Commission launches effort to assist children.

The Bar's new Legal Needs of Children Commission has taken its first steps toward improving the quality of life of Florida's children who come in contact with the justice system.

Eleventh Circuit Judge Sandy Karlan called the 29-member panel to order October 28 in Tampa and tasked the panel of lawyers, judges and children's advocates with identifying the unmet legal needs of children and then developing solutions for meeting those needs.

"We are not going to say we just need more money in this program or we need more judges on this court," Judge Karlan said. "We are going to come up with comprehensive solutions and proposals to some of these issues that haven't been tried before."

The two-year goal of the commission, Karlan said, is to assist the children that appear in the state's courtrooms, whether they be victims, witnesses, or defendants.

"I hope this is a commission that will have a long-term effect on the community and the state," Karlan said.

The commission was created by Bar President Edith Osman to assess how the needs of children in all the courts division are being met and filled its ranks with people she said are committed to making things easier for children who come in contact with the system.

"I know that you are going to bring to it all the energy and all the knowledge you have," Osman told the group, noting that she is confident the panel's solutions the will be something that The Florida Bar will be able to share with the rest of the nation.

"The time is now to work to best serve the children," said Judge Kathleen Ann Kearney, secretary of the Department of Children and Families. Kearney said she is thrilled to sit on the commission and that its creation was long overdue.

"It's not so much what you say to a kid but how you say it," said commission member Azim Ramelize, a former New York gang leader who was shot and crippled in street violence when he was 17 years old. "Kids have become lost and we need to let them know we...