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Consumer Assistance Program

Access to Legal Help in Mississippi

The Mississippi Bar connects Mississippians with trusted resources. From pro bono and low-cost legal aid to the Consumer Assistance Program, these services are designed to help individuals understand their rights and find the support they need to resolve legal issues.
Consumer Assistance

About the Program
CAP and the Public
CAP and Attorneys
Request for Assistance
Pro Bono Resources
Frequently Asked Questions

About the Consumer Assistance Program

The Consumer Assistance Program (CAP) of The Mississippi Bar was the first of its type in the nation. CAP was formed in the fall of 1994. Several other state bar organizations have copied the procedures and guidelines of CAP and there are now 18 similar programs across the nation.

CAP and the Public

CAP helps people with questions or problems with Mississippi attorneys. When someone calls or writes The Mississippi Bar to complain about a Mississippi lawyer, the Consumer Assistance Program responds to the inquiry and attempts to identify the problem. Many problems can be resolved by providing information, contacting the attorney, or suggesting ways in which to resolve the dispute. The general public is usually provided with a Request for Assistance form to contact the Consumer Assistance Program, but the form is not required as CAP responds to all telephone calls and written correspondence sent to The Mississippi Bar offices regarding complaints or inquiries. While CAP cannot resolve every problem, the program has handled thousands of inquiries since 1994. Reports show that nearly 70% of callers’ problems are resolved without having to use the disciplinary process (filing a Bar complaint).

CAP and Attorneys

CAP also helps attorneys. CAP helps attorneys through its courtesy calls or letters when the program hears from concerned clients. CAP also gives information and suggestions about effectively resolving conflicts in an ethical and professional manner. Most problems with clients can be prevented by returning calls promptly, keeping clients informed about the status of their case, explaining billing practices, meeting deadlines, and managing a caseload efficiently.
FORM

Request for Assistance

I understand that it may be necessary to act promptly to protect my rights and that commencement of a civil action may be required to preserve my rights. I acknowledge my understanding that the completion of this form does not constitute commencement of a civil action and that The Mississippi Bar will not commence any such action. I acknowledge it is my responsibility to seek and obtain any necessary legal advice with respect to this matter.

NOTICE: I UNDERSTAND THAT INFORMATION I SEND MAY BE USED TO ASSIST ME BUT MAY NOT BE CONFIDENTIAL.

  1. If you are submitting this Request for Assistance on behalf of or for another person, please give that person’s name, address and daytime telephone number and explain why you are acting for that person.

  2. If not, please tell us why not. If yes, please provide the facts in 6 & 7 of the Request for Assistance Form.
Request For Assistance Form

Pro Bono Resources

Website: aclu-ms.org
Phone: 601-354-3408

Through advocacy, education and litigation, the ACLU of Mississippi defends and protects the constitutional rights of people across Mississippi.

Counties Served: Statewide

Website: catholiccharitiesjackson.org
Phone: 601-355-8634

This program provides support and legal representation to victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking. The purpose is to provide victims civil litigation services for emergency and non-emergency protective orders. Other legal services include child custody, restraining orders, housing claims, financial claims, and other feasible claims arising out of or stemming from domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking.

Counties Served: Hinds, Madison and Rankin

Website: choctaw.org
Phone: 601-650-7487

Choctaw Legal Defense serves Native Americans living on the Choctaw Indian Reservation.

Counties Served: Jones, Leake, Neshoba, Newton, Noxubee, Scott and Winston

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Website: drms.ms
Phone: 601-968-0600

Disability Rights Mississippi is a statewide nonprofit agency which provides free legal services to people with disabilities in Mississippi. The organization handles matters in the following areas: special education, Americans with Disabilities Act, protection from abuse and neglect, Medicaid and community services.

Counties Served: Statewide

Website: gccfn.org
Phone: 228-864-7144
Crisis Line: 1-800-800-1396
Pine Belt Office: 601-705-0139

The Gulf Coast Center for Nonviolence and the Northcutt Legal Clinic are dedicated to the prevention of violence, especially among family members. The Legal Clinic provides services with a full range of services that deal with the abuse they have suffered and the consequences of that abuse, including divorce, protective orders, child custody and visitation, child support and paternity. The Gulf Coast Center for Nonviolence also helps with problems related to public assistance, housing and employment. For more information about the services provided by this organization, click here.

