Carolina Student Legal Services

Thank GOD for Fran Muse and Carolina Legal Services!!!! I was in a 5 month dispute with Financial aid, the IRS, my past employer, and SSA. This resulted in my scholarship and financial aid being withheld for the first month and a half of this semester. With Fran's help, I was able to advocate for myself and get the situation resolved and get my money released. I put off contacting CSLS for a long time, but wish I had reached out earlier. Such a wonderful and helpful resource to help students navigate difficult processes!

CLS has been an absolute life saver for me. As a student who cannot easily afford legal coverage, when my landlord refused to fix a sewage leak in my apartment and to reimburse me for damage to my property, Carolina Legal Services -- and in particular Tristan Routh -- stepped up to represent me. They made sure I was compensated properly and that my apartment was fixed. I am immensely grateful to Tristan and his teammates, and don't know how I would've gotten through this without their help.

An amazing, knowledgable team here! I absolutely would not have been able to access legal services independently, so I am so glad this is included in my student fees!

My organization worked with Fran Muse to gain our 501c3 status. She was very helpful and I would recommend CSLS to anyone looking for legal assistance!

So thankful to the CSLS team! I struggled with a very stressful apartment situation. Tristan Routh helped us get some rent abatement and terminate the lease. Dealing with the apartment complex on our own was incredibly frustrating. Our complaints fell on deaf ears, that is, until we got a lawyer involved. I’m just so thankful to have received FREE and very efficient service from CSLS.

CSLS helped me resolve an issue with a dentist that I had battling by myself for almost a year. They (the dental office) responded to a letter with legal letterhead within a week. CSLS staff are very professional and very prompt in their help. I recommend any student struggling with a legal issue to contact them as it does wonders to have someone in your corner!

I'm very grateful I finally remembered that there are legal services available to me as a UNC student! (Free of charge / included in tuition.) Tristan was helpful in navigating a difficult landlord and with his help, my wife and I are happily settled somewhere new and we feel mostly content with the resolution. I'm 99% satisfied with the services received here and would highly recommend students in need to seek support here. PRO TIP: Try to call and get an appointment as soon as you realize you might need legal advice. It took me I believe a week to get an appointment. SERVICES PROVIDED OUT of THIS OFFICE: legal advice, legal representation in court (with no fee, just you have to pay court fees and filing fees, etc.), and provision of template legal documents QUESTIONS WE HAD: (1) Advice about if there was any way to force our landlord to give us our security deposit back, while also mutually agreeing to early terminate the lease, (2) Advice about taking the landlord to court, in particular how much financial compensation he expected we could get, so that we could decide if it was worth the hassle. (3) Advice about what risks to address / what clauses to include in an early termination agreement. SERVICE PROVIDED to ME: (i) Gave me advice, based on my stated goals. He counseled that the best course of action was to early terminate the lease and forego our security deposit. There would be no real way to get the security deposit back without staying the full lease term and we did NOT want to stay any longer. (ii) He provided a very helpful one-page early termination agreement that my landlord agreed to use. MY SUGGESTION for IMPROVEMENT (to go from 99% to 100% satisfaction). I found Tristan kind overall, and was beyond impressed with his follow-up on my case. (I never proactively followed up with him as the situation unfolded, oops, but he followed up with me, and to me that's evidence of great care. THANK YOU.) During the consultation call however, I was offput when he assessed that both my landlord and I had "done things wrong." In the midst of an incredibly stressful situation, I just didn't appreciate being bucketed together with my complete jerk of a landlord. I broke a minor rule in the contract (putting art on the wall with thumbtacks... and mounting a TV with very normal sized screws -- all easy patches that I intended to fix before moving out, but technically I wasn't supposed to put any holes in the wall without explicit permission from landlord..)... While on the other hand, my landlord intentionally harassed us and had us living for more than 2 weeks without a working refrigerator with no communication about timeline of resolution in the meantime. And then threated to evict us because we were standing up for ourselves. What I did and what my landlord did aren't in the same ballpark in my opinion, and I just felt chastised and frustrated to be compared in that way. I'm sure it was not his intention, but I note it here for his consideration and also for a heads up to students, that if you've done something "wrong," just be prepared that he's not going to sugarcoat it and he will make it clear what the other party might be able to say against you.

