At the request of a local judge, Michelle Broyles, Division Chief of JALA’s Family Law and Victim Advocacy Unit, began advocating on behalf of “Dre,” 5. Dre’s mother struggles with substance abuse, which led to Dre being bounced around between his grandfather in Connecticut and different people in Jacksonville, some of whom were family and some friends.
After experiencing domestic violence that included choking, hitting, punching, stalking and cyberstalking, “LaRon,” 25, turned to JALA for help. At the time, she was in the midst of a paternity case involving her son. After paternity was established, the child’s father, who was also LaRon’s abuser, then withheld her son from her without justification for more than nine months.
“Soraya,” 54, is permanently disabled and unable to work. Her husband, a truck driver, is also her abuser. He threatened to take away her home and her citizenship if she asked for alimony. Soraya speaks only Spanish and was terrified to go to trial. She is a citizen, and it took her a long time to understand that her husband cannot take her citizenship away from her.
Photo not that of actual client. “Rachel,” 49, experienced severe stress as a result of her husband’s abusive treatment. After
Because of unpaid debt, “June,” 66, was having her income garnished by about $460 a month, which was roughly half her earnings. She believed she had paid her debt in full and that the debtor should have filed paperwork showing her debt had been satisfied. When she reached out to the debtor's attorney on her own, she was ignored. Then she came to JALA. Upon looking further into the case, her JALA attorney realized she may have had a few months left to pay due to the interest that was included in the judgment. Her JALA attorney reached out to the debtor's attorney, who agreed to waive the remainder of what was owed and file a satisfaction. JALA’s intervention saved June from several more months of garnishment she could scarcely afford.
Having relocated from New Jersey to Jacksonville in 2018, “Eileen” took a job as a customer service representative in a call center located on the city’s southside. The call center was soon acquired by a new company, which placed Eileen and the other transferred employees into a mandatory six-week training program that had a "zero tolerance" policy for absenteeism. During the second week of training Eileen experienced a flat tire on her way to work. She immediately notified her employer via their automated call-in line that she couldn’t make it to work and then went in search of a replacement tire.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE JALA COO Kimberly Martyn Cited as Authority by Appellate Court in Stalking Injunction Decision JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA, February 27,