Counties Served: Harrison, Jackson, Hancock, Pearl River, Stone, or George Counties of Mississippi

Website: missionfirst.org/legal-aid
Phone: 601-608-0056

The Mission First Legal Aid Office was established as a partnership between the Mississippi College School of Law and Mission First. It provides legal services and counsel to underserved residents of the Jackson area whose household income is less than 200% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines.

Counties Served: Hinds, Madison and Rankin

Website: mscenterforjustice.org
Phone: 601-352-2269

The Mississippi Center for Justice is a nonprofit; public interest law firm committed to advancing racial and economic justice. Supported and staffed by attorneys, community leaders and volunteers, the Center develops and pursues strategies to combat discrimination and poverty.

Counties Served: Statewide

Website: mslegalservices.org
Phone: 1-800-498-1804

The Mississippi Center for Legal Services provides free civil legal assistance to eligible poor persons within 43 counties in South Mississippi. In order to qualify, most programs require a household income below 125% of the federal poverty level.

Counties Served: Adams, Amite, Claiborne, Clarke, Copiah, Covington, Forrest, Franklin, George, Greene, Hancock, Harrison, Hinds, Holmes, Jackson, Jasper, Jefferson, Jefferson Davis, Jones, Kemper, Lamar, Lauderdale, Lawrence, Leake, Lincoln, Madison, Marion, Neshoba, Newton, Noxubee, Pearl River, Perry, Pike, Rankin, Scott, Simpson, Smith, Stone, Walthall, Warren, Wayne, Wilkinson, and Yazoo.

Website: law.mc.edu/academics/clinics/
Phone: 601-925-7180

Mississippi College School of Law offers clinical opportunities for students to serve low-income and disadvantaged people with adoption, family, HIV/AIDS employment and housing discrimination and youth court matters.

Counties Served: Hinds, Madison and Rankin

Website: yourmira.org
Phone: 601-968-5182

The Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance educates the non-immigrant community in Mississippi on immigrant issues, educates immigrant workers of their rights, and unites human rights advocates in Mississippi on local, statewide, and national immigrant rights agendas.

Counties Served: Statewide

Website: mvlp.net
Phone: 601-960-9577

The Mississippi Volunteer Lawyers Project was founded in 1982 as a joint program of The Mississippi Bar and Legal Services. In addition to making referrals to volunteer attorneys, the Project also operates the Stewpot Homeless Legal Clinic, Pro Se Divorce Clinic, Guardianship Clinics, and Family Law Clinics.

Counties Served: Statewide

Website: msworkrights.org
Phone: 662-334-1122

The Mississippi Workers’ Center for Human Rights (the Center) is a membership organization that fights worker mistreatment through organizing, legal advocacy, community education and outreach and most importantly, through organizing and the development of indigenous worker leadership. Among the issues the Center addresses are: unfair labor practices; employment discrimination; hostile work environment and hate violence; retaliation; sexual harassment; wrongful dismissals and workplace safety and health hazards.

Counties Served: Statewide

Website: nmrls.com
Phone: 1-800-498-1804

North Mississippi Rural Legal Services provides free civil legal assistance to eligible poor persons within 39 counties in North Mississippi. In order to qualify, most programs require a household income below 125% of the federal poverty level.

Counties Served: Alcorn, Attala, Benton, Bolivar, Calhoun, Carroll, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Clay, Coahoma, DeSoto, Grenada, Humphreys, Issaquena, Itawamba, Lafayette, Lee, Leflore, Lowndes, Marshall, Monroe, Montgomery, Oktibbeha, Panola, Pontotoc, Prentiss, Quitman, Sharkey, Sunflower, Tallahatchie, Tate, Tippah, Tishomingo, Tunica, Union, Washington, Webster, Winston, Yalobusha

Website: law.olemiss.edu/academics-programs/clinics/pro-bono-initiative/
Phone: 662-915-7429

The Pro Bono Initiative of the University of Mississippi School of Law provides law students with short-term immersion in practice through mini clinics supervised by a professor and volunteer attorneys. Students work directly with clients, collaborate on policy initiatives with state advocacy groups, and prepare and present educational programs to high school and college students.

