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For legal help, call us at 774-8211 

Mondays 12:00 pm – 2:30 pm 

Tuesdays 9:00 am – 11:30 am 

Thursdays 9:00 am – 11:30 am 

 

Getting a busy signal? Try our other numbers: 

  • (207) 764-4349 (Presque Isle)
  • (207) 942-8241 (Bangor)
  • (207) 622-4731 (Augusta)
  • (207) 784-1558 (Lewiston)
  • (207) 255-8656 (Machias)

Need to visit one of our local offices?

Find our local office locations and business hours here. 

Do you speak a language other than English? 

If you call us or come to our office, ask for a translator right away. We will provide one free of charge. 

You can also call us at 207-774-8211. Press “2.” Then press: 

1 for Spanish 
2 for Chinese (both Mandarin and Cantonese) 
3 for French 
4 for Arabic 
5 for Somali 
6 for Portuguese (Brazilian) 
7 for Vietnamese 

Please leave a message letting us know where you are in the state, what kind of issue you have, and how we can reach you. A staff member will call you back within 5-7 business days. 

What does Pine Tree Legal Assistance do? 

Pine Tree Legal Assistance (PTLA) is a civil legal aid organization – this means we help people with non-criminal legal issues solve their problems. Sometimes this looks like talking to you on the phone to give advice about a problem, and sometimes it means full representation by a lawyer in court.  

Some of the most common problems we help people solve are: 

We cannot help with: 

  • Criminal cases 
  • Traffic violations 
  • Personal injury 

We are not able to take calls about Family Law problems. We do Family Law cases related to sexual assault or domestic violence through a special referral relationship with local advocacy organizations all across Maine, so you will need to connect with those services first.

What to expect when you contact PTLA 

A paralegal trained to collect information will talk with you privately to get more information about you and your situation.  

To figure out if we can help, we will need to ask you a lot of questions. We will ask about:

  • Your legal issue  
  • Your name and the names of other people involved 
  • Your contact information 
  • Your income and assets 

We will ask you questions about your demographics, including your citizenship or immigration status. We will not share immigration information with USCIS or ICE.  

Sometimes we are not able to help you with your legal issue. We may not be able to help because: 

  • It is not a legal issue Pine Tree handles 
  • We have a conflict of interest and the ethics rules prohibit us from helping you 
  • You are not eligible because of your income or assets 
  • Your immigration status makes you not eligible 

If you are eligible, we will want to gather information about your legal issue. It is helpful to have anything you have in writing that relates to your issue with you. Once we have the information we need, we will determine whether we are able to just give you advice or whether we will be able to work further on your case. If we are just able to give you advice, the paralegal will work with an attorney to get you advice. If we are able to do further work on your issue, your case will be transferred to one of our units. Someone from the unit will get in touch with you within one week, unless your issue is more urgent than that.  

Why is it so hard to get you on the phone?  

We understand that the wait on our phone line can sometimes be long. We handle over 6,000 cases each year but receive over 10,000 requests for help. If you call during our designated phone hours and wait on hold, someone will answer your call and talk to you about your issue. Wait times are sometimes shorter at the beginning and end of each shift.  

Is it safe for me to talk with Pine Tree? 

We understand that the legal system can be complicated and scary – it can be hard to know who to trust or what to believe. Here is some information about who we are, and what we do as an organization that may help you answer this question: 

  • Pine Tree Legal Assistance is not a government agency. We do get some funding from the state and federal governments, but that does not mean we work for them – we work for our clients. In many cases, we are actually representing people who are having problems with government agencies! 
  • PTLA will not charge you for legal help. We give advice and represent people who qualify for our services at no cost to them. Sometimes our clients may have to pay for things like court costs – but we will never charge you for legal advice or services. 
  • Because some of our funders require it, we will ask you about your immigration status. We will never share this information with USCIS or ICE.  The worst thing that will happen is that we might not be able to help you because of restrictions on our funding. The rules around that are very complicated, but it is better to reach out and ask than to assume we cannot help just because of your immigration status.  
  • PTLA will always provide an interpreter at no cost to you. Learn more about your language access rights at PTLA and in the Maine Courts. 
  • We won’t take any legal action – or discuss your case with anyone, unless we talk with you about it first and agree that is what we should do. 
  • If you are worried we are not treating you fairly, we have a process for clients to complain, and have those complaints heard and taken seriously.