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Legal Assistance to Micro-Enterprise Project

Texas Rural Legal Aid and Texas Community Building with Attorney Resources - 020042

Abstract Number: 020042

August 2002

Texas Rural Legal Aid (TRLA) and Texas Community Building with Attorney Resources (Texas C-BAR) created the Legal Assistance to Micro-Enterprise Project (LAMP) to provide legal services to indigent small business owners along the Texas/Mexican border. TRLA classifies micro-enterprises as small businesses, which satisfy the following requirements:

  • the entrepreneur is the sole employee or has fewer than five employees;
  • the business is typically home-based or operated from a garage or truck;
  • the entrepreneur has no access to capital through traditional loans;
  • the business is the sole source of income for the entrepreneur;
  • the neighborhood or city is usually the market area.

TRLA began this program last year and modeled the project off of micro credit programs implemented throughout the developing world. TRLA observed that the Texas/Mexican border shared some characteristics with the developing world such as a widespread lack of capital to promote business, often times the women is the sole breadwinner, the general population has a low level of formal education, and it is common for many people to earn much of their income through informal markets. Consequently, many small business owners do not understand legal requirements of running businesses and this can lead into exploitive situations where individuals sign exorbitant leases or businesses are shut down due to lack of permits and compliance with state and federal regulations.

TRLA assists low-income business owners by providing direct legal assistance as well as providing business education to assist these business owners in the development of their businesses. In doing so, micro enterprises offer a way for low-income individuals to escape poverty. TRLA attorneys provide transactional legal assistance, lease agreement assistance, and education on federal and state regulations. In addition, TRLA provides basic business education such as how to keep records and how to go about borrowing money from a bank. To learn more about this project, click on the article below.

Contact Information:

Diana Song
Team Manager
Texas Rural Legal Aid
1719 Matamoros
P.O. Box 888
Laredo, Texas 78042-0888
Phone: (956) 727-5191
Fax: (956) 727-8371
Dsong@trla.org

Additional Information:

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