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Process Over Prescription: Development & Practice of the Hamilton County Clerk of Courts' Help Center's Same-Day Eviction-Defense Program
Wednesday October 21, 2026 9:00am - 10:30am EDT
Cincinnati Convention Center
There will never be enough attorneys to provide full representation to every tenant facing eviction. Hamilton County, Ohio decided that wasn't a reason to do nothing — it was a reason to build something different. On December 6, 2023, the City of Cincinnati unanimously passed the Access to Counsel ordinance, creating a funding structure for same-day legal assistance to unrepresented tenants. Less than a year later, the Hamilton County Clerk of Courts Help Center provided its first in-court, stand-up representation. By the time of this conference, the Help Center will be providing same-day defense five days per week, having filed over two thousand appearances on behalf of tenants who would otherwise have faced eviction alone.
The panelists will begin with a brief overview of the eviction ecosystem in Hamilton County, Ohio, including the life cycle of an eviction case and the prevention services that were available to tenant-defendants before same-day legal assistance launched in 2024. Building upon this knowledge, the panelists will then discuss how same-day representation was designed and implemented by the Help Center. Panelists will focus on how same-day representation targeted gaps in the existing eviction-prevention ecosystem and allowed the Help Center to exponentially increase the percentage of tenants receiving legal assistance with a relatively minimal investment. The panelists will also discuss data collected from inception of this program and how it can be used to identify populations in need, assess program effectiveness, inform upstream eviction-prevention efforts, and assist with future partnership and fundraising efforts. 

Speakers
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Nicha Zingarelli

Hamilton County Municipal Court Help Center
Nicha Zingarelli (she/her) is the Director and Chief Attorney of the Hamilton County Clerk of Courts Help Center. Nicha has practiced law for over twenty years and has overseen a dramatic expansion of the Help Center during her leadership. Nicha has co-founded the eviction limited... Read More →
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Shannon Price

Hamilton County Municipal Court Help Center
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Samantha DiDomenico

Director, Stout Consulting
Samantha DiDomenico is a Director in Stout’s Transformative Change Consulting group. Samantha has 10 years of experience providing consulting services to for-profit and non-profit clients in a variety of industries. She has expertise in understanding large, complex systems and data... Read More →
Wednesday October 21, 2026 9:00am - 10:30am EDT
Cincinnati Convention Center 537 Elm St, Cincinnati, OH 45202
  Court Admin

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