Every county in California is required by law to provide free legal assistance to members of the public who want to go to Small Claims Court. Since 1985, San Joaquin College of Law has provided this service under contract with Fresno County. In our 16 years of operation, trained law students, supervised by a SJCL Professor, have served roughly 80,500 clients, both in person and by phone.

The law students who work as Small Claims Advisors receive class credit plus pay for their work. They counsel people on Small Claims Court procedure, landlord/tenant law, bad checks, consumer protection law, and any other matter that might be brought in Small Claims Court. The students gain valuable experience in counseling clients and applying the law they learned in school to real life situations. The citizens of Fresno County benefit by having prompt responses to their questions from soon-to-be lawyers who have had specialized training in Small Claims matters.

The Small Claims Clinic is located on the 8th floor of the Fresno County Plaza building in downtown Fresno.