Foundation-funded project protects the rights of chronically ill children to specialty care
When Jennifer Rodriguez got a call from a nurse case manager last May asking her to take a survey about her son Alex, 11, she had no idea that her responses could get him tossed from a Medicaid specialty managed care program for chronically ill and disabled kids. “I answered
A decade of partnership puts an end to 275 years behind bars
When James Bain embraced his sisters on the steps of the Polk County, Fla., courthouse on Dec. 17, 2009, as a free man for the first time in 35 years, he had served more time in prison than anyone ever exonerated through DNA testing. On March 4, 2016, 42 years
Foundation CEO Bruce Blackwell to receive 2016 Tobias Simon Pro Bono Award
Florida Bar news release by Mark Homeister Attorney Bruce B. Blackwell of Winter Park, a founding partner of King, Blackwell, Zehnder & Wermuth, P.A., in Orlando and now CEO/executive director of The Florida Bar Foundation, is the recipient of the 2016 Tobias Simon Pro Bono Service Award, the highest statewide
Video Spotlight: Saving Keith and Vickki’s Dream Home
Keith and Vickki Jordan’s money woes started the way they do for many couples – with a job loss – and soon overtook them in a perfect storm of shrinking income and rising expenses that almost cost them their Jacksonville home. Not long after Vickki lost her job, Keith,
A long legal road leads to a permanent home for Brittney
by Nancy Kinnally Brittney Carroll, 11, smiles broadly and extends her hand in greeting to welcome a visitor to her family’s Tallahassee farm, where she and her six siblings help care for a menagerie that includes dogs, cats, ponies, goats, chickens, rabbits, a donkey and a cow named Buttercream.
Laid off legal aid attorney continued pro bono on case ending with $17.4 million verdict
by Nancy Kinnally To most Floridians the town of Felda in Hendry County is little more than an overlooked dot on a state map, but to five women who worked in the Moreno Farms packing house there it became their own little corner of Hell. Maria del Carmen Aguilar, one
Pro bono attorney helps families struggling with debt
Frank Eaton has been practicing large, complex Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases around the country since 1990, based first in New York and now in Miami. While attending a bankruptcy conference where the Chief Bankruptcy Judge extolled the importance of pro bono assistance for general consumers who need — but can
Crossing Borders—My Experience as a First Time Juvenile Immigration Lawyer
When Dade Legal Aid/Put Something Back first asked for attorneys to take unaccompanied minor cases, I wasn’t sure I was the right lawyer for the job. Despite my history of public interest work, including early roots as a Federal Public Defender and a consistent pro bono practice over my thirty
Winning freedom from domestic violence
After 18 years of feeling like a prisoner in her own home and suffering – along with her six children – her husband’s constant abuse, Natasha De Synegub finally managed to leave after pro bono attorney Natalie Weech helped her devise a plan. Weech, herself a domestic violence survivor, represented
Andre Bryant becomes 15th man exonerated by Innocence Project of Florida
Andre Bryant was reunited with his family Oct. 1 after spending eight years in prison for a robbery he didn’t commit, making him the 15th innocent person to win freedom thanks to the Innocence Project of Florida. Using post-conviction DNA testing, the Innocence Project of Florida has worked since 2003
ACTL Fellows provide trial skills training for legal aid attorneys
by Doug Sachs Linda Smith, 48, her elderly mother and two teenage sons stood to lose their federally subsidized apartment after Jacksonville police found a marijuana plant on the family’s back patio, but before they would be evicted they would have their day in court. Such were the facts of
Garcia joins Foundation as director of pro bono
Former legal aid attorney Ericka Garcia has joined The Florida Bar Foundation staff to support local and statewide efforts to expand pro bono partnerships with bar associations, law firms, courts, law schools and legal aid organizations. As director of pro bono partnerships, Garcia will collaborate with The Florida Bar Standing