Justice for Kids® – Who We Are

Justice for Kids®’ singular mission is devoting its law practice exclusively to personal injury claims for at-risk, disabled and medically fragile children who have been physically, sexually, and emotionally abused or injured or suffered wrongful death in in the care of state child protection systems and their contracted providers. These injuries or death can occur in many  settings, including family residences, foster homes, group homes, emergency shelters, residential treatment centers, detention centers and delinquency facilities.

A division of the law firm of Kelley Kronenberg, Justice for Kids® is  the premier law practice explanding throughout the United States exclusively dedicated to fighting for and protecting the rights of abused, disabled and injured children in personal injury and damages cases. Although we have offices in  Florida, New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Oregon, Louisiana, Texas, and Indiana, we represent injured children cases with licensed, qualified co-counsel in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Because of our expertise and understanding of child protection systems, foster care and delinquency systems, our potential clients include society’s most vulnerable – at-risk, disabled, and medically fragile children who have been physically, sexually, and emotionally abused or injured anywhere in the United States who have suffered injury or death.

Our lawyers have earned their reputations nationally by earning precedent-setting verdicts and rulings, delivering multimillion dollar settlements, and providing pro bono legal counsel that helps our clients on their paths to recovery.

Our work has also resulted in state and federal systemic reform of child protection systems that has helped at-risk children avoid injury, harm, and damages in foster care and other child welfare settings. We serve on the Boards of some of the most impactful advocacy organizations, including Florida’s Children First (https://www.floridaschildrenfirst.org/), the National Association of Counsel for Children (https://naccchildlaw.org/), and The Youth Law Center (https://www.ylc.org/). We also support through charitable contributions and pro bono representations legal aid organizations, CASAs, and other organizations who serve children in foster care.

The firm‘s team of experienced children’s rights attorneys is led by Co-Founder and Lead Partner Howard Talenfeld, Stacie Schmerling, and Justin Grosz. An advocate nationally recognized for almost three decades of work with foster care and disabilities class action and damages claims in Florida, New York, and throughout the country, Howard has built a team of the most dedicated child advocates.

Justice for Kids Co-Founder and Lead Partner Stacie Schmerling is a veteran child abuse caseworker and investigator who has more than 15 years of experience working in the child welfare systems in New Jersey and Florida, and has worked alongside Talenfeld since 2008.

Fellow Co-Founder and Lead Partner Justin D. Grosz has focused his practice on injured, abused, and neglected children; catastrophic injury; wrongful death; child safety; and civil rights claims for more than 25 years, which he has now devoted solely for the last 7 years to representing children abused and neglected by child protection systems.

Where other personal injury law firms pursue foster care damage claims, , Justice for Kids® brings a unique understanding and approach to the representation of foster care and other at-risk children, the physically disabled, the developmentally disabled, medically fragile children, and those with mental illness. They are the only law firm with a national platform that exclusively represents these children throughout the nation.

Our creativity in applying the law on behalf of vulnerable children who have been physically abused, sexually abused, or neglected under the care of the state and its contracted private providers, while in foster care and other child welfare settings, sets Justice for Kids® apart from other law firms. We pursue cases of negligence and wrongful death and often pursue cases as violations of children’s civil rights in states that avoid accountability by hiding behind sovereign immunity and unique state court defenses.

As true advocates for our child clients, we help protect their damages recovery by establishing life care plans, which are protected by trusts and structured settlements intended to serve the needs of children often facing a lifetime of specialized care.

Our unique approaches and understanding of complex child protection and disability systems  have secured millions of dollars in verdicts and settlements for abused, disabled, and injured children where many personal injury law firms shy away. Our lawsuits, settlements, and case rulings have not only delivered damage awards to children injured or harmed under the state’s care, but the team’s novel approaches also have helped change state and federal case law.

