180 Days, Not Dollars: What a Civil Rights Attorney Costs in St. Louis
Revised October 20, 2026
What happens if you can’t afford an attorney in a civil case?
Often nothing stops you. Many civil rights cases run on contingency, so the lawyer is paid only from a recovery, and 42 U.S.C. Section 1988 lets a court make the losing defendant pay the winner’s reasonable attorney fees. Many clients pay nothing upfront, and Legal Services of Eastern Missouri offers free civil help to people who qualify.
Keep reading ↓180 days. Not dollars - days. For a discrimination claim in Missouri, that is the number that quietly ends more cases than any price tag, and almost nobody hears it in time.
This is for the person reading with sore wrists, or with a cardboard box from the office still on the passenger seat, the desk plant tipped over on the floor mat. Before anything about fees: if what happened was discrimination at work or in housing, a complaint under the Missouri Human Rights Act has to reach the Missouri Commission on Human Rights within 180 days. Federal law gives you 300 days for a job discrimination charge with the EEOC and one year for a housing complaint with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Police force and wrongful arrest cases run on different clocks, so ask a lawyer which one is yours. Money can be worked out. A missed deadline usually can’t.
Your one step today is small. Write the date it happened on the back of an envelope while it is still sharp, then call Legal Services of Eastern Missouri at 314-534-4200 or book a free consultation with a civil rights lawyer. This page is general information, not legal advice; the person on that call can tell you what applies to you.
The kitchen-table math goes the same way for nearly everyone. You sit there that night with the TV on mute and the light from the fridge, and you add up a number you don’t have. Then you let it go. The math leaves out one thing: the law was built so the person with the least money in the room could still bring the fight. And the scariest number at that table, the other side’s lawyer bill if you lose, is mostly a ghost here: under Missouri’s own civil rights law, an employer or landlord that wins can collect its attorney fees only by showing your case was without foundation. More on that below.
St. Louis has its own wrinkles, and they change where you go first. If the harm came from a city police officer, know that the state of Missouri took over the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, and complaints of police misconduct now go through SLMPD’s Internal Affairs division, not the city’s Civilian Oversight Board. The board still takes complaints against employees of the City Justice Center, the downtown jail, at (314) 657-1600. A complaint is not a lawsuit, though, and filing one does not stop any court clock. If your case goes federal, the city’s court is the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, at the Thomas F. Eagleton U.S. Courthouse, 111 South 10th Street, where you empty your pockets into a gray plastic tray at security before you ever see a courtroom.
What happens if you can’t afford an attorney in a civil case?
In a civil rights case, often nothing stops you. Many of these cases run on contingency, so the lawyer is paid only out of a recovery, and Section 1988 lets a court make the losing defendant pay the winner’s reasonable attorney fees. Many clients pay nothing upfront. If a private lawyer won’t take the case, free legal aid is the next door to knock on.
Unlike a criminal case, a civil case does not come with a lawyer the court appoints for you. That surprises people, and it is the reason the fee rules matter so much. The money to pay a civil rights lawyer has to come from somewhere, and the law points it at the defendant when you win.
When a private firm passes, Legal Services of Eastern Missouri is the free civil legal aid office for this region. Its St. Louis office is at 701 Market Street, Suite 1100, downtown, and the number is 314-534-4200. It serves people under income limits, and while it does not take every kind of case, calling costs you only the time on hold. A free first consultation with a private civil rights attorney costs the same: an hour of telling your story out loud, maybe for the first time, to someone whose job is to tell you whether it is a case.
The three ways a civil rights lawyer gets paid
Sooner or later a lawyer slides a fee agreement across the table, and your hand hovers over it with the pen. Before you sign, know what kind it is. There are really only three: a contingency fee, an hourly rate, or a flat fee for one defined task. For the serious cases - excessive force, a firing after you complained, a landlord who refused you - contingency is the one you will hear most, because it lets a person with an empty checking account hire a capable lawyer anyway.
