How Community Justice Workers Are Solving Texas’ Legal Access Crisis

Across the U.S. and Texas, a crisis is unfolding: only 8% of Texans who need legal help actually get it.* Many cannot afford an attorney, and there are not enough legal aid attorneys to serve all residents who need it. When residents understand their legal rights and have access to legal services, the long-term stability of our Texas communities is strengthened. Legal aid helps residents recover income, find safety, and improve their lives. Yet, Texas ranks among the lowest for access to legal aid attorneys.** That’s where the Community Justice Workers of Texas Program comes in.

Launching last year, the Community Justice Workers of Texas Program extends legal aid by empowering neighbors to help neighbors. The program trains and certifies non-lawyers, Community Justice Workers, on common civil legal matters. In turn, Community Justice Workers (CJWs) help residents prevent small problems from becoming a crisis. Community Justice Workers are trained to share only credible legal information—explanations of what the law says and what options exist.

Sharing reliable legal information empowers Texans to make their own informed decisions. This knowledge leads to better outcomes and stability. It isn’t just legal information Community Justice Workers are armed with. Community Justice Workers maintain deep knowledge of community and legal resources. CJWs connect their neighbors with the best resources for their legal issue. The power of knowledge and resources give Texans a better likelihood to resolve their legal problems.

"We built this program because too many Texans were facing legal problems alone, without even knowing where to start. Community Justice Workers give people a trusted, familiar face who can point them toward real answers, and that is what closing the justice gap looks like in practice," says Tammy Bright, Project Manager for the CJW of Texas Program.

Building on a Legacy

The Community Justice Worker model isn’t a guess; it’s built on decades of proven success. In the late 1980s, an amendment to the Medicare program added a requirement for all Medicare beneficiaries to receive benefits counseling. This led the State of Texas to partner with TLSC, an organization with a reputation for providing legal services to seniors and Medicare beneficiaries through our program, Legal Hotline for Older Texans (now the Legal Hotline for Texans). TLSC began training Benefits Counselors to assist with legal issues where attorney representation wasn’t necessary. This gave legal aid attorneys more capacity to handle cases that went to court. Once a matter goes to court, often the  only options for representation are yourself or an attorney.

Today, the Legal Hotline for Texans partners with the full network of Area Agencies on Aging and the state. Over several decades, the Legal Hotline for Texans certified over 740 Benefits Counselors on topics related to Medicare, Medicaid and Advanced Directives and assisted with over 25,000 cases. Our partnership with the Benefits Counselors plays a key role in developing the CJW program.

A Community of Collaboration

Community is at the heart of the Community Justice Worker Program. Led by Disability Rights Texas, the CJW Program is a collaborative effort of a core group of legal aid organizations across the state: including Texas Legal Services Center, Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas, Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, and Lone Star Legal Aid. Outside of this core group, the program partners with community organizations, called Community Partner Organizations or CPOs, to connect Community Justice Workers to low-income and vulnerable communities across Texas. CPOs play a crucial role – not only connecting the program with their communities, but sponsoring staff and volunteers to become Community Justice Workers.

Our deep expertise in training Benefits Counselors shaped the program’s strategic vision and mentoring framework. With decades of experience powering TexasLawHelp.org, Texas Legal Services Center (TLSC) played an integral role in building the online portal designed to empower Community Justice Workers and their Legal Aid partners. TLSC’s Strategic Projects and Innovations Director, Amanda Hill, states: “TexasLawHelp.org gave us the platform to build upon. Now, we are using that technology to scale our impact and empower Community Justice Workers to bridge the gap between vulnerable Texans and the legal resources they deserve.”

This hub brings together training courses, disburses certifications, automates workflows and supports seamless communication tools. TLSC attorneys and directors lent their expertise for training materials and to build out many operations and processes of the program.

"The Community Justice Workers of Texas Program is affording these five legal aid partners with a significant opportunity to expand their reach to underserved communities, many of which historically have simply not had the information necessary to address basic legal needs.  This is a major step towards leveling the legal playing field for ALL Texans," says Karmel Willis, Supervising Attorney at Disability Rights Texas.

After months of development, over 55 Community Justice Workers received certification and now serve their communities throughout the Lone Star state. More than 40 organizations joined the Program as a Community Partner Organization to carry out our mission to expand access to legal information and community resources. And, this is just the beginning. At its heart, eliminating barriers to justice isn’t just about lawyers and courts, it’s about ensuring all Texans have a real opportunity to protect their health, livelihood and rights.

Note: These statistics are current as of August 28, 2026.

Learn more about the Community Justice Workers of Texas Program and how to get involved.

Visit cjwtexas.org.

*Legal Services Corporation, Report: The Justice Gap https://justicegap.lsc.gov/the-report/

**National Center for Access to Justice, Justice Index https://ncaj.org/state-rankings/justice-index