Significant budget cut in state funding in Florida’s state capitol are resulting in dramatic cuts in services for hundreds of disabled men, women and children on the First Coast .
According to Jacksonville Legal Aid attorney Sarah Sullivan, who has joined several other lawyers who are filing appeals to the State Agency for Persons with Disabilities, people suffering from autism, cerebral palsy and various levels of mental retardation are facing serious levels of service cut backs.
Budget cuts and reduced services take on a startling reality when translated into how they affect real people. Danielle Dowe is a 23 year old who is severely physically and mentally handicapped. According to her mother, Sharon, Danielle functions at the level of a 6 month old infant. In addition she suffers from life-threatening tonic clonic seizures.
Danielle is a person, not a statistic, but that doesn’t prevent the State legislature in Jacksonville from cutting funding for Danielle and many hundreds of other severely disabled people. Unless Sarah Sullivan and her lawyer colleagues are successful, these cuts will take effect before the beginning of the winter.
Jim Whittakar is the director of The Arc Jacksonville which provides services to over 400 special needs individuals. His real concern is trying to determine which of the vital services he and his staff are currently providing their clients can be eliminated or curtailed without resulting in a loss of life. He estimates that 60% of the people under his care will be affected. Sarah Sullivan correctly refers to these “as the most fragile and dependent people in the state”.
In Danielle Dowe’s case, the immediate effect would be that she cold no longer be cared for at home by her mother and would instead be placed in a group home. Anyone with the least common sense can understand that no state institution could possibly provide Danielle with the loving care that she is now receiving from her own mother!
So, Sharon Dowe has enlisted the assistance of legal services in appealing the budget cuts. Sarah Sullivan who is leading the battle has appealed to other lawyers to join legal services to volunteer their time, knowledge and expertise in doing ‘pro-bono’ work to help the Dowe’s win this battle. Sullivan admits that although legal services can’t pay volunteers in money, the lawyers can benefit from rewards that far exceed the monetary value of their work. “Ultimately”, she points out, “we can prevent someone from being placed in an institution”. And that to Ms. Sullivan is the greatest reward of all!
With assistance and moral support from people like Sarah Sullivan, is it any wonder that Sharon Dowe, after 23 years of sacrifice and love, doesn’t feel intimidated by the power of the State authorities.

If your child suffered a birth injury as a result of negligence or medical malpractice, you should be knowledgeable about what experienced birth injury attorneys can do to mitigate the suffering you are experiencing.
With the increase in advanced technologies and medicines medical practitioners are using today, birth defects are becoming increasingly prevalent. Regardless of weather it is a major or minor birth defect, an injury lawyer can help! You may well discover that you are entitled to compensation for the years you or a loved one has suffered. Your birth injury lawyer will help you decide on the most appropriate legal action to take, from advising and helping you file a class action lawsuit to pursuing an individual injury lawsuit. Regardless of how big and intimidating the defendant is, your Maryland birth injury attorney will help get you the results you are entitled to.
While having a baby is often one of the happiest times in your life, this can change dramatically if something goes wrong. Medical malpractice can result in irreversible injuries to your infant. For instance, a relatively common injury caused by carelessness and medical error can result in a child being born with cerebral palsy.

Cerebral palsy is caused by abnormalities which occur in the parts of the brain that control muscle movement. These abnormalities can cause the child to lose muscle coordination. These symptoms are not necessarily apparent immediately upon birth. In fact it can take months or even years for C.P. to be diagnosed.

If you feel that you were a victim of poor or less than careful medical care while you were giving birth and this resulted in your child suffering from a birth injury, you need to contact a competent and experienced birth injury lawyer. Your lawyer will ask you about the birth itself as well as the entire pregnancy. They will need to examine all of the medical records that document what happened during the pregnancy as well as the labor and birth, as well as your post-birth visits to the doctor. After speaking to you and learning all the details concerning your baby’s birth, your lawyer will interview your doctors and the attending medical staff. At this point a competent lawyer will be in a position to determine if you have a legal malpractice case. If you do have a valid case, your birth injury lawyer will set about getting the best compensation package that you are entitled to.
In the state of Maryland there is a particularly talented team of birth injury attorneys who trained both as physicians as well ad lawyers. Their firm specializes in cerebral palsy cases, and they have tried cases and arranged very significant settlements throughout the U.S. They can recover the very expensive medical payments you had to make before you realized that you were victims of malpractice, as well as the millions of dollars of expenses that will accompany your child throughout his life. When you are forced to confront the tremendous problems that C.P. can present, that can cause you, your ailing child and your family so much suffering and grief, contact the birth injury legal team which can help solve the tremendous financial burden you are facing..
To learn more about what you may be entitled to, visit www.askthelawdoc.com one of the country’s most celebrated and respected birth injury teams.