Coronavirus: Many Ohioans turning to free legal website for answers

COLUMBUS — A website created to provide Ohioans with free, easy-to-access legal help is also serving as a beacon for information related to the coronavirus pandemic. The new COVID-19 resource page at OhioLegalHelp.org has drawn thousands of visitors in recent days, with most searching for information and assistance navigating unemployment benefits, foreclosures, stimulus payments and other issues raised by the economic shutdown. Those trends aren't surprising, said Susan Choe, executive director of Ohio Legal Help, the nonprofit organization that runs the online portal. "Obviously, online resources are critically important right now," she said. "We want to make sure people have good information." The website and its COVID-19 page are constantly updated so that visitors have the latest on all kinds of measures affected by the pandemic, from unemployment and furloughs to the primary election and the 2020 Census. There are links to all Ohio courts, information about taxes and Social Security, student-loan payments and public benefits and more. Choe even read the entire text of the federal coronavirus stimulus bill known as the CARES Act -- all 800-some pages of it -- so that she could relay the most important parts. "Google is sending more people right now to our unemployment page than to our home page, and that's the first time this has happened," she said. "I can see what they're looking for, so I make sure to put that upfront." OhioLegalHelp.org was launched last year by the state's legal system to address what advocates call the justice gap. Though large shares of low-income households experience at least one civil legal problem each year, the vast majority go without adequate legal help. In 2015, the Ohio Supreme Court's Task Force on Access to Justice called for the development of a statewide, online resource to aid the growing number of Ohioans who say that cost and confusion keep them from accessing the legal system. "We're trying to curate what folks want in a tool kit," Choe said. "I really want to encourage folks to visit the site -- there's a lot of important information." ——— ©2020 The Columbus Dispatch (Columbus, Ohio) Visit The Columbus Dispatch (Columbus, Ohio) at www.dispatch.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.