History
BayLegal was founded in 2000, through the merger of three long-standing local civil legal services organizations.
Specialties
Bay Area Legal Aid's (BayLegal) mission is to provide meaningful access to the civil justice system through quality legal assistance regardless of a client's location, language or disability. For thousands of low-income Bay Area residents, justice is not an abstract ideal. It is food, shelter and protection. It is the difference between staying in poverty and getting out; between dependence and self-reliance. But without help, justice is often denied. BayLegal advocates provide wraparound legal services to help our clients protect their families, their health, and their livelihoods. Moreover, as the largest legal aid provider in the Bay Area serving 60,000+ clients annually across our seven regional offices, BayLegal advocates are able to identify the systemic issues our clients face and advocate for impactful policy change. BayLegal's work in Oakland and across the Bay Area has focuses in: Health Care Access, Consumer Protection, Domestic Violence Prevention, Economic Justice, Housing Preservation, Medical Legal Partnership, Immigration, Youth Justice, Re-entry, SSDI (Social Security Disability Benefits), SSI (Supplemental Security Income), and Veteran Justice.