Not all teenagers are model citizens. Those who find themselves in juvenile detention might have committed acts or crimes or otherwise left the police with no options but to detain them. But when a child in juvenile lock-up is injured while in detention, it’s the responsibility of the authorities to... View Article
As child abuse attorneys and advocates who fight for children abused, neglected or injured in the child welfare system, we often see countless instances of “red flags” that should have warned caregivers and authorities about how to handle or care for the children in specific cases. Often, those warnings go... View Article
Foster child advocates often are concerned with cases of child abuse, child sexual abuse, and personal injury on kids in county and state child welfare facilities. With suspected teen prostitution, alleged drug use, and questions of lax oversight and supervision, a newspaper report regarding conditions at a state-contracted care provider... View Article
The news media recently reported about a youth league baseball coach being arrested – for at least a second time – for molesting children under his supervision. He was identified as a longtime coach with a South Florida Optimist Club. Parents had allowed the coach to have unsupervised sleepovers with a player from... View Article
Fort Lauderdale, Fla. – Howard M. Talenfeld, one of the nation’s preeminent children’s rights attorneys, was selected to the Florida Super Lawyers Magazine’s 2015 Civil Rights Super Lawyers list. Only five percent of attorneys in Civil Rights Law are awarded this honor. Talenfeld has also been named in the “Top... View Article
Talenfeld Law Partner Stacie Schmerling recently was recognized as a “Rising Star” by the Daily Business Review – the leading South Florida publication for the legal profession. A long-time child advocate who pursues cases of child abuse, sexual abuse, physical abuse perpetrated against children by organizations and institutions entrusted to... View Article
In our shared mission to help and protect children and foster children who are the victims of sex abuse, child abuse, emotional harm and other abuses, the Young Lawyers Section of the Broward County Bar Association has partnered with Florida’s Children First for a fundraising effort through August 1st. For... View Article
Florida’s Children First, the premier statewide nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing the rights of at-risk children and youth, especially those in foster care, received from the Florida Bar Foundation the recipient of the 2015 Paul Doyle Children’s Advocacy Award for its “Counsel for Dependent Children with Special Needs” Project. Through... View Article
The Florida Bar Foundation selected Florida’s Children First (FCF) as the recipient of the 2015 Paul Doyle Children’s Advocacy Award for its “Counsel for Dependent Children with Special Needs” Project. Through the passing of House Bill 561 last year, this project secured the right to counsel for dependent children in... View Article
Trash, feces, bug infestation and a setting one judge called “an immediate danger” to the six children inside, is the circumstances child abuse authorities discovered this week in a Central Florida home. The discovery begs child advocates and those who work to prevent child neglect to ask how parents can... View Article