.
The Juvenile Justice Clinic
The Juvenile Justice Clinic at Loyola Law School provides holistic, client-centered advocacy for youth involved in the juvenile justice system.
Juvenile Innocence and Fair Sentencing Clinic
Provides representation to youth who have been wrongfully convicted and youth who are sentenced to unjustly disproportionate adult prison sentences.
Search for pro bono (free of charge) legal services.
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
Works to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed by the Constitution and laws of the United States.
Life Beyond Freedom
Provides resources, community, and education to the exonerated.
National Registry Database
Provides information on exonerations in the U.S.
Prison Policy Initiative
Produces research on mass criminalization and prisoner rights issues.