Attorney Dilemma - Your Thoughts...

[Pacmtrx7 2]

I have a question about something that I wanted to get some opinions about. We hired a attorney do our CR1, which was originally a K3 until NVC decided to ixnay that. My dilemma is that our lawyer basically made a mistake on our DS-230 Part 1 where it asks for all of your spouses residences since age 16. My wife sent her all this info, but she accidentally omitted some of it and left a 10 month gap, which got us an RFE from the NVC. Our attorney did tell my wife to look over it for for any mistakes (to cover her own back) before signing it and sending it back. According to my wife, she did see the error upon initial review, but didn't say anything because she thought maybe the attorney left it out for some specific reason. Don't ask!

Anyway, the attorney revised the DS-230 promptly and sent it via email to my wife to sign again and then she had to pay another $50 to send it back again to the attorney via DHL with her original signature. I told our attorney I didn't want to point fingers, but I feel it was both the attorney's and my wife's responsibility to find any errors before sending it to the NVC. I never had a chance to review it. It seems like our attorney doesn't want to take any responsibility for her part in the error.

We are paying her a fair amount of money for her services and to avoid exactly this type of thing from happening. I personally feel what was fair was for her to pay half of the $50 DHL shipment fee to send the signed and revised DS-230 back to her. What do you all think?

Please do not go off on any tangents about attorney's are no good and we should have and could have done all this without one. We lead very busy lives and preferred not to deal with all the paperwork and details. With all this said, I do believe she is a very good immigration attorney and otherwise has done an outstanding job. Your thoughts???

[Scott and Mhay 57]

I would say it would be fair for the attorney to pay half the shipping. I would think that the attorney would want you to look over the papers too before sending them to the NVC. That was bad on the attorney.

[Pacmtrx7 2]

I would say it would be fair for the attorney to pay half the shipping. I would think that the attorney would want you to look over the papers too before sending them to the NVC. That was bad on the attorney.

Thanks for your input Scott. Do you think it's worth a try to ask for an expedite once they receive everything? Can I do so after an RFE?

[Scott and Mhay 57]

You can try, but I dont know if it will be approved. I know that I had to send a letter to the NVC to request an expedite...I had to send it to the PI supervisor...but I'm military, so it was pretty easy.

[sachinky 465]

NVC will not expedite anything.

Why on earth would they expedite for you because of an attorney's mistake?

Once they have received your DS230 RFE, wait 8-11 days for a SIF/CC.

You will get a June interview date.

Good luck!

[christeen 966]

Asking for a partial refund depends on the agreement you have with the attorney. For example, most attoryneys will transpose what information they have received regarding the residences, then it is my understanding that they attorney sent this document to your wife for review and approval... If your wife approved it and did not raise any issues with this 10 month gap, (as it seems she "assumed" this was a deliberate omission by the lawyer and did not question it even though she knew it was wrong) then no, you have no claim for shipping costs as no corrections were made by your wife regarding the issue.

It is like say a marketing company puts a flyer together, then sends the preview to the client and the client signs off and says "this is all OK" but there is actually a misprint in the website address for example... The final review is the responsibility of the company NOT the printer if the company had final approval rights.

Sorry, but I worked in graphics for a while and I would send the final draft for approval and then after they signed off on it, once it was in print they would try to come back and say... Oh #######, you left off this or that or whatever... and they wanted me to eat the money for the printing... Not fair to the lawyer...

Hiring a lawyer is fine for those who choose to want someone else to handle the mundane time consuming stuff... However it it YOUR life and YOUR immigration situation therefore both of you need to play and active role and verify that all the info being sent is correct... The lawyer does not live your life and therefore cannot know what actually happened....

My opinion is sorry, you need to eat that money and take this as a lesson learned to question anything that does not appear correct. And you will not get an expedite from the govt because of a lawyer ** up...

[sachinky 465]

^^ This.

