Justice for Kids®

$9.7M

Child Abuse, Foster Care Negligence

Foster child abuse attorney Howard Talenfeld represented several former-foster kids who settled with the city of New York in December 2012. The city agreed to pay $9.7 million to settle the lawsuit. The money will help the former foster kids, some of whom were destitute and homeless at the time of the settlement.

$26M

Child Abuse, Foster Care Negligence

Attorneys representing eight developmentally disabled foster children who were placed in what one judge called a “house of horrors” foster home settled with New York state adoption and child welfare agencies and their state-contracted providers in 2014 for $26 million. This includes a prior $9.7 million settlement.

$14.3M

Negligence, Civil Rights (Child Abuse)

Child abuse attorney Howard Talenfeld filed a civil rights complaint on behalf of 19 children against nine Florida Department of Children and Families employees for egregious abuse and neglect in the home of Nellie Johnson. The State settled all of the Plaintiffs’ claims, including a negligence claim in Alachua County against DCF, for a total of $14.26 million.

$15M

Negligent Investigation, Child Brain Injury

A young girl has been awarded a $15 million verdict against the Florida Department of Children & Families (”DCF”) for negligently investigating abuse reports that her mother had abused drugs endangering the child. The eight-year-old girl who is referred to as H.H., was tortured and suffered permanent traumatic brain injury and quadriplegia from repeated episodes of abusive head trauma and is now completely dependent on others for all aspects of her daily functioning.

$5M

Child Sexual Abuse, Foster Care Negligence

Governor Rick Scott signed CS/HB 6509, a claims bill that directs the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) to pay more than $5 million awarded by a Florida jury to C.M.H., a victim of sexual abuse by a child in foster care. This marks the largest known recovery in Florida for one child who was emotionally and sexually abused against a governmental defendant, DCF.

$4.5M

Wrongful Death, Negligence

Christopher Nevarez, the father of Makenzie Nevarez, a 6-month-old baby girl who suffered catastrophic injuries and later passed away from blunt force trauma, has been awarded $4.5 million in damages in a wrongful death case involving the Broward Sheriff’s Office for failure to protect his daughter.