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Archive for the ‘Guardian ad Litem & Representation’ Category

Florida Trend Story Highlights Foster Kids’ Need for Attorneys

November 25th, 2009   No Comments   Foster Care, Guardian ad Litem & Representation

ht-florida-trendIn a report issued this fall by the Children’s Advocacy Institute and First Star, Florida and six other states got an “F” for the legal representation and attorney services it provides to abused, neglected and foster children, notes a story in the December issue of Florida Trend.

“Very few of these children have lawyers, and yet their entire life is on the line,” says Howard Talenfeld, Chairman of the Florida Bar’s Legal Needs of Children Committee. Talenfeld is pushing for legislation to require that children in the state’s welfare system have an attorney. Read the Florida Child Advocate blog on Florida’s Failing Grade here.

The Florida Trend story helps highlight the plight of these children — and the Committee’s work on their behalf.

Foster Advocacy Group Florida’s Children First to Host Miami-Dade Fundraiser

November 16th, 2009   No Comments   Foster Care, Fundraising & Support, Guardian ad Litem & Representation

Florida’s Children First will hold its Miami-Dade Child Advocate Awards and Reception  on December 3, 2009 from 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM.

Child advocates, community and business leaders, and all other persons concerned about the future of Florida’s children, especially abused, abandoned and neglected children and youth are welcome. A $100 contribution is suggested; all proceeds will benefit Florida’s Children First, the leading child advocacy organization in Florida.

The event will honor three children’s advocates, including the Honorable Carlos Martinez, Andi Steinaker, and foster care “graduate” Julia Villamizar. (more…)

Florida Attorney: State Making Progress, But Reports Say Still Much To Do on Child Abuse & Representation

November 10th, 2009   No Comments   Foster Care, Guardian ad Litem & Representation

Two national reports failed the state of Florida with regard to preventing child abuse in the child welfare system, and they highlight the need for representation of children in the system.

Although Florida is making process in its child welfare system, the two reports still point out we have a long way to go.

“… the issue of providing more attorneys for children is being discussed statewide,” writes the Daytona Beach News-Journal. “The Florida Bar has a committee working on legislation for the upcoming session seeking more attorneys for foster children with special needs, such as the disabled, older teens and children being prescribed psychotropic drugs.”

“It only makes sense that Florida join the other 40 states that give these kids their own lawyer, ” Howard Talenfeld, chair of The Florida Bar committee, told the News-Journal.

Click on the following links to read Howard Talenfeld’s letters on the issue in the Miami Herald and South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

Florida Failure on National Report Highlights Need to Lend Voice to Foster Kids

October 17th, 2009   No Comments   Dependency, Guardian ad Litem & Representation, Legislative & Regulatory Issues

If Florida were a student, it would have earned a failing grade.

The state scored an F on a national report released this week that studied all 50 states’ protections of the legal rights of abused and neglected children. Florida was one of seven states to fail (the others were Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Maine and North Dakota). A-plus grades went to Connecticut and Massachusetts.

Findings were based on the laws for legal representation for juveniles in the child welfare system. Among the criteria, as reported by the Tampa Tribune, were whether a state requires that attorneys represent abused and neglected children in court; whether those attorneys continue representing those children until their case is over, and whether those advocates receive specialized training.

The report was from First Star, a nonprofit group that litigates and advocates on behalf of children, and the Children’s Advocacy Institute at the University of San Diego School of Law. (more…)

Florida Advocates’ Concern: Providing Lawyers to Children in Dependency Court

September 30th, 2009   No Comments   Dependency, Guardian ad Litem & Representation

The Florida Bar’s Legal Needs of Children Committee searches for common ground on how best to provide lawyers for children in dependency court — while not harming the statewide Guardian ad Litem Program.

This article Jan Pudlow, senior editor with the Florida Bar News, reveals how the committee members, including leadership at the Department of Children and Families, the head of the GAL Program, judges, legal aid representatives, and private attorneys, unanimously passed a resolution of agreed-upon concepts to guide the way toward crafting proposed legislation they hope will become a Florida Bar lobbying position in the 2010 Florida Legislature.

“For it not to come together would be a shame,” Bar President Jesse Diner urged the committee at the Bar’s General Meeting in Tampa September 10. “If we all care about doing the right thing, then we can find a way to come together and make this work.”

