Tampa
“History will judge us by the difference we make in the everyday lives of children.”
– Nelson Mandela
- Tampa Office:
1511 N. Westshore Blvd., Suite 400
Tampa, FL 33607
Phone: 844-4KIDLAW (4543529); 754-888-KIDS (5437)
- Attorneys: Howard Talenfeld, Stacie J. Schmerling, Justin Grosz, Nicole R. Coniglio
This city is the home of a Kelley Kronenberg office that covers the Suncoast Region including Tampa, St Petersburg, and Sarasota. This region has struggled with private agencies failing its children. In 1997, the Sarasota YMCA, now known as the Safe Children Coalition, Inc., was Florida’s flagship privatized child welfare agency. Read more here. However, the privatization of child welfare has struggled in this region. For example, Family Continuity Programs, Inc. lost its contract because of repeated poor performance, and, tragically, successor agencies have failed to protect children exemplified by recent events like the death of two-year-old Jordan Beliveau, who was reported missing and murdered. Read more
On a positive note, Tampa is also home to the Children’s Board of Hillsborough County that’s sole purpose is to invest in the well-being of children and families.
Cases
- Case Involving Sexual Abuse. Foster child who was sexually abused by an older known sexually aggressive boy in a shelter filed lawsuit against the shelter and child welfare agencies in Collier County for failure to protect him from sexual abuse. The case resolved for an undisclosed amount.
- Near-Drowning Leaves Foster Child Left Brain Damaged. Howard Talenfeld, on behalf of representatives for A.S., a two-year-old foster child left brain-damaged after a near-drowning in a swimming pool, brought suit in Pinellas County, FL, against the Department of Children and Families and private care providers Help a Child Inc. and Family Continuity Program, Inc. A.S. was born in 2000, but in January 2001, an abuse report was phoned into DCF’s Abuse Hotline for medical neglect that she was born with respiratory and heart defects and her mother was not providing the treatment she needed. DCF placed A.S. in shelter care and later adjudicated her dependent so in February 2001, A.S. was placed in the foster home where, because she was unsupervised, she nearly drowned in a swimming pool. At the time of the near-drowning incident, DCF was planning to seek termination of the parental rights of A.S.’s natural parents, which would have enabled A.S. to be placed for adoption. As a result of the near-drowning incident, Justice for Kids attorney Howard Talenfeld filed a negligence action against DCF, the foster parents, Help A Child, Inc., and Family Continuity programs. This case settled for an undisclosed amount, and A.S. has defied all odds. 18 years later she is alive at KIDZ KORNER, a pediatric nursing facility in Broward County, FL. Although her special needs trust remains intact, because Medicaid benefits will be significantly reduced on her 21st birthday, in April 2020, Justice for Kids began seeking a claims bill pro bono to ensure that her trust is replenished.
- Lawsuit for Negligence Resulting in Foster Child’s Mental Health Deterioration. This lawsuit was filed in Sarasota County, FL on behalf of a former foster child against DCF, several private community-based child welfare agencies, the former foster parent, and an emergency shelter for negligence resulting in the child’s mental health deterioration throughout multiple placements and child-on-child sexual abuse in foster care. The case resolved for an undisclosed amount.
- Case Against Child Welfare Agencies That Allowed Child to be Discharged to Drug Addict Mom Settles for Undisclosed Amount. Florida child abuse attorneys sued child welfare agencies, a substance abuse provider, and a hospital in Pinellas County, FL on behalf of a child who suffered permanent brain damage and other injuries due to malnutrition and neglect when he was six months old. The child was born substance exposed to a mother with an extensive substance abuse history and prior child welfare history. The child was left in his mother’s care and the family was placed under voluntary “diversion” services for approximately three months. The child sustained his injuries six weeks after the diversion case closed.
- Negligence and Wrongful Adoption Lawsuit. Filed in Hillsborough County, FL, this was a lawsuit against private child welfare agencies for failure to disclose children’s sexual abuse histories and sexual behaviors to adoptive parents, resulting in the lack of a safety plan and child-on-child sexual abuse. The claim against the three agencies responsible resolved for undisclosed amounts.
- Lawsuit for Negligent Child Protective Investigations, Failure to Address Pattern of Abuse Reports. This was a lawsuit filed in Pasco County, FL against a private child welfare provider and others for negligent child protective investigations, failure to address the pattern of abuse reports on the foster home, failure to discover that foster parents were drug dealers, and failure to protect foster children/adoptive children from abuse and neglect by caregivers after the foster home lost its license. The case resolved against Family Continuity Programs for an undisclosed amount.
- Lawsuit Against Residential Therapeutic Group Home for Failure to Protect Foster Child From Child-On-Child Sexual Abuse. Child abuse attorneys filed this lawsuit in Hillsborough County, FL against a residential therapeutic group home for failure to protect a foster child from child-on-child sexual abuse, resulting in the thirteen-year-old getting pregnant at the facility and giving birth to a child when she was only fourteen years old herself. The case sought damages for sexual abuse and emotional trauma and settled for an undisclosed amount.
- Negligence and Wrongful Adoption Lawsuit Filed in Hillsborough County. This lawsuit was against private child welfare agencies for failure to disclose children’s sexual abuse histories and sexual behaviors to adoptive parents, resulting in the lack of a safety plan and child-on-child sexual abuse. The case resolved for undisclosed amounts.
Florida Cities Served:
Fort Lauderdale Child Abuse Law Firm
Jacksonville Child Abuse Law Firm
West Palm Child Abuse Law Firm