Our house was having a multitude of issues due to the negligence of our landlord, and Student Legal Services was able to work with us to successfully resolve this promptly. Would recommend this to anyone!

Very friendly and willing to help! They helped me a lot with my case and in timely manner!

Attorney Fran Muse was very confident and knowledgeable in helping me quickly resolve an issue that I had been dealing with for a few years. CSLS is an amazing student resource and I am so grateful for the support they were able to provide.

Tristan was so incredibly helpful in assisting my roommates and me with a stressful legal situation we would not be able to deal with on our own. He was incredibly kind and responsive to our communications and always had our backs throughout our time at Carolina. Couldn't recommend Tristan and Carolina Student Legal Services more!

Could not thank Mr.Tristan enough for helping me out with the worst housing case I have ever met. He helped me in the summer, even when he was travelling. He spent a lot of time and tried his best to help me and think about my case. He replied to all my emails promptly and politely, and clearly explained everything to me. He is also very professional and tough, encountering my crazy landlord in my case, and he really helped me out of it and saved all my money and credit. He would provide you with all possible ways to have the problem solved and give you an idea of all possible consequences. He saved me from my worst, horrible time in summer. And I just got my deposit back, fully last week. Tristan is always the best! Thank you!

Tristan and the team at Carolina Legal Services exceeded our expectations from start to finish. Tristan was professional, timely, patient, and overall was one of the only slivers of hope keeping us positive throughout a nightmare. I only wish students were more aware of this fabulous, free resource!

I’m so grateful for the work Tristan put into my case. When I initially reached out to Legal Services, I did some research and saw all of the amazing reviews he has; I can assure you he lives up to them in every way! I’m honestly surprised (and very thankful!) he stays at UNC. He was very efficient and responsive. What I really admired is how easily he could answer my legal questions without having to do any research- he’s incredibly knowledgeable. I ended up with an even better outcome than I anticipated. For reference, I dealt with a very stressful landlord-tenant situation involving mold in my apartment. I highly, highly recommend his services!

I cannot thank Tristan enough for the tremendous support he provided during one of the most stressful housing situations I’ve ever faced. From the very beginning, Tristan showed compassion, honesty, and an impressive understanding of landlord-tenant law. He took the time to carefully listen to every detail of my case, guide me through the process step by step, and advocate for a fair resolution. What truly stood out was his ability to break down complex legal concerns into language I could understand and his willingness to go the extra mile to ensure I was protected. Because of Tristan’s guidance, I was able to reach a settlement that brought peace of mind and officially closed a difficult chapter. Thank you, Tristan, for your unwavering dedication and care. Your work makes a true difference for students and tenants like me!!

My townhouse was flooded during a flash flood in CH, and Tristan Routh was an incredible support throughout our lease termination process. He explains steps in a clear way and is very responsive!

Tristian Routh was a massive help in dealing with a leasing issue. Highly recommend this service to UNC students!

Carolina Legal Services was so helpful in beginning our campus organization. Thank you Fran for all of the advice and time you spent with our executive team!

A great resource for UNC students! I worked with attorney Tristan Routh, who was incredibly helpful, quick to respond, and very thorough. He provided excellent representation and made a stressful situation much easier. I highly recommend this service to any UNC student in need of legal advice or representation.

Attorney Tristan Routh represented us in a breach of contract case, and I am very pleased with the legal services provided throughout the entire process. From the beginning, he demonstrated a strong understanding of contract law and laid out a clear, effective strategy for pursuing the case. He dedicated a tremendous amount of time and effort to our case, and his communication was always prompt and professional. I truly appreciated his attention to detail and the way he remained focused on the facts and evidence that were most important to our claim. What stood out most was his ability to stay calm, composed, and strategic—even when the opposing party was difficult to work with. The strategy he implemented helped us achieve a fair and successful outcome. We are deeply grateful for his consistent support and commitment over more than a year. I would highly recommend him to anyone dealing with a complex contract dispute.