Legal Assistance

HIV-related legal services are essential to protect and promote the rights of people living with HIV, and are essential to ensure good public health outcomes. HIV-related legal services help build and sustain an environment for effective HIV testing, treatment, and prevention. With legal assistance, people with HIV can secure and protect their legal rights. Legal services can help provide concrete solutions to HIV-related legal and social problems. CHLP is dedicated to strengthening HIV-related legal services.

This HIV Policy Resource Bank category includes compilations of resources and information about organizations and agencies that provide legal advice and representation for people with HIV, in most cases free of charge to those who meet financial eligibility requirements. It also includes materials that address the importance of legal services and their relevance to health outcomes for people in need.

Highlighted Resources

Legal Assistance

State Public Health Counsel Directory, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2023)

Legal Service Providers for People Living with HIV in New York City, CHLP (updated 2023)

Send Lawyers, Guides and Money: The Legal Services Needs of People Living with HIV in the Southern United States, The Center for HIV Law and Policy (2010)

The National HIV/AIDS Strategy, HIV Criminalization and Civil Rights: How Did We Fare? (2010)

Using Human Rights to Protect the Reproductive Rights of HIV-Positive Women in the United States, The Center for HIV Law and Policy (2010)

Justice for All? A Report on the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Youth in the New York Juvenile Justice System, Randi Feinstein, et al. (2001)

The Asthma Crisis in Low-Income Communities of Color: Using the Law as a Tool for Promoting Public Health, Alina Das, 31 N.Y.U. Rev. L. & Soc. Change 273 (2007)

From Principle to Practice: Moving from Human Rights to Legal Rights to Ensure Child Health, Barry Zuckerman et al., 92 Archives of Disease in Childhood 100 (2007)

The Legal Aid Safety Net: A Report on the Legal Needs of Low-Income Illinoisans, Chicago Bar Association et al. (2005)

Directions in HIV Service Delivery and Care: A Policy Brief: Reducing Barriers to Care, U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration, HIV/AIDS Bureau (2000)

Public Health Legal Services: A New Vision, David I. Schulman, Ellen Lawton, Paul R. Tremblay, Randye Retkin, and Megan Sandel, Boston College Law School Faculty Papers (2008)

Sex Rights and the Law in a World with AIDS, Meeting Report and Recommendations, International Center for Research on Women (2009)

Why Pediatricians Need Lawyers to Keep Children Healthy, Barry Zuckerman, et al., 114 Pediatrics 224 (2004)

Access to Health Care Services for Low-Income New Yorkers, Training/Report, The Legal Aid Society (2008)

International Guidelines on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights, 2006 Consolidated Version, UNHCHR & UNAIDS (2006)

Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS, G.A. Res. S-26/2, U.N. Doc. A/RES/S-26/2 (2001)

Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS, G.A. Res. 60/262, U.N. Doc. A/RES/60/262 (2006)