Overview of Legal Aid Services
Legal aid services offer vital support for the underserved and underrepresented members of the Columbus, Ohio community. These nonprofit organizations provide essential legal services to low-income individuals and families who cannot afford to hire a lawyer for their legal needs. By offering legal counsel, representation, and a range of associated resources, legal aid services play a significant role in enabling people to secure their legal rights and gain access to justice.
The goal of legal aid services is to ensure equal opportunity for everyone, regardless of their financial situation. Without legal counsel, those facing civil legal issues are often at a disadvantage in navigating processes from arranging a hearing to filing the right paperwork. Because of this, around 20 percent of low-income individuals experience some form of injustice or legal issue each year according to a study by The Legal Services Corporation.
Legal aid services can represent clients in a variety of civil cases , including family law matters, immigration, bankruptcy, poverty law, and landlord-tenant disputes, among others. Cases that fall outside of the scope of their practice can be referred to other attorneys who may provide pro bono legal work for clients in need. For individuals in bankruptcy, legal aid services help determine if bankruptcy is the right course of action at no cost to the client. The organizations most commonly help people with Chapter 7 bankruptcy, which is a fresh start for individuals and small businesses, and Chapter 13 bankruptcy, which restructures debt payment plans while keeping the property owned by debtors.
In a society where legal representation is a privilege more than a right, legal aid services play an essential role in providing assistance to individuals who cannot afford to hire an attorney. By offering legal advice and representation to those in need, legal aid services help bring justice to those who might otherwise not be able to obtain it.
Major Legal Aid Providers in Columbus
Various organizations and legal service providers collaborate to offer services in Columbus, Ohio. These providers are focused on ensuring access to justice for low-income residents and play a critical role in bridging the justice gap.
North Star Family Law
Location: 220 Granville St., Columbus, OH 43223
Phone: (614) 817-2965
The Ohio State Legal Services Association (OSLSA) is a private, nonprofit organization that provides free legal aid in family law, juvenile law, and guardian ad litem services for the poor in Central Ohio. Funded by the Legal Services Corporation and the Ohio Legal Assistance Foundation’s legal aid network, OSLSA plays an integral role in furthering compliance with federal guidelines for proper procedures in Civil Rights Title VI matters.
OSLSA is guided by former Ohio Supreme Court Justice Yvette McGee Brown, serving as Board Chair and General Counsel. After graduating from Harvard Law School, she also worked as Chief of Staff to Franklin County Prosecutor and served a term as the Franklin County Common Pleas Juvenile Court Judge.
OSLSA’s principal offices are in the William B. Saxbe Law Center at Capital University in Columbus. It conducts most of its business from there as well as from its partner office in Dayton that serves Montgomery County.
Legal Aid Society of Columbus
Location: 20 S Third St., 4th Floor, Columbus OH 43215
Phone: (614) 224-8376
The Legal Aid Society, founded in 1913, continues to be a leading advocate for the poor in Central Ohio. A designated agency of the United Way of Central Ohio, it remains a key partner in efforts to coordinate service delivery systems for the poor and strive for the elimination of poverty.
South Central Ohio Legal Services (SCOLS)
Location: 575 S Third St., Ste. 300, Columbus, OH 43215
Phone: (866) 529-6446
The organization enhances the lives of low-income people in Southern and Southeastern Ohio through advocacy that improves their living conditions and breaks the cycle of poverty. SCOLS provides free legal representation to low-income clients, educates about their legal rights, and engages communities in improving their lives and their environments.
SCOLS Gateway involved a group of dedicated advocates coordinating efforts to improve access to justice in short-term and medium-term efforts. SCOLS Gateway provided the START Program for victims of domestic violence, whom SCOLS assisted with Temporary Protection Orders, custody and divorce issues, and changing the locks on their homes in order to make them safe from abusive partners.
The organization’s collaborative Reach Our Sisters program for low-income women of color aims to improve their wellbeing through a variety of legal assistance and information services.
Neighborhood Services, Inc. (NSI)
Location: 1112 E Broad St 3rd floor, Columbus, OH 43205
Phone: (614) 258-6390
Neighborhood Services provides legal assistance to eligible clients in matters involving foreclosure, consumer rights, bankruptcy and family law. Legal assistance is provided by lawyers contracted from the Central Ohio Legal Aid Society, at no charge to clients who meet certain eligibility requirements. The program also refers clients to other legal aid organizations where appropriate.
NSI’s Legal Aid program provides the following services to low- and moderate-income residents of Franklin County:
• Foreclosure prevention assistance
• Assistance with Medicare and Medicaid issues
• Family legal aid, including visitation rights
• Housing counseling and legal aid to avoid eviction and homelessness
• Legal assistance with divorce and child custody matters
• Social security assistance
The metered parking lot adjacent to the building has limited free parking.
Who is Eligible for Legal Aid
Legal aid in Columbus, Ohio is available for a number of different case types and income levels. Individuals seeking legal aid must first meet income eligibility requirements to be considered. For example, an applicant must have an income that is at or below 200% of the federal poverty guidelines. Income includes money from any job, pension, disability and unemployment benefits received by the applicant.
