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.”

“Ohio legal help's irs form 990 filing and audit are available via its website. Further, any files requested by the public will generally be made available in digital format via electronic delivery.”

“Ohio legal help empowers low-income, underserved and vulnerable ohioans to understand their legal options, make informed decisions and take action. Using technology and innovative solutions, we remove barriers to justice and help people improve their lives. Ohio legal help's 2023 user metrics were as follows: total users assisted: 772,082 total visits to ohiolegalhelp.org: 1,001,632 total pages visited on ohiolegalhelp.org: 2.2 million total number of referrals: 271,594 o courts: 96,898 o legal aids (including pro seniors): 23,670 o private bar associations (lawyer referral service): 11,379 o public defenders and court appointed counsel: 8,518 o social service agencies: 59,788 user profile: o visiting on a mobile phone (70%) o average household size of 3 people o household income is less than 200% of the federal poverty level (80%) o nearly half (48%) fall into a special demographic whether that's facing homelessness (53%), experiencing violence or abuse (34%), over the age of 60 (28%), or a veteran (15%). Our top pages visited in 2023 were name change, protection orders, dissolution, the divorce process in ohio, and the eviction timeline. Our typical user visits the website on their mobile phone at all hours of the day and night. They are often in a household of at least 3 people, and their household income is less than 200 percent of the federal poverty level. Nearly half of our users are facing homelessness, experiencing or have experienced violence or abuse, over the age of 60 or a veteran. Thousands of our users also provided feedback to us on their needs and how we can improve our website. By analyzing this data and listening to our users, we know that ohioans turned to ohio legal help to solve core legal issues impacting their daily lives and that the design of our website and the information it contains must be straightforward and action oriented to provide accessible legal help. Every day, we incorporate concepts involved in user-centered design into our work. The heart of user-centered design is empathy and placing yourself in the shoes of the user: like a user confused about the divorce process, or a user scared about facing a debt collection lawsuit or a user navigating the stress of an eviction. By placing ourselves in the shoes of our users, we can tailor solutions to problems impacting their lives. One of our users wrote to us after finding the divorce information they were looking for and told us, "your website is well written, easy-to-understand, and gives honest examples of what to anticipate. Thank you for sharing your knowledge to all of us confused by legal proceedings." feedback like this is invaluable to us as we work every day to improve and expand our website. In addition to user feedback, our team met with countless partners across the state to learn more about our users' needs. Our partners know firsthand the difficulties many ohioans face with legal issues impacting their daily lives. They help guide the content and tools on our website so that we can deliver the best experience for our users. Through these partnerships and the guidance of our advisory committee and board, we learned that there were several areas of need that we could expand on our website. First, we worked with the supreme court of ohio and the franklin county domestic relations and juvenile court to create information and an action plan for kinship caregivers. Kinship care involves placing kids with grandparents, extended family members or close family friends, which can minimize trauma, provide more stability, and facilitate connections with siblings and other family members. Next, we worked with a team of volunteer lawyer experts at broadstreet partners to expand our content on employment law. This information on the website will help employees and employers navigate their relationship and understand ohio law. Later in the year, the work requirements for snap benefits (also known as food stamps) underwent changes that affected m”

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