Maryland: legal help you can afford
There is no public defender for a divorce in Maryland, 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.
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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 Maryland it is called Request for Waiver of Prepaid Costs / Request for Waiver of Costs. Under Md. Rule 1-325, no fee is charged to file the waiver request itself.
- Ask whether your spouse can be ordered to pay your lawyer. Defines ‘reasonable and necessary expenses’ (including suit money, counsel fees, and costs) that a court may order one party to pay at any point in a family law proceeding. (Md. Code, Family Law § 7-107)
- Check the statewide legal-aid portal. The Maryland People’s Law Library (peoples-law.org) lists the program that covers your county and what it takes.
- Use the court self-help service. Maryland Courts Family Court Help Centers. In-person/phone help with family law cases including divorce, custody, child support, and name change.
- Try the bar referral service. Maryland State Bar Association / local county bar Lawyer Referral Services (e.g. Montgomery County Bar Association). Montgomery County Bar Association’s referral service offers a reduced fee upon request for low-income clients; referral services otherwise appear organized by county/local bar.
Legal aid in Maryland
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Maryland Legal Aid | statewide | Main intake number 888-465-2468 / (410) 951-7750; also runs the Family Law Hotline in partnership with the People’s Law Library. |
University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law Clinics. Clinics are free, supervised by faculty, and the students have far more time for your case than a stretched legal aid lawyer does. They take few cases and they follow the academic year, so the answer depends heavily on when you ask.
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 single statewide fee-waiver form number, which in many states does not exist because each court uses its own
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 Maryland divorce kit — forms, fees and deadlines
- Doing it without a lawyer
- Questions to ask a lawyer
- What divorce costs
- What two households cost