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
Batchelor Foundation gift supports Miami Law’s advocacy for foster youth
Freshman class president at Miami’s Design & Architecture High School, one of the nation’s best magnet schools, Stephanie Davis had ambitions of attending a top arts school and a father intent on helping her achieve her dream. But as she was getting ready to start her junior year, Davis, who
Innocence Project of Florida achieves its 14th exoneration
Cheydrick Britt goes free after more than nine years of wrongful imprisonment When the State Attorney’s Office for the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit dropped all charges against Cheydrick Britt Nov. 20, he became the 14th Floridian freed as a result of DNA evidence through the work of the Innocence Project of
Florida foster youth shine at the Capitol
The abuse Manushka Gilet suffered from the age of 12 at the hands of her stepfather did not stop her from engaging in a wide range of school-sponsored activities as a teenager; it took the laws then governing the foster-care system to do that. “I’m a very active child. I
Protecting the legal rights of Florida’s migrant farmworkers
Pedro Hernandez Perez, 51, has had his wallet stolen twice once from a migrant farmworker boarding house and the second time on a bus. “They took my money and my documents and left me without anything,” Perez said. Each time he was robbed Perez had to apply for replacement of
Children’s legal services projects in dire need of funding
A single mother waiting tables in Daytona Beach, Michelle Gonska rarely saw two days go by without getting a call from her first-grader’s school about his behavior. “I was trying to work, and the school was calling me every other day because they could not handle him,” she said. “I