Legal Assistance
If you have questions about when you need to hire a lawyer, how to deal with a lawyer or when can you handle a matter on your own, the Professionalism and Ethics Section of the Idaho State Bar has created a Consumers Guide to Idaho Lawyers that may help you. If you do need to hire a lawyer, the Idaho State Bar Lawyer Referral Service may be able to assist you. The Idaho Volunteer Lawyers Program is also available to help people who do not have money to hire a lawyer.
If you are looking for a specific Idaho attorney or checking to see if someone is licensed to practice law in Idaho, see Locating an Attorney below.
Lawyer Referral Service
The Lawyer Referral Service (LRS) is operated as a public service of the Idaho State Bar. All LRS attorneys are members in good standing with the Idaho State Bar with no pending public disciplinary complaints and the LRS attorneys carry Professional Liability Insurance. The LRS attorneys have agreed to provide their clients with an initial $35 half-hour office consultation fee. LRS attorneys handling Personal Injury or Workers' Compensations cases have agreed to a free consultation. After initial half-hour, any further fees are to be negotiated between the lawyer and client. The Idaho State Bar does not charge the public for these referrals and receives no money from the attorneys for the referrals. All attorneys listed in either the online or call-in LRS database have paid a fee to participate in the LRS. Not all Idaho State Bar attorneys are members of the LRS service.
To contact the Lawyer Referral Service:
- Online Lawyer Referral Service
- Lawyer Referral Service by Email
- Call (208) 334-4500
- Write to: Lawyer Referral Service P. O. Box 895, Boise, ID 83701.
Depending on your need, our Legal Agencies and Law Related Services 
listing may also be of assistance.
Idaho Volunteer Lawyers Program
If you are low income and have a civil cases as described below, the Idaho Volunteer Lawyers Program (IVLP) may be able to help you. IVLP offers legal services at no cost for low-income persons who qualify according to federal poverty guidelines and who have eligible priority case-types.
Eligible case-types include:
- Custody and Visitation
- Divorce (Please contact your local crisis center if you are a victim of domestic violence)
- Modification of child custody court orders
- Guardianship Child
- Guardianship Adult
- Immigration (limited situations only)
- Wills in non-property matters
- Debt defense (limited)
- Assistance for nonprofit corporations
Cases where domestic violence and/or child endangerment are at issue will have priority for referral to volunteer attorneys.
Please note that acceptance of any case depends on the circumstances of the case and the availability of volunteer lawyers. Call (208) 334-4510, 1-800-221-3295 or Click Here for more information on the Program.
Locating an Attorney
All attorneys who are licensed to practice law in Idaho must be members of the Idaho State Bar (ISB). The ISB maintains records of all of its members. These records include: the attorneys’ names, mailing addresses, date of admission and current licensing status. The ISB often also has the attorneys’ firm names, phone numbers, fax numbers, e-mail addresses and website addresses.
The ISB does not have records of the types of law attorneys practice in or "win/loss" records.
If you are trying to locate an Idaho attorney or determine whether or not someone is licensed to practice law in Idaho, you can search the Attorney Roster yourself if you know the attorney's last name. If you cannot locate an attorney using the roster search, please contact the Membership Department at (208) 334-4500 or at the mailing address above. The Membership Department can tell you if an attorney is a member of the ISB, when the attorney was admitted, the attorney’s address and phone number, the attorney’s current licensing status and whether or not the attorney is currently in good standing with the ISB.
If you need information on an attorney’s disciplinary history — whether or not an attorney has had disciplinary complaints filed against him/her — contact the Bar Counsel’s Office at (208) 334-4500 or at the mailing address above. The Bar Counsel’s Office can tell you if an attorney has ever been subject to public disciplinary charges.