A letter to the editor from preeminent foster child rights attorney Howard Talenfeld was published in the Miami Herald and the Naples Daily News this week regarding the tragic deaths of teens like Giulianna Ramos Bermudez, Lauryn Martin-Everett and Naika Venant. Their suicides prove again that privatization of the child welfare... View Article
July was a good month for foster families and families who adopt special needs children. Starting this month, foster families statewide can enjoy for free any of the state’s 174 state parks. The news is the result of legislation passed and signed by Governor Rick Scott during the during this... View Article
Talenfeld Law has been named the 2017 Law Firm of the Year, the preeminent law firm serving children who have been abused, harmed, and neglected in foster care and other child welfare settings, has been named the 2017 Law Firm of the Year by Broward Lawyers Care, the pro bono... View Article
This month’s seventh annual Bridge to Justice Breakfast, hosted by the Executive Council of Legal Aid Service of Broward County (LAS) and Coast to Coast Legal Aid of South Florida (CCLA) raised more than $54,000 to help members of the community who need access to justice. Dave Pelzer, a New... View Article
Florida’s Children First, Florida’s preeminent child advocacy group, has announced its annual Miami-Dade Fundraiser and Awards Ceremony. The event will be held Thursday, May 18, 2017, from 5:30PM to 7:30PM at the law firm of Hogan Lovells (600 Brickell Avenue, 27th Floor Miami, FL 33131). To RSVP learn more, email events@floridaschildrenfirst.org or... View Article
Florida’s child advocates and attorneys who fight for the rights of youth abused and neglected in the Florida child welfare system were pleased when an important bill found its way through the Florida Legislature. The “Keys to Independence Bill” was on the way to Governor Rick Scott for signature by... View Article
Many think of “child abuse” as a physical act of abuse being committed upon kids who are emotionally, physically, or sexually harmed by others. The harm they face, whether as young children or teenagers in households with their families, living in the system, or enduring life on the streets, often... View Article
When the Florida Department of Children and Families responded to a records request by the media regarding the suicide of Lauryn Martin-Everett with the line, “We remain deeply saddened by the tragic loss of this child,” some could argue the admission itself was a reflection of the state’s failed experiment with privatization... View Article
Pioneering child advocacy attorney Howard Talenfeld, who fights for the rights of children harmed, injured, physically and sexually abused, or who have died while under the watch of Florida’s child welfare system, recently spoke with WLRN to discuss the need to end Florida’s tragic, failed experiment with child welfare privatization.... View Article
When a 14-year-old girl used Facebook Live to live-stream her suicide, the world came to discover the help she desperately needed and never received from Florida’s social services agencies, notes her attorney. Her destructive behavior and long stint in foster care should have been sufficient warning. But as with other... View Article