Seeking Legal Help From The ACLU
The ACLU-DE works to protect the civil liberties and civil rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, especially the principles contained in the Bill of Rights, and the Delaware Constitution.
If you believe your rights have been violated and would like to receive our help, please fill out our online complaint form by clicking the button above.
You may also download the form and mail it to:
You can also call (302) 654-5326 ext. 107 and leave your contact information and we will mail you the complaint form.
Note: If you are submitting your complaint by mail, please attach copies of relevant paperwork, but DO NOT SEND ORIGINALS. We cannot guarantee that your information will be returned.
The ACLU is not a general legal service provider. We are also not a government agency, such as the public defender, or a legal services office that helps low-income people. We do not provide emergency services, except in very rare cases.
We can investigate and take on very few cases due to our limited staffing, so we will reach out to you only if we intend to investigate your issue further.
Requests for legal assistance from the ACLU-DE must be made in writing. Please click the button below for more legal resources if your case doesn’t fit our criteria.
Issues we work on
- Freedom of speech
- Government-sponsored religious activities
- Interference with the practice of an individual’s religious beliefs
- Privacy
- Discrimination based on race, gender, sexual orientation or disability, religion, age, national origin, or marital status
- Reproductive freedom
- Police misconduct
- Censorship in schools or libraries
- Constitutional and educational rights of students
- Fairness in application of school discipline
- Voting rights
- Unsafe and inhumane jail and prison conditions
Issues we don't work on
- Criminal defense or post-conviction appeals
- Evictions or other types of landlord-tenant disputes
- Disputes between employees and employers
- Family court cases such as divorce or child custody
- Tax problems
- Wills and estates
- Complaints about lawyers or judges
We only accept complaints regarding civil liberties violations that occurred in Delaware. If you are seeking assistance for a problem that occurred in another state, please refer to the national directory of ACLU offices.
Important note about deadlines:
All legal claims have time deadlines. The deadlines may be different depending on who violated your rights and depending on what rights were violated. For some kinds of violations, you may need to file a claim with a government agency before you can sue, and these agencies usually have their own time deadlines. The ACLU cannot give you advice about the deadlines that apply to your case.
To protect your rights, please consult with an attorney promptly to find out what deadlines apply in your case.