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Free Legal Help Available for Survivors of New Mexico Severe Storm and Flooding

12/11/2024 – A free legal help hotline is now available for survivors of New Mexico Severe Storm and Flooding.

The hotline is available to connect survivors to free legal services in qualifying counties who cannot afford an attorney. Survivors can call 855-204-2569.    

Hotline callers may get help with legal issues like:

• FEMA and SBA financial benefits
• Home repair contracts and property insurance claims
• Re-doing wills and other important legal documents destroyed in the disaster
• Price gouging, scams, or identity theft
• Landlord or tenant problems, or threats of foreclosure
• Disability-related access to federal, state, and local disaster programs

Survivors can call the hotline anytime and leave a message if calling after hours.

Hotline partners cannot help in all cases. For example, we cannot take cases where a settlement could include legal fees or an award. But we can refer those cases to other legal help.

For up-to-date information on free legal services for survivors, media members can contact our partners in these languages: English, Spanish.

The Disaster Legal Services (DLS) program works with state and local partners to provide free legal help for low-income disaster survivors. The service is a partnership between the American Bar Association Young Lawyers Division, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and New Mexico Legal Aid.

Qualifying counties can be found at: https://www.fema.gov/disaster/4843/designated-areas#individual-assistance.

CONTACT:

Amanda Brown
Disaster Legal Services Program (DLS) Director
American Bar Association
Young Lawyers Division
amanda@lagniappelawlab.org