When the System Fails a Child: Injury Claims for Youth in Foster and Group Care

Every year, thousands of Florida children live in placements arranged by the state — foster homes, group homes, residential facilities. The entities running those placements have a legal duty to keep those children safe.

When they don't, the child has a claim. But almost no one tells the child, or the family, that it exists.

This post explains how those claims work, why they're difficult, and — the part that gets discussed least — how to make sure a recovery actually reaches the child.

Who is responsible when a child in care is hurt?

It depends on the placement and on who failed. Potential defendants can include:

• The state agency that placed the child
• A private, contracted provider operating the placement
• The facility or home itself
• Individual staff, in some circumstances

Each of these carries different rules. Claims against the state and its agencies fall under Florida's sovereign immunity statute, § 768.28, which caps damages, requires a formal pre-suit notice, and imposes its own deadlines. Claims against private contractors may not.

Sorting out who is actually liable — and under which set of rules — is the first job.

Why these cases are hard

The other side has the child's entire file. The agencies being sued are frequently the same ones that have documented the child's history for years. That history gets used.

Notice requirements are unforgiving. Under § 768.28, a claim against a state agency requires written pre-suit notice, and the agency has a statutory period to respond before suit can be filed. Miss the notice and the claim can be lost regardless of merit.

Damage caps apply. Recovery against a state agency is limited by statute unless the Legislature passes a claims bill. That shapes strategy from day one.

The child may have no reliable adult. In many of these cases, there is no parent or guardian positioned to make decisions in the child's interest. Sometimes the people who step forward are the ones who failed the child in the first place.

The part no one talks about: protecting the recovery

Here's what anyone who has done this work will recognize. Once a claim exists, adults who were absent from the child's life reappear — relatives, former caregivers, people with a grievance or a need. Some mean well. Some do not.

A recovery for a minor in the dependency system has to be built to withstand that. That can mean:

• Court oversight of settlement funds for a minor, with a guardian of the property
• Structured settlements that pay out over time rather than in a lump sum
• Trust arrangements that preserve eligibility for benefits the child may need
• Education provisions — including, in some cases, securing tuition directly

The goal is simple to state and hard to achieve: the recovery belongs to the child, and it should still be there, and still be theirs, when they're old enough to use it.

A case we handled

We represented a young man who had come to us as a juvenile defense client. He was also in the dependency system, and had spent most of his life moving between placements — let down, at one point or another, by nearly every adult responsible for him.

While in one of those placements, he was injured through institutional negligence.

Once a claim existed, people who had been absent from his life reappeared with an interest in it. We had represented him since juvenile court and had his trust. We pursued the claim, and we structured the recovery to be his — protected from the people who had appeared only when there was money.

The result was $600,000, and a guaranteed path to tuition at any Florida public university.

Gross recovery, before attorney's fees and costs. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Every case is unique and decided on its own facts. Shared with the client's permission; identifying details omitted.

For dependency attorneys, guardians ad litem, and caseworkers

If you know a young person in care who was hurt in a placement, the responsible entities will not volunteer that a claim exists. We handle these matters directly, and our partner Shannon Schott is board certified in Juvenile Law by The Florida Bar — this work grew directly out of our juvenile defense practice.

For referring counsel: we pay referring attorneys 25% of the attorney's fee under Rule 4-1.5(f)(4)(D), with the client's written consent and joint responsibility as the rule requires.

For parents

If your child was hurt while in foster or group care, call us. The consultation is free, and we'll tell you honestly whether there's a claim and what protecting it would take.

📞 904-619-5244 📍 4411 Sunbeam Road #23519, Jacksonville, FL 32241

This post is for general informational purposes only and is not legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.