[Pacmtrx7 2]

Christeen,

With all due respect to your opinion and with the understanding everybody will have a different view on this, I do not agree with your analogy or what you said. To let the attorney completely off the hook for this and basically say this is our fault is simply wrong. My wife and I have no problem taking some of the blame here, but to give the attorney a free pass is BS. What I'm I paying her for? Her 17 years of expertise and knowledge of the immigration process correct? Her knowing full well that all forms need to be PROPERLY AND COMPLETELY FILLED OUT with all supported and requested documentation. I believe it's just as much her job to look over everything for errors as it is ours and if there are any questions or concerns to ask us. It seems you are implying that we are not taking an active part in this process because of what I had written, but that simply is not the case here. The attorney doesn't need "to live our life", just fill out the forms correctly with the information we provided and payed her for.

The fact of that matter is she made a mistake and needs to own up to it. Professional people with integrity do that. It's a group effort as far as I'm concerned...

[JuneFirst 1]

You have plenty of time to complain about 25 dollars...but no time to review the documents?

I also think it is your and your wife's fault, and nobody elses.

[Deb+Steve 13]

No one cares more about your case than you. Even when you pay them.

[Deputy Purple 1,294]

I assume the Attorney is paying to send the updated DS-230 to NVC, are you covering half of that additional cost imposed on her because your wife assumed a 10 month gap in residence was intentional?

In straight-forward cases an attorney is simply a form filler-outer and actually for your money you get a para-legal doing that work. The responsibility of final review and approval falls upon you and your wife.

I wish I had so little going on in my life that it was worth how much time to argue with the attorney over $25, heck that doesn't even pay for 30 minutes of my time at work and my personal time is move valuable to me.

[JuneFirst 1]

I assume the Attorney is paying to send the updated DS-230 to NVC, are you covering half of that additional cost imposed on her because your wife assumed a 10 month gap in residence was intentional?

In straight-forward cases an attorney is simply a form filler-outer and actually for your money you get a para-legal doing that work. The responsibility of final review and approval falls upon you and your wife.

I wish I had so little going on in my life that it was worth how much time to argue with the attorney over $25, heck that doesn't even pay for 30 minutes of my time at work and my personal time is move valuable to me.

[TheMatrix 6]

The attorneys just make the paralegals do the work. You have to be very careful that you review everything they send you.

We asked out attorney to prepare our forms after the wedding. In order to expedite the process, we asked them to start right away. Someone from their firm sent us an email with the forms for review when we were away on our honeymoon. There were so many mistakes!

We found ourselves taking time out of our honeymoon pointing out their mistakes and making them fix them one by one.

And oh... they also sent our K3 application to the wrong address. They sent it to the Chicago lock-box rather than to CSC! That added two weeks to the process. Thankfully it did not matter in the long run as the I-130 got approved first.

I pointed out to the attorney that the paralegal doing the work is just not good enough and could she please assign someone else to our case.

And oh... I have decided to prepare the I-864 and DS-230 myself!

As for your money back, you can mention it to the attorney. They'll probably take it out of the paralegal's pay-check. I just felt there was a kinder way to deal with it and I just told my attorney the person is not good at her job.

[Canadiandggal 49]

Although I think people can be harsh at times. Most these people are right in my opinion. If it was simply a mistake where both your wife and the lawyer missed it, I might say the lawyer should pay as well because it was something that went unnoticed.

BUT due to the fact that your wife saw the error and signed off on it, the lawyer shouldn't have to pay anything.

I am not a fan of lawyers in any way shape or form as my present lawyer just sent me an invoice for 5550.00 for child matters, so right NOW I hate lawyers.

AT the end of the day a lawyer works for you, if your wife saw the mistake she should have questioned the lawyer as They are human as well, they make mistakes.

[Pacmtrx7 2]

You have plenty of time to complain about 25 dollars...but no time to review the documents?

I also think it is your and your wife's fault, and nobody elses.

This isn't about $25 dollars. This is about accountability. I also think you need to learn some tact...

No one cares more about your case than you. Even when you pay them.

I can't argue with that point...