How we work
an integrated approach
Florida Legal Services advocates for vulnerable populations and their whole legal needs. Our attorneys practice in all of Florida's state and federal courts. We work on the most pressing and current issues faced by low-income and disenfranchised Floridians and embrace a Community Lawyering model of law practice.
We affect systemic change for:
Low-wage earners and disenfranchised job seekers
Immigrant children separated from their families
People in need of health access
Resolving Health Harming Legal Issues
Domestic violence survivors
Vulnerable seniors
Children with special needs and at-risk youth
People seeking safe, fair and affordable housing
Adults and children detained, jailed, or imprisoned in federal, state, and local institutions
Immigrant families and migrant workers
People facing discrimination based on race, disability, criminal history, history of domestic violence, gender identity, or sexual orientation
Eviction Prevention
Florida Legal Services is part of the Florida Legal Aid (FLA) Eviction Prevention Project, a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development initiative that provides crucial legal aid services to vulnerable residents across the state to protect them from evictions. The project also assists clients with access to public benefits and other recovery assistance, including emergency rental assistance, that can help prevent eviction and improve clients’ housing and economic stability. Click here for more information.
Immigrant & Migrant Rights Project
Florida Legal Services serves farmworkers and immigrant families Florida, including immigrant children separated from their families. We work with low-income immigrants and their communities throughout Florida facing the threat of deportation. We represent unaccompanied immigrant children in shelters across Florida. We also provide direct representation to immigrant victims of crime via humanitarian based immigration relief. Florida Legal Services assists migrant or seasonal farmworkers and temporary agricultural workers under the H-2A visa program. We also provide legal representation to temporary non-agricultural workers under the H-2B visa program and represent clients with work-related legal issues in federal and state courts or administrative proceedings, such as unpaid wages, violations of working and housing conditions, breach of employment contract matters, employment discrimination, and unemployment insurance. We work closely with community services organizations serving the farmworker and immigrant communities throughout Florida.
Florida Institutional Legal Services Project
The Florida Institutional Legal Services (FILS) Project is dedicated to protecting and advancing the rights of indigent people in state custody by providing high quality legal services. FILS also works to end mass incarceration in Florida and the reliance on the criminal justice system to resolve social issues. FILS represents juveniles, immigrants, inmates, prisoners and other detainees in a wide variety of state and federal institutions. Our advocates represent the institutionalized and the recently released in individual cases, class actions, and impact litigation. We educate the public about institutional conditions and provide technical assistance to other attorneys and advocates. Maximizing our relatively small resources, FILS litigates proactively to reform existing law. FILS strives to empower our clients, who enjoy the fewest protections and least access to legal resources.
Our Incarcerated Survivors Project serves individuals who have suffered sexual abuse or harassment while incarcerated in Florida’s state prisons, jails, and detention centers. We serve as a legal resource regarding the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA), offer legal advice and assistance through the reporting, grievance, and investigation process, and can assist with advocacy related to medical, mental health care, and other services for incarcerated survivors. We also work with community partners to help connect survivors with support and counseling services to help them heal.
The FILS Project also publishes the Florida Manual for Incarcerated Parents. This Manual is designed to help parents who are incarcerated in Florida prisons and jails understand their rights and responsibilities as parents. FILS encourages the widest distribution of this manual. You are welcome to photocopy or reproduce this material, but if you do, please copy the manual in its entirety and please do not charge a fee for the copies.
FILS creates reentry information packets, which are intended to assist incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals transition into society and their communities by providing a list of resources for each county in Florida.
Disrupting the School-to-Prison Pipeline: A Community Toolkit provides some practical and useful resources for youth, families, and allied community and advocacy groups working to reform our criminal justice system. School systems in Florida unfairly push thousands of youth out of school through harsh and exclusionary discipline policies that make normal and minor adolescent behavior a crime and have a disproportionate impact on students of color, children with disabilities, those who have experienced trauma, and who are LGBTQ. This toolkit is part of FLS’ community lawyering work where we follow the lead of our clients and impacted communities to develop solutions and build power in a shared vision for social, racial, and economic justice.
Domestic Violence Hotline
Our attorneys focus their efforts on advocacy for survivors of domestic violence or other crimes in non-intimate partner relationships, and human trafficking across the state of Florida. We provide advocacy, advice, brief services, and representation on various matters for survivors of domestic violence or other crimes and work together with advocates across the state in the delivery of services to survivors.
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Fair and Affordable Housing
Our Fair and Affordable Housing project works statewide to preserve affordable housing, support the creation of new affordable housing in areas of opportunity and to promote fair housing for vulnerable populations. Our advocates advance our priorities through legislative advocacy, collaboration with other community stakeholders, and impact and class action litigation.
Economic Opportunity
Our Economic Opportunity Project strengthens the economic opportunities of low-income and disenfranchised Floridians. We secure the safety net that protects vulnerable Floridians through effective and innovative systemic strategies to advance public policy and law. We believe that economic opportunity is the cornerstone to preventing poverty.
Children’s Advocacy
Our children’s advocacy project is dedicated to ensuring that all Florida’s children receive the opportunities, supports, and services they need to lead safe, healthy, and productive lives. Our advocates engage in strategic litigation, as well as legislative and administrative advocacy at both the state and federal levels, to advance the rights of children and youth and improve government systems and programs designed to serve children.
Connecting Kids to Coverage
Florida Legal Services is one of the 36 organizations in 20 states to be granted a Connecting Kids to Coverage HEALTHY KIDS 2022 Outreach and Enrollment Cooperative Agreement by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Centers for Medicaid & Medicaid Services (CMS). The FLS Connecting Kids to Coverage Project provides families and pregnant women with assistance applying for health care coverage through Florida’s KidCare and family-related Medicaid programs. The project provides both enrollment and renewal assistance to Florida’s families and engages in targeted outreach and education to reach families most at-risk of losing coverage or remaining uninsured despite being eligible. Click here for more information. Haga clic aquí para más información.