Contingency: they bet their own time on you
On contingency, the lawyer takes a percentage of what you recover, and only if you recover. No envelope with a law firm’s return address sitting on the counter every month. No retainer check. Every firm sets its own percentage, and many charge more if the case goes to trial or appeal, so get the exact number in the written agreement before you sign anything.
Read the offer as information, too. A firm willing to take your case on contingency looked at your facts and decided they are worth its own unpaid hours. A firm that wants a large check just to start on a case that plainly fits contingency may be telling you what it really thinks of your odds.
Section 1988: why a small-dollar case can still get a lawyer
This is the part almost nobody knows walking in. Say the arrest was wrong but you had no hospital bill and missed only one shift of work. On a percentage alone, that case might not pay a lawyer’s rent. Section 1988 changes that, because the fee can come from the defendant on top of whatever you recover. A case about the principle - the sore wrists, the neighbors watching from their porches - can still be worth a good lawyer’s time. The statute was written to pay for exactly that.
Missouri’s own version, and the line that protects you if you lose
Missouri law has a twin to Section 1988, and most fee explainers skip it. Under Section 213.111 of the Missouri Revised Statutes, a court hearing a Missouri Human Rights Act case may award court costs and reasonable attorney fees to the prevailing party. Then comes the sentence that should loosen the knot in your stomach: a prevailing employer or landlord may be awarded its attorney fees only upon a showing that the case was without foundation. In plain words, losing an honest discrimination case in Missouri does not hand you the other side’s legal bill. The fear of that bill is what keeps a lot of people at the kitchen table. The statute takes most of it off the table.
Hourly and flat fees, and when they show up
Some civil rights work doesn’t fit a percentage. If what you need is a court order making someone stop, rather than a check, there may be little money for a percentage to attach to. That work, and some defensive matters, can run hourly. Ask in the first meeting which structure applies to your case and why.
Ready for a different kind of fresh start? See what Missouri requires to bartend.
What you might pay out of pocket, and what happens if you lose
Two kinds of money move through a case, and people blur them. The fee is the lawyer’s pay for the work. Costs are the hard expenses: court filing fees, deposition transcripts, expert witnesses, records requests, getting papers served. Many contingency firms advance those costs and take them back out of any recovery, which is why a lot of clients never write a check while the case is live.
Now the fear that keeps people up at 2 a.m., staring at the ceiling fan: what if I lose? On a typical contingency agreement, there is no fee to pay because there was no recovery to take a percentage of. The advanced costs are different, and the contract decides them. Some firms absorb them. Some agreements put them on the client. Ask which, and get the answer in writing, not in a friendly handshake at the door.
Picking the lawyer: two or three calls, not twenty
Choose the way you would choose a surgeon: by fit for this exact problem, not by the loudest billboard on I-64. Make a shortlist of two or three attorneys who actually practice civil rights law, not a general office that takes one now and then. The same rule holds any time you hire a legal specialist, which is the whole point of our guide to when you need a tax attorney and not a CPA. Match the lawyer to the problem.
Maybe you ride MetroLink downtown for the consult, a folder flat on your knees, rehearsing the first sentence under your breath. Make that folder simple. Bring a single page: the date, what happened, who saw it, the names on any badge or letterhead, and what you want out of this. Keep any photos, texts, discharge papers or letters in one folder on your phone. Then say it plainly and watch how each lawyer answers. One will walk you through steps, risks and a realistic range. Another will talk about a big number. Hire the first kind.
Ask four things. How many cases like mine have you handled? Who will do the day-to-day work on my file? How are costs advanced, and who owes them if we lose? And the hard one: what would you tell me if my case were weak? A lawyer with a calm, ready answer to that last question has given it before.
Walk away from anyone who guarantees a result, because nobody can promise what a judge or jury will do. And if you can’t get a straight answer about fees and costs in the first meeting, you won’t get one later, when it matters far more.
