Connecticut: legal help you can afford
There is no public defender for a divorce in Connecticut, or anywhere else — the right to a free lawyer is a criminal-case right, and a divorce is a civil case. What exists instead is on this page, with the link to each one. Start with the fee waiver and the question of whether your spouse can be made to pay your legal fees, because those two are the ones people never think to ask about.
See a different stateConnecticut
The five things to try, in this order
Ordered by how much they are worth relative to how hard they are, not alphabetically.
- Ask about the filing fee waiver. In Connecticut it is called Application for Waiver of Fees (family matters). Form JD-FM-75. Filed for family law cases specifically; other case types use a different fee-waiver form per CTLawHelp’s guide.
- Ask whether your spouse can be ordered to pay your lawyer. Authorizes the court to order either party to pay the reasonable attorney’s fees of the other in a dissolution action, considering the respective financial abilities of the parties. (Conn. Gen. Stat. § 46b-62)
- Check the statewide legal-aid portal. CTLawHelp.org lists the program that covers your county and what it takes.
- Use the court self-help service. Connecticut Judicial Branch Self-Help. Self-help info for family matters, including divorce forms and fee-waiver how-to guides; also see ‘Information for the Self-Represented’ at jud.ct.gov/lawlib/SRP/representation.
- Try the bar referral service. County bar association lawyer referral services (e.g. Hartford County Bar Association, New Haven County Bar Association). $35 referral fee for a consultation; organized by county bar association rather than one statewide CT Bar Association referral line.
Legal aid in Connecticut
Legal aid organizations are funded to serve people under an income threshold, and family cases are one of the areas they most often take. Being turned down by one is not the end of it — the threshold, the caseload and the priorities differ by program and by month.
| Organization | Who it covers | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Connecticut Legal Services / Statewide Legal Services of Connecticut | statewide | Apply via phone 1-800-453-3320 or online; Statewide Legal Services of Connecticut also at https://slsct.org. |
Limited scope representation. You hire a lawyer for one piece — one hearing, one document, a review of an agreement before you sign it — and do the rest yourself. It costs a fraction of full representation and it puts a lawyer in the two or three moments that actually change the outcome. How it works, and where it is permitted.
What we could not confirm for this state
Listed rather than filled in. Every one of these is something we went looking for and could not stand behind.
- a law school family law clinic we could confirm is currently running
If you know one of these and we have it wrong or missing, tell us and we will check it and credit the correction.
Compiled 31 August 2026 from each organization’s own site, the state courts and the state bar. Legal aid funding and eligibility change, sometimes mid-year. Always check the link before relying on anything here. Corrections welcome.
Keep reading
- The national picture — fee waivers, unbundling, fee awards
- The Connecticut divorce kit — forms, fees and deadlines
- Doing it without a lawyer
- Questions to ask a lawyer
- What divorce costs
- What two households cost