Ohio Legal Help

“The form 990 is distributed to the full board for review and approval prior to filing.”

“Ohio legal help's conflict of interest policy and procedure extends to all directors and to ohio legal help's executive director. Each director and officer must annually complete and sign the "annual business relationship and conflict of interest form". Determinations of whether an actual conflict of interest exists are made by the board through a majority vote which excludes the vote of a potentially conflicted director(s). No director or officer may preside over, vote on, or participate in any deliberation of any matter in which such director or officer has a conflict or potential conflict of interest.”

“On an annual basis at ohio legal help's june meeting, the full board discusses the salary and compensation of the executive director in executive session. The salary and compensation of the executive director for the next fiscal year is then set based upon her annual performance review and review of executive salaries from comparable non-profit organizations in ohio and nationally.”

“The organization makes available all documents required by law.”

“Ohio legal help empowers ohioans to understand their legal options, make informed decisions and take action. This year, ohio legal help celebrated five years of impact, partnership, and innovation. Since our launch in 2019, we have served 3.7 million users - 80% of whom live at or below 200% of the federal poverty level. Every number represents an ohioan facing a legal challenge, and for many, our website is more than a resource - it's a pathway to resolving their legal issues. And over the past year, we've worked hard to make that path stronger and easier to access. We remain guided by a simple but powerful principle: to meet ohioans where they are and provide the tools they need to take charge of their legal situations. With 70% of our users visiting the site on mobile devices, we've always prioritized a mobile-first design that allows ohioans to find answers anytime, anywhere. In 2022, ohio legal help was recognized as a national leader in providing easy to access, plain-language, high-quality legal information. This acknowledgment reaffirmed our commitment to user-friendly design, but we knew there was more to do. We've leveraged technology to reach more people, collaborated with partners to create new legal content, and continued to innovate so that every ohioan, regardless of income, has the tools they need to navigate the legal system. Here's a look at some of the work we've done in the past year to expand access to legal help across ohio. Expanding access across ohio: five years ago, ohio legal help launched with a simple but powerful goal: to provide clear, reliable legal information and resources to help ohioans navigate the legal system. Since then, we have served millions of ohioans - people facing eviction, survivors of domestic violence, and families dealing with complex legal issues for the first time. Ohio legal help's 2024 user metrics were as follows: o total users assisted: 757,206 o total visits to ohiolegalhelp.org: 990,792 o total pages visited on ohiolegalhelp.org: 2.0 million o total number of referrals: 194,053 broken down through - o courts: 82,771 o legal aids (including pro seniors): 27,645 o private bar associations (lawyer referral service): 12,041 o public defenders and court appointed counsel: 8,088 o social service agencies: 63,508 user profile: o visiting on a mobile phone or tablet (70%) o average household size of 3 people o household income is less than 200% of the federal poverty level (80%) o nearly half (49%) fall into a special demographic whether that's facing homelessness (49%), experiencing violence or abuse (32%), over the age of 60 (29%), or a veteran (15%). Our top pages visited in 2024 were name change, protection orders, dissolution, the eviction timeline, and finding a lawyer. Just six months after our launch, the covid-19 pandemic upended daily life, and ohioans turned to us in record numbers. In 2020 alone, more than 310,000 people visited our site, seeking information on unemployment benefits, eviction protections, and other resources. Over the years, we've adapted to meet evolving needs - from launching domestic violence civil protection order forms in 2021 to helping nearly 90,000 ohioans access rental assistance in 2022. Innovation has been at the heart of our work. In 2023, we launched the first virtual self-help center in montgomery county, helping self-represented litigants navigate family law cases with greater confidence. That same year, we launched the spanish-language version of our website, translating more than 203,000 words to ensure that our users can find and understand their legal options. In 2024, we continued to prioritize access. We implemented text-to-speech functionality to support low-literacy users and those with different learning styles. We also expanded multi-language translation across our site, ensuring that more ohioans can understand their legal rights. Over the past five years, ohio legal help has become a trusted resource for more than 3.7 mil”

“The oversight process has not changed from the prior year.”