Free legal aid in Wisconsin for evictions, restraining orders, benefit appeals, and debt
Most free legal help in Wisconsin now runs through a single statewide nonprofit law firm — Legal Action of Wisconsin, which absorbed northern Wisconsin's Judicare Legal Aid at the start of 2026 — plus a second, separate legal aid office serving Milwaukee County and a network of free county-level advocates. This page explains what those programs actually do, who qualifies, and how to apply. Between them they cover the civil problems that put low-income households at risk: eviction, abuse and harassment, custody and child support, benefit denials, debt collection, and utility shutoffs. This plain-English guide covers how legal aid may help with each.
Income limits are tied to the federal poverty guidelines and vary by program and case type, and Wisconsin gives people 60 and older an extra route: free, attorney-backed benefit specialists in every county's aging office, covered near the bottom of this page. Deadlines here are short and specific — five days on some eviction notices, fourteen to a restraining order hearing, forty-five on many benefit appeals — so the day a notice arrives is the day to act.
Eviction defense: the notice, the hearing, and the record
Wisconsin evictions start with a written notice, and the notice is where lawyers win cases. A first missed rent payment on a month-to-month or one-year lease requires a 5-day notice with the right to pay and stay; a 14-day notice with no second chance is allowed only in certain situations; leases longer than a year come with 30 days to fix a problem; and a 28-day notice can end a month-to-month tenancy without any reason at all. A legal aid attorney reads that notice first, because the wrong notice, served the wrong way, can get the whole case thrown out.
The court case itself is a small claims action with a hearing date a few weeks out. No written answer is required — showing up is the defense, and not showing up usually means an automatic loss. Only the sheriff can remove a tenant after a judgment; a landlord who changes the locks or shuts off heat is breaking the law, and legal aid treats that as an emergency.
Free eviction help is unusually well built out here. Legal Action of Wisconsin runs a court-based Eviction Defense Project in some counties, so a tenant may find a free lawyer at the courthouse itself, and the Tenant Resource Center answers renters' rights questions statewide at https://www.tenantresourcecenter.org. The legal aid can also be combined with rental assistance programs that some local charities may offer - see the Wisconsin rent assistance program page.
And because every eviction filing sits on Wisconsin's public court website (known as CCAP) for years — even when the case was dismissed — legal aid also works the record side: attorneys push for dismissals, and free tools and clinics exist to remove eligible eviction records so one bad month does not follow a family through every future rental application.
Restraining orders, custody, and child support
Wisconsin uses four kinds of restraining orders — domestic abuse, harassment, child abuse, and individual at risk, the last one built for older or disabled adults facing exploitation. A judge can issue a temporary order the same day you ask, without the other person present, and a full injunction hearing follows within 14 days, where the order can be extended for up to four years. There is no filing fee for domestic abuse or individual-at-risk orders.
That 14-day hearing is the moment for a lawyer, because the other side will be in the room. A legal aid attorney prepares the petition so it holds up, presents the texts, photos, and witnesses that prove the pattern, and asks the judge for the terms that matter — no contact, staying away from home and work, giving up firearms. Every county also has a domestic violence advocate agency that can help file and sit with you in court, and the state's step-by-step guide is at https://www.wisdoj.gov/Pages/CrimeVictimServices/restraining-orders.aspx. Anyone in immediate danger should call 911.
Legal aid also takes divorce, custody, and physical placement cases — placement is Wisconsin's term for where the children live — with priority for situations involving violence. The state enforces child support orders at no charge once they exist, but creating the order, or fixing one that no longer fits, happens in court, and that is the part a free attorney handles.
Benefit appeals: FoodShare, BadgerCare Plus, W-2, and Social Security
When Wisconsin denies or cuts FoodShare, BadgerCare Plus, Medicaid, child care assistance, or W-2 cash payments, the decision can be appealed to the state's Division of Hearings and Appeals — an office deliberately separate from the agency that said no. Most programs allow 45 days from the notice to ask for a hearing (FoodShare allows 90), and the notice itself lists your deadline. Asking before the change takes effect usually keeps benefits running until the judge decides, though they may have to be repaid if the appeal loses.
