Florida Injury Lawyer Blawg
Police have accused a mother of locking her toddler, 2, in a car outside a Florida movie theater when the girl became too “disruptive,” according to reporting from local media Monday, July 21.
The 18-year-old woman, of Lake City, has since been charged with neglect of a child without great bodily harm. The woman’s name is not being released to protect the identity of her children.
The incident happened on Saturday, July 19, when the mother took the toddler and her siblings to the movies. However, once inside, the 2-year-old girl allegedly caused “multiple disruptions.”
Police said the mother took the child to the parking lot and locked her in their parked car before returning to the theater. Police responded to the theater after receiving multiple reports about the child. When they arrived, they found the child “flushed, sweating and crying.”
On July 19, temperatures soared to 94 degrees and the heat index reached 107 degrees, police said in a news release.
Officers broke the glass of the passenger side window and rescued the child. She was transported to Lake City Medical Center for treatment.
Leesfield & Partners
As August nears, bringing with it Florida’s most brutal heat, temperatures continue to climb to scorching levels. The National Weather Service issued a heat advisory for South Florida Monday as the heat index was projected to reach at least 105 degrees. Officials urged residents to stay hydrated, drink plenty of water, and stay in the shade or indoors as much as possible. With the extreme heat comes concern for outdoor workers, construction workers and children and counselors in summer camps.
As a personal injury law firm with decades of experience throughout Florida, Leesfield & Partners attorneys know just how brutal the Sunshine State’s heat can be. As a safety precaution, the firm uses its visibility on U.S. 1, the city’s most-used highway, to issue advisories to passing commuters outside of its Miami office. These often include boating and ocean-related safety tips but have also included reminders to stay cool in the scorching summer months, especially for young children who can have a more difficult time regulating their body temperature.
At Leesfield & Partners, protecting children is our highest priority. For decades, our attorneys have advocated on behalf of young clients who have suffered serious injuries due to the negligence or misconduct of those responsible for their care. From careless daycare officials, teachers, doctors, schools, church officials and other caregivers, our attorneys have handled just about every manner of injury that can occur involving minors.
The firm is handling an ongoing case involving a toddler who drowned at a Central Florida pool. This case is being led by Partner Justin B. Shapiro and Eric Shane, a Trial Attorney at the firm.
Mr. Shane is also representing a minor and her family following a severe boating accident at a South Florida summer camp. The minor in this case was seriously injured when a boat propeller sliced into her leg, causing a severe and painful injury.
Evan Robinson, a Leesfield & Partners Trial Attorney, is representing a teen who suffers severe emotional scarring and PTSD after she was sexually assaulted by an adult member of a South Florida gym.
Trial Attorney Carlos A. Fabano is currently handling three separate and tragic medical malpractice cases at different institutions, each involving the death of a mother due to medical negligence. He represents eight children in total — three siblings in one case, three in another, and two in the third — all of whom lost their mothers as a result..
Previous Cases Involving Children
Leesfield & Partners previously represented a newborn baby and her laboring mother who experienced a traumatic birth at the hands of a negligent and careless obstetrician who used controversial birthing techniques that caused permanent damage. Despite the use of Pitocin, a drug meant to include labor and prompt contractions, our client spent days in labor. When this induction proved unsuccessful the obstetrician meant to have our client and her baby’s best interests used a vacuum on her for 45 minutes.
When that didn’t work, the doctor used a controversial birthing technique involving the application of fundal pressure. This means that the doctor pushed on the mother’s stomach to push the baby down the birthing canal. This technique often results in uterine rupture — which is exactly what happened to our client.
This rupture cut off the baby’s oxygen supply for an extended period, causing her to be born with cerebral palsy.
The family was awarded a $24.1 million award following a three-week trial, resulting in one of the largest verdicts in Seminole County.
Leesfield & Partners settled a case on behalf of a New York family who lost their minor child in an electrocution incident while vacationing in Central Florida. The firm secured a $10 million recovery amount for the grieving family in this case.
The firm handled a product liability case with a tragic outcome for the family of a minor who died as the result of a gun defect. Leesfield & Partners recovered $3 million for the grieving family.
In a case involving a cruise line, Leesfield & Partners recovered $2.5 million for a young boy who suffered brain damage due to an accident aboard the vessel.
Mr. Shapiro secured a confidential settlement for a boy who was hit by a speeding car after he was told to cross the street by his school bus driver. In that case, our minor client was waiting at the corner of the intersection just after 6 a.m. to wait for the school bus.
While it was pitch-black outside, the driver stopped in the middle of the road and turned on the vehicle’s flashing lights before signaling for the waiting children to cross the street where there was no designated crosswalk. Trusting their school bus driver, the group of children began to cross the street. A speeding driver then hit our client, causing him to be knocked unconscious and needing to be airlifted to the hospital where doctors diagnosed him with a traumatic brain injury.
Not only should the speeding driver have taken more care, but an investigation by Leesfield & Partners revealed that the school bus driver was in violation of state law by failing to ensure there was at least 200 feet of visibility in the direction of oncoming traffic. She also failed to stop in the lane that was the furthest to the right and instead stopped in a middle lane, leaving the children vulnerable to this kind of incident.
Ira Leesfield, the firm’s Founder and Managing Partner, and Mr. Fabano, a Trial Attorney at the firm, obtained a confidential settlement for four adults who were sexually abused by a church official while they were students enrolled in parochial schools. Though now adults, the physical, emotional and psychological toll that this abuse has caused to our clients has followed them throughout their lives.
By holding these entities accountable, Leesfield & Partners seeks not only to raise awareness of this form of abuse, but also to expose those in power who ignored warning signs or attempted to conceal the truth. As part of this goal, our firm has previously contributed to organizations that directly combat this type of abuse and provide essential services to victims and survivors.
The Leesfield Family Foundation, the charitable organization started by Mr. Leesfield and his family in the 1990s, supports charities such as Kristi House, Voices for Children, Lawyers for Children America, The Fatherhood Task Force, Amigos for Kids, and The Melissa Institute for Violence Prevention and Treatment.
The firm secured a substantial settlement for a minor who lost a limb while out on the boat due to the negligent supervision of the adults into whose care he was entrusted.
Bernardo Pimentel II, a Leesfield & Partners Trial Attorney, secured a confidential settlement in a case involving a 5-year-old who was injured in a motor vehicle-related accident. The child in this case was waiting in line at the register of a Florida discount store with his mother when a car smashed through the building’s storefront.
Thankfully, the brave mother was able to pull her son out of the way, but not before the crash resulted in a tear through her son’s right ankle. The injury caused severe laceration to an artery and tendons that required invasive surgery. The boy underwent at least six different procedures in just a matter of three weeks.
This incident was one of many at the chain convenience store.
The firm secured a $1 million recovery for a grieving family following the death of their child at a negligent daycare facility.
Leesfield & Partners attorneys handled a case on behalf of the grieving parents of a minor suffering from mental health issues who died while enrolled as a patient at a mental health facility. The firm obtained a $ 1 million recovery for the facility’s failure to supervise the minor.
In another case, Leesfield & Partners attorneys obtained a $540,000 recovery amount for a family who lost their child due to the negligent and insufficient medical care received at a Florida hospital.
