Finding a
Damn Good
Immigration
Attorney
PART
TWO
Pages 1, 2
Finding
Information:
The Web
is a place where anyone can be published. Fancy software can make a
site look impressive while providing no other certainty that the
information on it is correct. Of course, this is true for all
subjects, but it can be a serious matter when it comes to
immigration issues.
Pay
attention to how often a site updates. Look for those that update
daily or weekly and which provide or link to the most up-to-date
processing times, waiting times and visa
bulletins.
Find
out who hosts the site, what their credentials are and what sources
they use. Be wary of those who make wild promises and sound too good
to be true. There are no magic fixes in immigration. Under various
circumstances, even marriage to a US citizen may not guarantee
anything immigration-wise. Wild promises indicate a certain lack of
responsibility and may even hint at fraud.
Once you've educated yourself in the basic
immigration ins and outs, and hopefully not before then, it's time
to chose an attorney, there are many things that you can use as an
indicator.
"Help! Where and How Do I Find a Good
Attorney?!"
Most
cases can be handled from afar, says Greg Siskind. "Only cases where
an [INS or court] appearance is necessary, really require a local
attorney," he points out. "Although travel expenses are usually not
that high for most cases," the Tennessee attorney maintains, "we can
either hand pick local counsel, or work in association with a
lawyer located in your area."
Located in Los Angeles, California, The Law Offices of
Carl Shusterman also take many long-distance cases, says Shusterman,
and he is very familiar with top immigration attorneys around the
country that he can recommend.
Of course, taking a look at where the attorney went to
law school, what associations he/she belongs to and other
credentials is all important, says Siskind.
He stresses that first and foremost, an
immigration attorney should be a member of the American Immigration
Lawyers Association (AILA). "This shows the commitment of the
attorney to this area of practice," he says. Also, "AILA provides an
information Net forum containing many posts where attorneys can
discuss all kinds of difficult cases and ever-changing procedures.
There is a daily immigration library and annual seminars as
well.
"Very true," says Shusterman, just don't let that be your
only indicator. "AILA is not that selective," he explains.
"Membership is acquired through payment of a fee, and they don't
monitor how well the attorney does his or her job. Use this as a
mandatory prerequisite, but not the sole
criteria."
Another
great indicator can be a website, says Siskind. While some of the
most outstanding attorneys do not have a website, having one that
provides good, consistent and accurate information can be a solid
testament to how well-informed that attorney is. "If they don't have
a website," he says, "figure out what the attorney does do to stay
in touch. Do they have a newsletter for clients? Do they initiate
and answer e-mails quickly and readily?" And you can ask for a firm
answer on how often they meet with clients.
If the attorney does have back issues of a
newsletter, Shusterman suggests that you do a little historical
research to see how accurate some of their legal predictions were in
terms of changing INS policies and case
outcomes.
This is
a fluid and ever-changing sector, says Siskind. "Make sure the
attorney you hire has several years of experience in immigration law
and only immigration law. There is virtually no way that an attorney
can keep up with this area of law while practicing in other areas at
the same time.
"You
don't want to be someone's Guinea Pig," says Shusterman. If they are
right out of law school, they may be inexpensive, but the risks are
far greater unless you have an extremely simple case. One wrong
answer on a form can lead to months of backlog and red tape. "It can
be deceptively easy to 'just fill out a form,'" he
warns.
Lawyers.com provides a listing of the Martindale- Hubbell
ratings on attorneys, says Shusterman. Martindale-Hubbell is
considered the single most reliable source for information on
lawyers and can help
you select one to meet your needs.
Furthermore, in Texas, Florida and California,
attorneys are classified by their area of specialization. While
attorneys in other states specialize without the benefit of this
system, this official specification provides yet another means for
doing a background check on your attorney if he or she is in one of
these states. According to Shusterman, the certification requires a
listing of courses taken by the attorney, the passing of an exam,
and an collection of professional
recommendations.
Siskind
points out that many immigration attorneys further specialize in
particular areas within immigration law. If you have an amnesty
case, search for an attorney that specializes in that. In this kind
of very specific specialization, having several specialties is fine,
but you don't want to have an attorney represent you on a
deportation case, for example, unless he or she has experience in
that area. (So how does an attorney learn if they can never
take a first case?" you ask? Well, they can work on a case with a
senior attorney until they know the ropes well enough to work their
own cases, but that shouldn't be your concern.)
In addition, it can be helpful to know that the
attorney in question has had extensive dealings with the INS, either
as a previous employee or in other significant
capacities.
Another
good way to monitor a lawyer's professionalism is through reviewing
the press they have received and taking note of how often those
attorneys are used as sources by major media, Siskind points out.
Part of what immigration information on the web has done, is to make
both journalists and clients much more knowledgeable. A good
attorney should greet this pressure with relative ease and be able
to rise to the occasion. "Interview your attorney!" says Siskind.
The Internet has made clients much more savvy and it's getting
harder for lousy attorneys to pull the wool over their eyes. If you
are seeking an immigration attorney, you too should be one of those
savvy interviewers.
Shusterman points out that being put on the spot for an
immediate answer, i,.e. by reporters on the phone, or in
professional live
chats, is definitely a good indicator of being on the ball.
"Journalists don't keep calling you if you aren't providing legally
accurate information," he points out. Look too at which publications
are quoting the attorney. How well known and prestigious are those
publications? Do you trust them to identify top
sources?
The
Internet Changes Client/Attorney Dealings:
The
availability of Immigration information on the web will inevitably,
to some extent, change the way things have been done. "You will
start to see the unbundling of legal services," says Siskind, where
clients fill out forms and the law firm checks them over, handles
complications and oversees the case. This will enable those without
financial means to reap the benefits of having an attorney.
Another
things we will start to see more of is client-specific, password
protected web sites, says Siskind, who may implement this at some
point. In other words, immigration attorneys will eventually set up
pages where their clients can look at their own files right on line
and perhaps view personal messages from their
attorneys.
One
firm, Frageman, already does this, says Shusterman. But it's a very
large corporate firm that takes few if any individual cases and is
not publicized for the general public. The firm is also responsible
for some of the top immigration law books available to those
practicing law.
These
changes are a good indication of the trends toward a more
client-friendly environment when it comes to immigration law. It
used to be nearly impossible to find legal information unless you
went to a law library, or subscribed to an prohibitively expensive
online database for attorneys. Now, however, freedom of legal
information on the Net means that you can be an educated consumer,
and a cunning interviewer of your prospective attorney. This may
even be a pretty good situation for immigration attorneys, who,
instead of spending time taking hundreds of phone calls about
general laws or procedures, can spend most of their time learning
about the ever-changing laws and procedures, and directly handling
your case instead.
Pages 1, 2
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