Added Committee Chair and foster care and child welfare attorney Howard Talenfeld, “If we can achieve real consensus with the Family Law Section, then we have a real shot at getting the funding necessary to advance the issue of representation of children in the state of Florida.” Read entire article here…


Jesse Diner: ‘Seven Years & Counting’ for Foster Children & Attorney Representation

September 21st, 2009   No Comments   Foster Care, Guardian ad Litem & Representation

Florida is one of ten states that do not provide attorneys to children in foster care and the dependency system. They are the only party  in a dependency case who are not represented and thousands do not have Guardians ad Litem.

jesse-diner

Florida Bar Pres. Jesse Diner

This year, Florida Bar President Jesse Diner is making the passage of legislation that would provide attorneys for foster children one of his top priorities. The commentary below appeared in The Florida Bar Journal…

Children are entitled to the same zealous advocacy adult clients expect of their lawyers. Yet, too often, children come to court powerless, with no one representing them at all. . . .

“If children are lucky enough to have lawyers, too often those lawyers are underpaid, inexperienced, and overwhelmed by huge caseloads. Judges are left to make life-altering decisions about a child without sufficient information to back up sound decisions.”

Those excerpts are plucked from the 2002 final report of The Florida Bar Commission on the Legal Needs of Children, a hardworking group of Florida judges and lawyers and experts on children’s issues chaired by 11th Circuit Judge Sandy Karlan. (more…)

Looking For a Few Good Lawyers: Judge, Attorney Spearhead Search for Pro Bono Lawyers

September 11th, 2009   No Comments   Foster Care, Guardian ad Litem & Representation

Pro Bono Lawyers, Advocates Sought to Help Southwest Florida Foster Children

In Florida courts for abused and neglected children, attorneys represent the Department of Children and Families, the Guardian ad Litem, and parents, but rarely is one there just for the child. Some have proposed changes to the system.

Howard Talenfeld, president of Florida’s Children First, a statewide advocacy organization, chairs the Florida Bar’s Legal Needs of Children group that is proposing the changes. “There are so many amazingly qualified guardians, but it’s time to recognize that the system is so splintered, so broken that these kids need more.”

Judge James Seals, who presides over Lee County’s dependency court, and Alicia Guerra, supervising attorney for the local guardian program, which provides court advocates for children, are trying to recruit pro-bono lawyers for children with complex legal issues and teenagers aging out of foster care.  Read the entire article here…

Florida Guardian ad Litem Funding Vital to Helping Neglected Kids

April 13th, 2009   No Comments   Guardian ad Litem & Representation

As Florida faces a financial crisis, our Florida Legislature is forced to grapple with ways to balance the budget. I recognize there are no good options for the Legislature, but some cuts create more problems than others.

The Florida Guardian ad Litem Program — whose staff and volunteer counselors and attorneys help the state’s neglected children and foster care youth — is facing severe budget cuts by the Florida Legislature that it cannot sustain. The Florida Senate has proposed an 8% cut in GAL funding and the Florida House proposal would cut 23% – or $7.6 million.

These cuts would result in a potential loss of 152 employees, or more than a third of the staff needed to recruit, screen, train, coach and mentor the nearly 5,700 volunteer child advocates who represent the best interests of abused, abandoned and neglected children caught in our dependency system. (more…)

Doing Good Can Be Good For Foster Children, the Developmentally Disabled & Practice

March 16th, 2009   No Comments   Foster Care, Guardian ad Litem & Representation, News & Events, Rights of Foster Children

Doing Good Can Be Good for Florida’s  Foster Children, the Developmentally Disabled, and Even Your Legal Career — a summary of a presentation to the Jacksonville Bar Association to encourage lawyers to do pro bono representation which occurred on March 19, 2009.*

By Howard Talenfeld

When I attended law school, like many other students, I did not pursue any specialization. After launching my practice as attorney in 1980, I was fortunate and handled significant commercial litigations (and not so important small claims cases), large personal injury claims (and not so important soft tissue injury cases), critical cases behalf of a municipality (and some traffic citations), and appeals in cases affecting thousands of people (and appeals affecting few).

Indeed, by many measures I was successful and even made partner in my present firm, Colodny, Fass, Talenfeld, Karlinsky & Abate, P.A., after one year of practice. However, something important was missing.  In spite of my financial, personal and professional successes, my practice did not give me great personal satisfaction.

In 1988, my law firm began representing the Florida Department of Health & Rehabilitative Services (“HRS). It happened as a fluke because one of its ALF licensees was seeking to hold the Governor Martinez in contempt. This opportunity occurred because our firm had a good reputation for its work as outside counsel hired by the state of Florida Division of Risk Management, and my partner, Joel Fass, was also the “go to” lawyer for Department of Regulation prosecutions. Our immediate success in this case mushroomed in to representing HRS as outside counsel across all of its major program areas: Children & Families, Delinquency, Economic Services, Developmental Disabilities and the Office of Licensing & Certification.

However, it was no accident that this occurred. (more…)

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