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

Medical-legal partnership answers veterans’ needs, changes lives

When Henry Wilson’s VA pension was cut from $1,000 to $65 a month due to clerical errors, the lost income put him into a downward spiral that only reversed when a young lawyer and fellow Army veteran intervened and got his benefits restored. Equal Justice Works Fellow Amanda Sejba, whose

Rule challenge restores millions in food stamps, mostly to elderly, disabled

Thomas Mayer, 86, lives alone in a two-bedroom, tin-roofed house in the woods of rural Calhoun County, Fla., where his only companion is a 2-year-old Labrador mix named Boy. Mayer, not his real name, does his own plumbing, air conditioning, electrical work and auto repair, enabling him to live on

Foundation’s early investments in the fight against human trafficking continue to pay dividends

When her labor pains started, Jacinta Moreno, 15, pleaded to be taken to a hospital to have her baby, but the man who had forced her into labor in a Ft. Pierce, Fla., orange grove would not allow it. “He said to me, ‘You can’t go to a hospital, because

Foundation grantees stepping up to help children fleeing violence in Central America

  Even though their mother had already died in the Arizona desert on her way north from their native Honduras, Angie, 17, and Oscar, 12, decided their odds of survival would be better if they followed her path than if they stayed at home, where they were under constant threat

Support of Bar members critical to success of children’s projects

  In spite of having a 3.7 high school GPA, serving as an ROTC Brigade Commander and having been selected for a highly competitive statewide youth leadership program, Trenton Miller says he’d never considered college until a volunteer lawyer showed him his options. “I was just going to go into