Last year, the Pew Charitable Trusts released “What is a Legal Assistance Portal?” to help policymakers and the public recognize the promise of portal tools and understand how they work. Pew identified four essential elements that are ideal for helping users navigate a legal issue and take informed action: 1) Ask, 2) Refine, 3) Learn, and 4) Connect. LawHelpMN’s Guide tool was chosen as exemplary in the use of refining questions (element #2) to clarify a user’s issue and generate more tailored, and therefore helpful, responses.

In a new fact sheet released this week—What Are the Essential Elements of Legal Assistance Portals? —Pew again emphasized this critical framework and how it facilitates a user’s access to timely, relevant, and accurate guidance. Pew analyzed 15 publicly available, statewide, multi-issue portals and used the framework to examine each. 10 met the criteria, including LawHelpMN.org.

For more about the four essential elements of online legal portals, read the full fact sheet.