You don’t need money to make the first call - you need the date it happened. Write it down, then browse civil rights attorneys across the St. Louis metro on St Louis Near Me Directory, pick two or three, and use the free consultation to ask your real questions before the 180-day clock runs down.
If you’re the civil rights attorney, the small firm or the solo practice that takes these cases, the people above are searching for you tonight. A listing for your practice is a quiet way to get more customers who already know exactly what they need.
When it’s a civil rights case and not just a bad day
You usually know it in your gut before you know the word for it: the badge, the HR door that closes a little too softly, the landlord’s smile that drops when the dog steps in. The thread through every one of these cases is power. Two neighbors arguing over a fence is a private dispute. It turns into a civil rights matter when the other side is the government, an employer or a landlord, and it used that position to take away a right the law protects: excessive force or a wrongful arrest, discrimination or retaliation at work, a housing refusal, a denied disability accommodation.
Job discrimination has an extra step people miss. Before you can sue, you usually file a charge with an agency first. In St. Louis, the EEOC’s district office sits in the Robert A. Young Federal Building at 1222 Spruce Street, Room 8.100; the phone is (314)-798-1960. Miss the 180-day state window or the 300-day federal one and even a strong case can close for good. That alone is a reason to make the call this week, before you have finished agonizing over whether you can afford to.
People are asking
How do I afford a criminal defense lawyer if the arrest came with a charge?
For a qualifying state charge, start with the Missouri State Public Defender, which takes applications through an online form or in writing at the local office serving the county where the case is pending. In the City, that office is District 22 in the Mel Carnahan Courthouse, 1114 Market St., Suite 602, phone (314) 340-7625. Unfold the charging paper before you count on it, because the public defender says a municipal violation or a traffic violation is not eligible for its services. If a private lawyer is the plan instead, our criminal defense cost guide walks through retainers and refunds before you sign anything.
Frequently asked questions
How do I get an attorney if I have no money?
For a strong civil rights claim, an empty bank account is rarely the barrier people fear. Contingency fees and Section 1988 fee-shifting mean the lawyer gets paid from the recovery or by the defendant. If no private lawyer will take it, call Legal Services of Eastern Missouri at 314-534-4200 to see if you qualify for free help.
Can I hire a lawyer and pay later?
Often, yes. Civil rights lawyers frequently work on contingency, so there is no fee upfront and the lawyer is paid a percentage only if you recover money. Many firms advance case costs and repay them from a settlement. Confirm the exact terms in the written fee agreement first.
Why would someone need a civil rights lawyer?
Because the other side usually has one. When police, an employer or a landlord violates a protected right - excessive force, a wrongful arrest, discrimination, retaliation, a denied accommodation - the case turns on federal and state law and strict filing deadlines. Taking that on alone rarely works.
What is the most common civil rights violation?
I could not find one official ranking that settles it. The cases lawyers see most fall into a few groups: discrimination and retaliation at work, police misconduct such as excessive force or wrongful arrest, and housing discrimination. Which one applies to you matters more than which is most common, because each has its own deadline.
Where is the best place to get free legal help?
In St. Louis, start with Legal Services of Eastern Missouri at 701 Market Street, Suite 1100, phone 314-534-4200. It handles civil matters for people under income limits. Many private civil rights attorneys also give a free first consultation, so ask when you call.
What are the odds of winning a civil lawsuit?
There is no honest single number. Outcomes swing with the facts, the evidence and the court. A capable lawyer will tell you how strong your case looks before you commit, and if a firm offers contingency, that is its own read on your odds.
Who pays the attorney fees if I win a civil rights case?
Under 42 U.S.C. Section 1988, a court may let the prevailing party recover a reasonable attorney’s fee as part of the costs. In practice, that can put your legal bill on the defendant, which is why a case with modest damages can still be worth a lawyer’s time.
Written by a dedicated team of St. Louis locals who live, work, and play right here in the St. Louis metro. Founder Lane Forman and team are committed to building the region’s most trusted directory by verifying listings and connecting local businesses with loyal customers across Missouri and Illinois.