IMMIGRATION SERVICE PROVIDER SUES AFTER BEING CHARGED WITH THE UNAUTHORIZED PRACTICE OF LAW

Malena Burnett, who was sued two years ago for practicing law without a license and providing inadequate services, has filed her own lawsuit against those she says were behind the case against her.  Specifically, she charges at least four Immigration Judges, the local chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) in Las Vegas, Nevada, and others, have defamed her, conspired against her, and misused the court system to put her out of business.

Her suit claims that the Immigration Judges supported efforts to put her out of business because her work resulted in more work for them.  She claims her work “took attorneys out of the process, made the procedure much shorter, simpler, less expensive and in most cases more certain.”  She also claims that local AILA members intimidated area attorneys into not associating with Burnett, and that their goal was to “prevent a lucrative and generally unsophisticated client base from discovering alternatives to expensive, burdensome and oftentimes dangerous services offered by the members of AILA.”

The lawsuit filed against Burnett ended when the judge issued an injunction ordering her to cease providing her immigration services.  This ruling will make it difficult for Burnett to succeed in her current case.