What We Do

Ohio Legal Help is a nonprofit organization that was founded in 2018 to help all Ohioans access the civil justice system. We provide plain language legal help information, interactive self-help tools and connections to local legal and community resources that can help people resolve their legal issues.

Our legal help information is written by Our Team and reviewed by expert private and legal aid lawyers. This ensures that Ohio Legal Help users have information that is easy to understand, action-oriented and accurate.

History

In 2015, Ohio’s Task Force on Access to Justice, convened by Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor and comprised of members of the courts, legal aid, the Foundation and the private bar, recommended specific actions to help close the civil justice gap. The sixth recommendation from the Supreme Court’s Access to Justice Task Force Report was to “develop and maintain a statewide website devoted to providing free and accurate legal information to Ohio residents.”

In response to this charge, in 2017 a Steering Committee of diverse stakeholder groups - including the Supreme Court of Ohio, the Ohio Judicial Conference, the Ohio Clerk of Courts Association, the Ohio State Bar Association, the Ohio Access to Justice Foundation, the Alliance of Ohio Legal Aids, the Consortium of Ohio County Law Libraries, the Ohio Library Council, and the Ohio Domestic Violence Network - came together to develop Ohio Legal Help.

Today, these stakeholder groups continue to guide the content and tools developed for Ohio Legal Help through our advisory committee.