Low-income Hoosiers have a new way to find legal help online, a portal set up by the state’s Coalition for Court Access.
Indianalegalhelp.org is what Indiana Bar Foundation executive director Chuck Dunlap calls a “front door” for low-income Hoosiers who need legal help for civil cases. The site provides contact info for lawyers across the state who provide free legal service. And the Bar Foundation’s Marilyn Smith says it also has self-help forms for those who will go without a lawyer.
“For child support, divorce, name change,” Smith says.
There are also plans for the site to grow. Dunlap says currently, free legal services across the state are disconnected, scattered. He hopes the online portal can centralize connection to those resources.
“So that the system is in charge of matching people to the appropriate level of service, the appropriate organization to help them,” Dunlap says.
The site also links people to the state’s existing online legal advice platform, staffed by lawyers who volunteer from across the state.
