Before you file · and after

Getting legal help

≈ 6 min read · or listen, or skim the bold lines

B · From the record Organizations and deadlines below were checked against each source on the date shown. This is education, not legal advice. How we verify →

Knowing which door to knock on is the Right Door guide. This page is the next question: who can walk in with you, what it costs, and how long you have.

Who helps, for what, and who qualifies

Checked July 7, 2026, against each organization’s own published information. Details change — confirm when you call.

DNA-People’s Legal Services — free civil legal aid on the Navajo, Hopi & Jicarilla Apache Nations and nearby areas.
Who qualifies: generally income at or below 125% of the federal poverty level (domestic-violence victims regardless of income); DNA says apply and let intake walk you through it. What they take: civil only — housing/eviction, family, public benefits, consumer, some employment. Not: criminal cases or injury lawsuits. Honest note: by their own account, limited resources force them to turn away about one of every two people who ask — apply early, and don’t take a turn-down as a verdict on your case. Offices include Window Rock, Chinle, Tuba City, Farmington, Flagstaff, Crownpoint, Shiprock, Keams Canyon.
New Mexico Legal Aid — free civil legal services to low-income people in New Mexico, including Native communities; income guidelines apply.
Navajo Nation Bar Association — the directory of attorneys and tribal-court advocates licensed to practice in the Nation’s courts — the door for hiring counsel if you don’t qualify for free aid or DNA can’t take the case.
Law-school clinics — UNM’s Southwest Indian Law Clinic and ASU’s Indian Legal Clinic take some matters at no cost, supervised by professors; capacity is limited and semester-based.
Court self-help — for many filings you can represent yourself; clerks can tell you which forms exist (not what to argue). Pair with everything on this page: your dated record does half the work.
NNBA attorney & advocate listing — the Bar’s public directory, by district — for when you need private counsel licensed in the Nation’s courts.

Deadlines — what we know, and what we don’t

C · Secondary explanation The employment deadlines below come from published commentary by practicing attorneys. The statute itself has now been read — see the NPEA, verbatim. The published Code is current only through 2009. How we verify →

Employment — NPEA, ONLR, and the Labor Commission

Two of these run from dates most people do not expect

One year to file a charge with ONLR — measured from the event, or from the last event if there is a series.
The charge must raise every issue. A claim not raised at the ONLR stage within that one year may not be asserted at all afterward. You may amend the charge — but only inside the one-year window.
360 days to file with the Navajo Nation Labor Commission — counted from the day the ONLR charge was filed. Not from the right-to-sue letter. Not from the day ONLR finishes. From the day you filed.
You do not need a right-to-sue letter to proceed. Every ONLR outcome — including ONLR doing nothing — leaves you the right to file with the Labor Commission.
The Labor Commission may extend the 360 days if you can show unusual circumstances that delayed your filing.

If you were terminated after filing your charge, that is a separate event. Ask an attorney or advocate immediately whether it must be added to your existing charge, and by when.

The Labor Commission does not publish its decisions, so no one can look up how these rules have been applied.

Health privacy — this one is federal

HIPAA is not Navajo Nation law. It is enforced by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights — not by the Nation. A 638 facility is a covered entity under HIPAA the same as any hospital.

OCR complaints are generally filed within 180 days of when you knew, or should have known, of the violation; OCR may extend that for good cause. Confirm the current rule with OCR before relying on this. File at hhs.gov/ocr.

Some conduct on the Navajo Nation is governed by federal law the Nation does not enforce. Walking into the Nation’s door first can cost you the federal clock.

The deadlines we still will not guess

How long you have to file an ethics complaint, a court case, or a claim against a chapter or enterprise are numbers this page will publish only with the rule cited. We do not have them yet.

Until then: ask the office itself, in writing — “What is my filing deadline, and which section says so?” Ask any counsel the same question first. Assume every deadline is shorter than you hope.

Know one of these, with a citation? Send it — it goes straight onto this page.

Can you really represent yourself?

Often, yes — people appear without lawyers in Navajo Nation courts, in ONLR processes, and in grievances every day. Two things make it realistic: the Nation’s courts also license tribal court advocates — trained, bar-admitted representatives who are not attorneys and typically cost far less — and everything this site teaches (the dated record, everything in writing, the tactics named) is exactly what self-representation runs on. Honest limits: complex cases, lawyered opposition, and anything near a deadline deserve professional help if you can get it.

How to decide — four steps

Deadline first. It decides your pace.
Free aid second. DNA and the doors above — applying costs nothing.
Match the help to the fight. Simple filing → self-represent with the clerk’s forms; tribal-court matter → an advocate may be enough; complex, high-stakes, or lawyered opposition → an attorney.
Whoever it is: who else do you represent, and what will this cost — in writing?

What it costs — and how it’s billed

Legal aid (DNA and similar): free if you qualify.
Tribal court advocates: usually far less than attorneys — ask the rate up front.
Private attorneys bill four main ways: hourly (rate × time, often with a retainer paid up front and drawn down), flat fee (one price for a defined task), contingency (a percentage of what’s recovered — common in injury cases, rare in employment matters), or limited scope (paying for one piece, like reviewing your filing).
Always get the engagement letter: the writing that states what they’ll do, the rate, what’s extra, and how you can end it. No letter, no deal.

Whoever you talk to, ask two things first: who else do you represent? (conflicts) and what’s the deadline on my matter? Used a door on this list?

This is education, not legal advice

Deadlines and details depend on facts this page can’t know. For anything that matters, DNA-People’s Legal Services and the resources page list real advisors.

Step-by-step for employment: Fired or Disciplined? Know Your Rights

Medical privacy is federal: HIPAA 101 →

What each office actually is: Who does what →

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