§ 6.2 Reference

Texas Legal Resources

Organisations that can actually help, listed with what each one does. Several provide assistance at no cost. This publication has no relationship with any of them and receives nothing for listing them.

Finding a lawyer, including free help

State Bar of Texas — the licensing authority. It verifies whether a lawyer is licensed and in good standing, operates a lawyer referral service, and handles grievances. Verifying a licence before engaging anyone takes a minute and is worth doing every time.

TexasLawHelp.org — a free public service of the Texas legal aid community, with plain-language guides, court forms, and a directory of local legal aid providers. It is the best single starting point for a Texan who cannot afford a lawyer.

Regional legal aid organisations — Texas is served by non-profit legal aid providers covering different parts of the state, offering free civil legal help to eligible low-income residents. Many run dedicated programmes for people aged sixty and over, which frequently have no income test at all. TexasLawHelp.org identifies the provider for a given county.

Law school clinics — several Texas law schools operate supervised clinics handling estate planning, guardianship alternatives and elder law matters at no charge, subject to capacity and eligibility.

Reading the law yourself

Texas State Law Library — open to the public, with excellent research guides on wills, directives, probate, guardianship and powers of attorney. It also provides remote access to legal databases for Texas residents. Its guides are written for the public rather than for lawyers, and they are the most useful free resource in the state on these subjects.

Texas Statutes — the statutes themselves. The Estates Code governs wills, probate, guardianship and powers of attorney; the Property Code covers trusts and the homestead exemption; the Human Resources Code covers state benefit programmes.

Texas Judicial Branch — court structure, locations and rules, including identifying which court handles probate in a given county.

Cornell Legal Information Institute — free, well-organised access to the United States Code and the Code of Federal Regulations, which is where the federal Medicaid and Social Security provisions live.

Benefits and programmes

Texas Health and Human Services — services for older adults — Medicaid programmes, long-term services and supports, waiver programmes and interest lists, and the current state-set figures.

Medicaid.gov and Medicare.gov — the federal programme sites. The distinction between the two is the single most consequential thing to understand before a hospital discharge conversation.

Social Security Administration — retirement, disability and SSI, including the resource rules that make special needs planning necessary.

Department of Veterans Affairs — pension, Aid and Attendance, and survivors' benefits. Accredited representatives and county veterans service officers assist with claims at no charge, and paying a fee for claim preparation is neither necessary nor generally permitted.

Local help for older adults and caregivers

Eldercare Locator — a federal service connecting people to the Area Agency on Aging for their county. These agencies are frequently the most useful and least known resource available: benefits counselling, caregiver support, meals, transport and care coordination, generally free.

Long-term care ombudsman — an advocate for residents of nursing and assisted living facilities, who investigates complaints about care, transfers and discharges at no cost and independently of the facility. Texas operates the programme through its aging services network, and every facility is required to display the contact details.

Adult Protective Services — the Texas agency receiving reports of abuse, neglect and financial exploitation of older adults and adults with disabilities. Reporting is mandatory in Texas for anyone who believes it is occurring, and the statewide abuse hotline operates continuously.

Managing Someone Else's Money — free guides from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for agents under a power of attorney, trustees, guardians and representative payees. Short, practical, and the best available answer to "I have been named — now what?"

A note on what is not listed

Nothing on this page is a paid placement, and no organisation appears here by arrangement. Be cautious of any service that combines free "benefits counselling" with the sale of an annuity, an insurance policy or a trust package, particularly where veterans' benefits or Medicaid eligibility are the pitch. Free, accredited help exists for both, and the products sold alongside such advice have repeatedly proved worse than doing nothing — a point made specifically about VA claims on the Aid and Attendance page.