Dear Florida Trial Lawyer

Welcome to the website for the Florida Bar Trial Lawyers Section.  This site is continually updated, and the pages that follow contain information about the Trial Lawyers Section, the Section’s leaders and our current programs.  Several of the Section’s publications, including the Handbook on Discovery Practice, and the Guidelines for Professional Conduct, can be accessed on the buttons to your left of the screen.

I hope you will also visit the website to keep informed of upcoming seminars and other programs put on by the Section.  The Trial Lawyers Section sponsors many excellent CLE programs, including the Board Certification Review Course, the Annual Program on Evidence, and Advanced Trial Advocacy Seminar held at the University of Florida, College of Law each spring. 

Under the By-laws of the Trial Lawyers Section, the purpose of the Section is to “provide a forum for discussion and exchange of ideas leading to the improvement of individual trial ability”.   The Section also advocates for access to the courts and follows legislative activity which might affect our jury trial system.  I hope you will get involved with the Trial Lawyers Section and use the resources we offer to strengthen and improve your law practice.  If I can be of assistance or answer any questions you might have about the Section, please feel free to call me directly.  I am privileged to serve as Chair of the Section and look forward to serving all Florida Trial Lawyers in the coming year. 

Sincerely,

Wayne Lawrence Helsby, Chair

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 The Vote’s in YOUR COURT

The Trial Lawyers Section of the Florida Bar contributes toward “The Vote’s in YOUR COURT” educational program initiative.

Read more: Letter from the President.

Trial Lawyers Section gift provides an effective advocate for foster youth

Written by Nancy Kinnally

 In just six months, a $75,000 gift to The Florida Bar Foundation by The Florida Bar’s Trial Lawyers Section  has  provided nearly 70 foster youth an advocate to protect their legal rights, and more referrals are  coming every  week.

 Jessica Rae, the Trial Lawyers Section Children’s Legal Services Fellow at the Community Law Program in  St. Petersburg, has had foster youth referred to her by caseworkers, Guardians ad Litem, judges, the  general  magistrate and the state attorneys’ office. One caseworker approached her after a hearing to say  that if her  child were ever involved in the dependency system, she’d want Rae as her child’s attorney.

 Through her Transitioning Dependent Youth Project, Rae represents kids as they navigate the foster-care  system. In more than10 years spent advocating for foster youth, mostly in Maryland, Rae has seen the  long-  term benefits that legal representation of these children can have.

Read more: Trial Lawyers Section gift provides an effective advocate for foster youth

Trial Lawyers give $75,000 to save children's legal services project

Written by Nancy Kinnally

Back row, from left: Ted Eastmoore, Trial Lawyers Section treasurer; Bob Palmer, Trial Lawyers Summit chair; Wayne Helsby, Section chair-elect; Paul Doyle, director of the Florida Bar Foundation Legal Assistance for the Poor Grant Program. Front row, from left: Stephen Zack, immediate past president of the American Bar Association and former Florida Bar President; Kimberly Rodgers, executive director of the Community Law Program; Jessica Rae, the Trial Lawyers Children’s Legal Services Fellow; and Craig Gibbs, Trial Lawyers Section chair.ORLANDO, Fla. — The Trial Lawyers Section of The Florida Bar Jan. 26 announced a $75,000 charitable gift to The Florida Bar Foundation for a Trial Lawyers Children's Legal Services Fellowship. 

Subject to approval by the Foundation's Legal Assistance for the Poor Grant Committee and its board of directors at the organization's March 15-16 meeting, Jessica Rae of the Community Law Program in St. Petersburg will be The Florida Bar Trial Lawyers Children's Legal Services Fellow. Rae, a graduate of the Washington College of Law at American University, will be serving children through the Transitioning Dependent Youth Project, which represents about 30 to 40 needy children a year. 

Read more: Trial Lawyers give $75,000 to save children's legal services project

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