The type of case you need legal aid for will also determine your eligibility for services. Those eligible for legal aid will receive assistance with civil cases only. Any criminal case will not qualify for legal aid.
Civil case types eligible for legal aid include child custody, bankruptcy, divorce, domestic abuse, employment, juvenile delinquency, sexual abuse, consumer, foreclosure, housing and eviction. Legal aid services are provided through legal advice clinics like the one provided every Tuesday at Columbus City Hall. This clinic is designed to provide advice on consumer issues.
Additional requirements to be eligible for services is that the applicant must live in Franklin County to be represented by the Legal Aid Society of Columbus.
Applying for Legal Aid
In Columbus, Ohio, individuals seeking legal aid services can apply for these services through various organizations that have been legally authorized to grant them. The Ohio State Legal Services Association (OSLSA) is a non-profit group that has been serving those in need of legal aid for more than 45 years. There are several organizations within OSLSA that provide legal services because each group has a focus on a specific issue or population. Interested parties include the Advocating Opportunity program, Columbus Legal Aid Society, Legal Aid Society of Columbus, Community Level Advocacy program, and the Ohio State Legal Services program.
The application process is simple, but each program that is under the auspice of OSLSA may have its own requirements, so it is best to visit their websites for more information. Each applicant will need to fill out a questionnaire that will assess whether they are eligible for free legal aid services and it will evaluate their financial situation .
In Columbus, applicants might find that in order to apply for free legal aid services, they must meet certain income requirements. Those who are interested in applying for legal aid services will need to bring in their assets, income and expenses and proof of any household expenses – ideally three months of data. Some documents you may want to have handy at the interview include:
Qualifying for legal aid does not guarantee that an attorney will take on the case, however. While legal aid services prioritize cases that involved violence and threats of harm, cases like unemployment and foreclosure may not receive the same priority. It is up to the attorney to use his or her professional discretion when it comes to handling a case. If legal aid services cannot take on your case, you will be provided with the names of other local organizations that may be able to help.
Impact and Success Stories
The impact of legal aid in our communities cannot be overemphasized. In Columbus, legal aid has teamed with homeless shelters, we have had multiple public impact cases, and we have had significant impact on changes to the law which affect vulnerable people. Our attorneys have helped women fleeing domestic violence get temporary protective orders and have even been able to effect changes to certain outcomes in so doing. We have also assisted women in obtaining final protection orders; helped prevent someone from terminating their parental rights during a divorce; and prevented a domestic violence perpetrator from getting custody of his child after a false allegation was made against our client. We have helped the sick, lonely and old just by giving them a little legal advice. Many a life is impacted immensely when someone is able to complete their will (so that the State doesn’t get all their hard work) or have their request for guardianship granted (when all the family has passed). Many people can’t afford an attorney and it is gratifying to know that we have assisted them in securing legal assistance which helps them protect their interests. It is estimable that every dollar spent on civil legal aid returns $4.00 to the community. Public impact cases, such as defeating the unconstitutional statute which denied non-emergency Medicaid services to tens of thousands of disabled people across Ohio and equalizing the waiting period for same-sex spouses who seek divorce in Ohio, are just a few ways that the legal aid community has had a profound impact on the lives of everyday Ohioans.
Barriers to Accessing Legal Aid
The Columbus area legal aid landscape, like so many places around the nation and around the world, faces myriad challenges. The most obvious of all such challenges is funding. The legal aid in Columbus is partially—and increasingly—reliant on state Bar Association resources. As practice attorneys in private firms, they pay into a pot of funds which, in part, funds such programs. When financial priorities shift, such as they have in recent years, sometimes the legal aid services aren’t a priority. At the same time, legal aid organizations are also serving more and more clients. The Legal Services Corporation (LSC) reports that, in 2014, the Columbus-based legal aid served nearly 46,000 people, with a budget of $15 million. That’s a budget of just over $325 per client.
At the same time, the need is great. The American Bar Association (ABA) reports that Ohio’s overall Legal Services Corporation (LSC) funding decreased by 30%, from $17.2 million in 2010 to $12 million in 2013, while the number of eligible low-income individuals and families in the state increased 5% in that same period. This indicates that the Columbus area legal aid and the LSC need to find ways to serve an increasing number of clients with decreasing budgets; not an enviable proposition .
Not only do these budgetary issues continue to impact the ability of legal aid nonprofits to function, they stall their attempts to innovate and grow. With so many other needs in service to unmet, the momentary desire for such things as comprehensive data collection and evidence-based programming is simply not possible. Without these, obtaining grants and partnerships becomes more difficult.
When legal aid service providers cannot find ways to tap into the necessary legal aid funding opportunities, they must turn to private donation efforts, or to courts and corporations for additional resources. More often than not, this can result in a patchwork of service and ability that can amplify the problem.
As many times as it has been publicly stated, it is not possible to solve the issues of funding, transparency and need in Columbus area legal aid through additional funding, beyond grants and individual donations. First and foremost, there also needs to be some key changes that impact the way legal aid services are utilized, by both clients and attorneys that provide wider access to legal aid attorneys, and make clients feel more secure about using the services available.