Counties Served: DeSoto, Lafayette, Lee and Washington. Some clinics have a statewide reach.

Website: splcenter.org
Phone: 601-948-8882

The Southern Poverty Law Center works to reform juvenile justice and education in Mississippi. The organization seeks reform through public education, community organizing, litigation, legislative advocacy, training and technical assistance.

Counties Served: Statewide

Website: law.olemiss.edu/academics-programs/clinics/
Phone: 662-915-7429

The University of Mississippi School of Law offers clinical opportunities for students to serve low-income and disadvantaged people across Mississippi and affect systemic change through policy initiatives and law reform projects. The University of Mississippi School of Law has clinical programs in the following areas: child advocacy, criminal appeals, elder law, family, housing and a low-income tax clinic.

Counties Served: Statewide, but primarily North Mississippi

Frequently Asked Questions

The Mississippi Bar’s Consumer Assistance Program (CAP) helps people with questions or problems with Mississippi Attorneys. When someone calls or writes The Mississippi Bar to complain about a Mississippi lawyer, the Consumer Assistance Program responds to the inquiry and attempts to identify the issue. Many issues can be resolved by providing information, contacting the attorney, or suggesting ways in which to resolve the dispute. The general public is usually provided with a Request for Assistance form to contact the Consumer Assistance Program, but the form is not required as CAP responds to all phone calls and written correspondence sent to The Mississippi Bar offices regarding complaints or inquiries.
It is recommended that the client write the attorney a letter, sent by certified mail, return receipt requested, asking the attorney to contact the client within seven (7) working or business days. The client may request CAP call or write and ask the attorney to contact the client. If the attorney does not respond in the seven (7) working or business days, CAP asks the client to contact CAP office or send a copy of the letter with the client’s name, address, and telephone number, and CAP will contact the attorney.
Using the procedure outlined above, CAP will contact the attorney and request immediate contact with the client to provide the client with an update on the status of the case. The client can consider filing a Bar complaint against the attorney for failure to communicate.
CAP can provide internet websites that can assist someone in locating an attorney. However, CAP is unable to recommend or refer anyone to a specific attorney. In addition, CAP does not maintain referral lists of Mississippi attorneys. The Mississippi Bar does maintain an online directory of all Mississippi attorneys but expresses no opinion as to the suitability of a particular attorney for a particular legal matter.
It is suggested the client meet with the attorney by appointment or write the attorney a discharge letter sent by certified mail, return receipt requested. The client should ask for the file to be returned, an itemized bill of the attorney’s time and expenses, and the return of any of the client’s property or unearned fee within seven (7) working or business days. If the attorney does not respond within seven (7) working or business days, the client should consider contacting CAP for further options.
Clients should consider writing the attorney and requesting an itemized statement of the attorney’s time and expenses and a refund of the unused part of any retainer. Attorneys must return any unearned fee or unused portions of a retainer when they are discharged or if they withdraw from the case. If the client and attorney cannot resolve the fee dispute, CAP can provide the client with forms to file a fee dispute petition with The Mississippi Bar’s Fee Dispute Committee, a voluntary arbitration procedure.
The client may request CAP call or write the attorney regarding the client’s request to obtain the file.

Yes, most of the time. In some cases, a judge may require the attorney to stay on the case. If a court case has already started, the attorney must file a motion to withdraw to be removed from the case. Judges have the discretion to grant or deny the motion to withdraw, and the client is usually provided an opportunity to appear at a hearing on the motion and advise the court as to the nature of the problem with the request to withdraw.