A legal aid attorney turns that hearing into a real contest — requesting the case file, assembling the proof the agency claimed was missing, and questioning the caseworker's math in front of the administrative law judge. The state's own decision notices say free legal services may be available for exactly this; take them up on it. Two wrinkles: W-2 requires a "fact finding" review with the W-2 agency before the state hearing, and Legal Action also handles Social Security and SSI cutoffs and overpayment notices, and may take disability denial appeals — ask at intake.
Denied unemployment benefits follow a separate track with its own short appeal window, and the Department of Workforce Development's own appeal materials point workers to legal aid for free help with those hearings.
Utility shutoffs and the November-to-April rule
Wisconsin has one of the strongest winter protections in the country, and it is worth stating plainly: from November 1 through April 15, a regulated utility cannot disconnect the service that heats an occupied home over nonpayment. A heat-related shutoff inside those dates is illegal, and a legal aid call or a complaint to the Public Service Commission may get it reversed quickly. The rule does not force a utility to reconnect a household that was already cut off before November — that takes a payment arrangement — and everything unpaid comes due when April 15 arrives.
The rest of the year, the leverage is procedural: utilities must offer deferred payment agreements to residential customers who cannot pay in full, and a disputed shutoff can be challenged at no cost with the Public Service Commission at https://psc.wi.gov. Legal aid attorneys step in when a shutoff threatens someone's health or skipped the required steps, and when the bill itself is the problem, Wisconsin's WHEAP energy assistance(see the NHPB guide to WHEAP in Wisconsin) is the companion piece to the legal fight.
Debt collection, garnishment, and money judgments
Ignore a debt collection lawsuit and the collector wins by default, which in Wisconsin opens the way to wage garnishment and frozen bank accounts. Many of these cases fall apart when someone fights back: the debt may be too old to sue on, the amount padded with fees, or the plaintiff unable to prove it owns the debt at all.
Legal aid attorneys file the answer, raise those defenses, and protect income the law says cannot be garnished, such as Social Security. In Milwaukee County, the Legal Aid Society of Milwaukee also defends foreclosures and handles employment, consumer, and tax matters; statewide, Legal Action covers debt and tax problems through the same intake line.
Where to apply for free legal aid in Wisconsin
Have income information and any court papers or notices nearby when you apply — intake takes about 20 minutes.
Legal Action of Wisconsin (statewide): call 855-947-2529, weekdays 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., or apply online any time at https://www.legalaction.org. This is the single statewide firm — it absorbed Judicare Legal Aid in 2026, so northern Wisconsin households and tribal members now use this same intake. Cases include housing, family law and restraining orders, public benefits and Social Security, debt and taxes, unemployment appeals, and dedicated help for veterans, farmworkers, Native Americans, and people leaving incarceration. Its SeniorLAW program serves Milwaukee County residents 60 and older regardless of income at 414-278-1222.
Legal Aid Society of Milwaukee (Milwaukee County): call 414-727-5300 or apply online at https://legalaidmke.com. Handles eviction and housing, foreclosure, government benefits, disability, employment, consumer problems, and civil rights, plus free clinics for clearing dismissed eviction records. We have a more extensive guide to the nonprofit - see the Legal Aid Society of Wisconsin page on this site.
County benefit specialists (every county): free, attorney-backed advocates who fight benefit and Medicare problems for adults 60 and older, with disability benefit specialists for ages 18 to 59. Find yours through your aging and disability resource center at 844-947-2372 or https://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/benefit-specialists/index.htm
Free clinics and self-help: the Marquette Volunteer Legal Clinics give brief free advice in the Milwaukee area (website: https://law.marquette.edu/mvlc), the Milwaukee Justice Center staffs help desks inside the county courthouse, and https://www.wislawhelp.org — built by Wisconsin's legal aid community — carries plain-language guides and forms for every topic on this page.
Also worth knowing: the State Bar of Wisconsin runs a Lawyer Referral Service at 800-362-9082 and a Modest Means Program for people just over legal aid income limits (website: https://www.wisbar.org). Wisconsin Free Legal Answers, part of a national American Bar Association project, answers posted civil legal questions at https://wi.freelegalanswers.org. Suspected abuse or financial exploitation of an older adult can be reported to Wisconsin's Elder Abuse Hotline at 833-586-0107. And for the food, rent, or utility emergency attached to the legal problem, 211 connects to local programs.
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