Immigration Law....Be Careful
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Take a moment and read what an attorney’s failure cost a hardworking immigrant seeking legal status. As an immigration attorney, I was appalled. As this area of law is difficult, as all are, it must be handled professionally and ethically. Thankfully, as you will soon read, the court system has intervened and highlighted certain attorneys ethical and professional shortcomings.
Recent reports indicate immigrants have an increasingly difficult time establishing their legal status within the United States. A federal appeals panel report states “lousy unskilled lawyers” are handling the cases. After criticizing work by defense lawyers, the government has put itself in the spotlight by scolding lawyers for utilizing irrelevant language and improper procedures in their quest for approval.
Victimized by the failures of lawyers on both sides are the immigrants, "a vulnerable population who come to this country searching for a better life and often arrive unfamiliar with our language and culture, in economic deprivation and in fear," the court wrote.
"In immigration matters, so much is at stake — the right to remain in this country, to reunite a family or to work," the court said.
A particular case reviewed was that of Garfield Livern St. Valentine Aris, a Jamaican immigrant, whose lawyers "failed spectacularly" while handling his case.
Particularly, he was ordered deported on May 3, 1995 due to a scheduling error by the attorney’s paralegal, a responsibility which ultimately falls back on the attorney.
After Aris and his family lost nearly everything they earned in our “land of opportunity,” it was discovered his original attorney failed to take responsibility for his paralegal’s scheduling mistake. Once again, as any attorney knows, he or she is ultimately responsible.
In addition, this attorney was found to have little familiarity with U.S. immigration law. “When lawyers representing immigrants fail to live up to their professional obligations, it is all too often the immigrants they represent who suffer the consequences,” the Appeals Court wrote.