Appointing attorneys to indigent criminal defendants is handled solely by the Circuit Court, Mississippi Supreme Court, or by the appropriate federal court. The Mississippi Bar cannot appoint, assign, refer, or recommend attorneys to any one in any type of case, civil or criminal.
Only the judge appointing the attorney to a case can remove that attorney upon request of the client and/or the attorney. Removal of an attorney and the appointment of a new attorney is strictly up to the judge.
Ineffective assistance of counsel claims are common in criminal cases when a criminal defendant is attempting to overturn a guilty plea or conviction by trial. Ineffective assistance of counsel is primarily a legal defense used in appeals and post-conviction relief petitions (or habeas corpus motions in federal court). Since The Mississippi Bar is not a court of law, it has no jurisdiction over claims of ineffective assistance of counsel. If the client believes that an attorney has violated the Rules of Professional Conduct; however, the client may request CAP send out a Bar complaint form.
Trial transcripts are prepared by court reporters who take down testimony and record all proceedings related to the trial. If the attorney who handled the trial has a copy of the transcript, the attorney may provide the transcript but may charge copying costs. If the client is an indigent criminal defendant, the transcript can be obtained from the clerks of the Circuit Court or the Mississippi Supreme Court. Otherwise, clients will have to pay for a copy through the court reporter or the court clerks. Upon request, CAP may contact the attorney involved for any communication problems that arise from transcript requests.
The client is encouraged to contact the attorney and seek an explanation. The client may request CAP communicate with the attorney. We ask the client to provide specific information about the settlement of the case including the disbursement documents and the agreement between the client and the attorney as to the fee payment arrangements.
The client can request CAP send a Bar complaint form to the client. If that event occurred, CAP attempts to find out the details about what may have been signed or what the attorney told them about the settlement offer.
The client is encouraged to contact the attorney to determine the situation regarding the settlement funds. If the client does not understand the delay or what’s happening, the client can request CAP contact the attorney.
The client or consumer may request a Bar complaint form from CAP. CAP will immediately send a Bar complaint form and urge the client to seek legal advice about how to recover the funds through an attorney or the District Attorney’s Bad Check Unit.
If the client or other party can show from the transcript or other documents that the attorney lied in court, there may be grounds for an ethical violation. In that instance, the consumer may request CAP send a Bar complaint form.
If the caller has personal knowledge of illegal activity, the CAP advises the person to report the activity to the appropriate authorities. If the activity involves embezzlement of a client’s funds, the consumer can request, and CAP will send a Bar complaint form immediately. Mississippi attorneys are subject to disbarment if they are convicted of a felony offense.
The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act protects persons in collection matters and violations of that law may be reported to the Federal Trade Commission.

The disciplinary procedure of The Mississippi Bar does not recover money damages for clients. Legal malpractice cases are civil lawsuits and must be brought in a court of law. The client should consider hiring an attorney of their own choice to pursue any legal options.

The Mississippi Commission on Judicial Performance handles all with complaints about judicial misconduct. To contact the Mississippi Commission on Judicial Performance, contact their offices at 601-359-1273 or through their website.
CAP receives occasional inquiries from court reporters, expert witnesses, and medical offices asking for help in collecting unpaid bills from members of The Mississippi Bar. The Mississippi Bar is not a collection agency and does not attempt to collect “third party” bills. If the collection situation, however, deals with a signed lien agreement with a medical provider and the attorney personally guaranteed payment of medical bills upon the settlement of a case, the creditor can request a Bar complaint form.
CAP will send a Bar complaint form to anyone who requests one. CAP attempts to help consumers or clients solve problems in other ways by improving attorney-client communications and resolving conflicts through informal methods. Filing a Bar complaint will not impact the result of a case or any appeal. Filing a Bar complaint only deals with whether an attorney violated the Rules of Professional Conduct and can only potentially affect an attorney’s privilege to practice law.
Simply having a Bar complaint form on online would be a disservice to the public and the profession. The Consumer Assistance Program assists persons with questions or issues with Mississippi attorneys by attempting to find other ways to resolve the conflict such as improving attorney-client communications. Often a client or consumer calls CAP with a problem that does not qualify for the Bar complaint process because it does not involve a violation of the Rules of Professional Conduct; however, CAP is often still able to assist this person in resolving their issue. As stated above, CAP will send a Bar complaint form to anyone who requests one. Reports show that nearly 70% of callers’ problems are resolved without having to use the disciplinary process.

The Mississippi Bar
Phone: (601) 948-2344
Fax: (601) 355-8635

Office hours:
8 AM to 5 PM (CST)
Monday – Friday

You may also write to the following address:
Consumer Assistance Program
The Mississippi Bar
P. O. Box 2168 Jackson, MS 39225-2168

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