A 1998 class action lawsuit, Ward v. Kearney, brought by Talenfeld with the Youth Law Center against the Department of Children and Family Services (“DCF”), resulted in a consent decree that established institutional reforms in the Broward County, Florida foster care system and almost tripled the state’s budget for Broward County’s child welfare system.

Talenfeld was one of the first attorneys nationally to utilize the federal civil rights damage statute, (42 USC § 1983) to recover damages for injured foster children. In his 2001 case Roe v. Florida Department of Children & Family Services, 176 F. Supp. 2d 1310 (S.D. Fla. 2001), Talenfeld recovered a $5 million damage award on behalf of six foster children, an amount far in excess of Florida’s sovereign immunity limit of $100,000 per child. This case was featured on ABC’s 20/20 in May of 2002 and again in December 2006.

In 2007, Talenfeld and his team secured a more than $14 million settlement, the largest recovery of its kind ever in Florida, for 20 foster children who were abused in a foster home.

Using this novel approach of applying civil rights law, Talenfeld has earned several significant wins. He prevailed against New York City and the Archdiocese of Brooklyn, which together paid more than $27 million in the case of Judith Leekin. The former foster mother ran what the courts called a “house of horrors” that imprisoned, abused and starved 10 disabled foster children.

The case H.A.L. v. Foltz, 551 F.3d 1227 (11th Cir. 2008) resulted in the landmark Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals decision recognizing that exposing foster children to child-on-child sexual abuse in foster care is a viable claim under the Federal Civil Rights Act 42 USC § 1983. This case paved the way to protect many other children in Florida and throughout the country who are sexually abused in foster care.

Talenfeld has also employed similar creativity to protect the developmentally disabled. In Baumstein v. Sunrise Communities, 738 So. 2d 420 (Fla. 3d DCA 1999), he led a team of attorneys who successfully argued in the Third District Court of Appeal to establish a private cause of action for damages based upon the violation of Florida’s Bill of Rights for the developmentally disabled under § 393.13, Florida Statutes. This decision was the first to recognize this approach and led to a significant settlement in the case.

Talenfeld oversaw the drafting and passage of the Florida Bill of Rights for Dependent Children (§ 39.4085, Fla. Stat.) and Florida’s first pilot program for attorneys-ad-litem for Dependent Children (§ 39.4086 Fla. Stat.). He was also instrumental in the creation of Florida’s Children First, (www.Floridaschildrenfirst.org), the state’s pioneering child advocacy organization dedicated to the protection of the legal rights of at-risk children, especially those in foster care.

Talenfeld has been equally as effective in the state capital. He helped write the law that required mandatory reporting of child-on-child sexual abuse and rape in community facilities. He also advocated for and helped encourage passage and the governor’s signature on House Bill 561 (§ 39.01305/ Appointment of an Attorney for a Dependent Child with Certain Special Needs. The new law ensures children who are victims of sexual abuse, sexual trafficking, are on psychotropic medications, or have been committed to a residential treatment facility, have attorneys representing them in all legal or administrative proceedings. Previously, attorneys were not required, and the best interests of such children were not assured.

Justice for Kids®’ unique approach to fighting for rights of children abused and neglected in the state’s child welfare system stems from Howard’s prior work for the agencies he now seeks to hold accountable. In the 1980s and 1990s, Talenfeld served as outside counsel to the State of Florida Department of Health & Rehabilitative Services where he helped defend the agency against damage claims, lawsuits and class actions involving Florida’s array of children’s and adult services.

Talenfeld later decided to use his experience to aggressively defend the rights of at-risk children. Today, the attorneys at Justice for Kids pursue a singular mission of pursuing actions against those who harm foster children, the developmentally disabled, and all the state’s most vulnerable residents.

Talenfeld, Schmerling, Grosz and their Justice for Kids teams have secured 7 and 8 figure multimillion dollar settlements and jury verdicts, helped hundreds of  society’s most vulnerable children, and given them the resources that they need to therapeutically address their traumas and other lifetime needs.