Does FEMA provide Legal Assistance?

FEMA provides free legal assistance to disaster applicants.  Legal advice is limited to cases that will not produce a fee because these attorneys work without payment.  Cases that may generate a fee are turned over to the local lawyer referral service.  The assistance that participating lawyers provide typically includes:  assistance with insurance claims (life, medical, property, etc.), counseling on landlord/tenant problems, assisting in consumer protection matters, remedies, and procedures, and replacement of wills and other important legal documents destroyed in a major disaster.  Disaster legal services are provided to low-income individuals who, prior to or because of the disaster, are unable to secure legal services adequate to meet their needs as a consequence of a major disaster. 

Please call FEMA at 1-800-621-FEMA (3362) (hearing/speak impaired ONLY – call 1-800-462-7585) or visit your local Disaster Recovery Center (DRC).  You can either go online to the FEMA website and type in your location information (http://asd.fema.gov/inter/locator/mobile.htm), you can download a mobile app onto your Smartphone (search for FEMA in app store), or you can text “DRC” and your zip code (DRCXXXXX) to 43362.