Worried about attorney's level of response

[TracyTN 237]

Girona was told by the lady who runs the DC district office to have their MTR argument sent to her personally.

[Girona40 0]

MTR's HAVE to go to the Chicago Lockbox, because a fee is involved. When we tried to submit ours to Lee's Summit, Missouri, who made the denial decision, it was returned with a note to send it to Chicago. They then forward it to the office that made the decision. The attorney should have sent it with check to Chicago and copied the District Director. p.s. our MTR was granted after 58 days.

I am not sure whether the District Director wanted our attorney to file a Motion to Reopen or a Motion to Reconsider. Whichever, at our meeting with her she told us that she had taken my son's file and, basically put it back in "pending" until she received our attorney's Argument. Then she would look it over and send it to the AAO for a "certified" decision. My understanding was that she was prepared to "retract" the Denial that was issued and that she was doing something that wasn't usual with our case.

To be honest, it was totally confusing, but we asked where the documents should go and she told us "have them sent to me, marked for my personal attention". So I am not sure what procedure would be followed under these circumstances. I only know that she hasn't received a copy or anything else from our attorney, as of today's date.

As soon as we receive a copy I will ensure that WE send her a copy, so that she can at least see what the argument is. She is trying to help and offered all sorts of other remedies, none of which were morally appropriate to us, but she was trying to help.

Thanks for your response. It is great to hear that your MTR was granted. I don't know how ours will turn out, I can only pray it will be favourable.

We instructed an attorney to deal with our son's case, a few months ago now. The case is rather unusual in that the District Director has agreed to look at our attorney's Argument and then send the file to the Administrative Appeals Office for a "certified" decision. This means that all other cases like ours will have to adjudicate in the same manner that the AAO decides.

Well, the attorney was told that the Argument had to go to the District Director, marked for her personal attention. I made it clear in an e-mail and my husband re-iterated this, several times, in a phone conversation with the attorney.

Well, for the past month we have been trying to get a copy of the Argument that he says he prepared and sent. He has promised, several times, that it will be in the mail - it hasn't arrived. He says that there is some problem sending it in an e-mail as it is a large document in pdf format - I receive pdf's that are hundreds of pages long every day without any problems.

We got hold of the District Director, who has been extremely helpful in this case - I think that they are as sick of it as we are and just want to end this 3 years of indecision. She tells us that the document has not been received, and it should have been almost a month ago!

My husband speaks with the attorney and he says that he sent it to Chicago - as this is the "standard" procedure for MTR's! We told him that this was not being dealt with in a "standard" fashion and that the District Director was courteous enough to meet with us over this and has offered an alternative way of dealing with it.

I sent an e-mail yesterday, again requesting a copy of this document he has supposedly produced, but I have not received a response. We paid this attorney up-gront, a considerable amount of money, and have seen absolutely nothing for it.

What would you do?

[Jaylen Brit 0]

Hey Girona40 - I wish u all the best - godspeed and fair windds n all that. I hope this guy comes thru for you - and if not I hope you hang him out to dry.

Thinking of you

[rebeccajo 14]

The fact that he has been reprimanded by the Bar previously is actually in your favor. This puts him on a 'short list'. Contact the Disciplinary Committee of the State Bar if need be. Or the Ethics Committee.

Edited March 25, 2006 by rebeccajo

[bettenan 1]

What would you do?

There is no rule when not getting satisfaction from your Congressman/Senator that you need to stop there. You can write of your plight to Michael Chertoff and to George W Bush himself. Any letter should be polite and it's certainly not the time to act as angry/rude as you feel you are entitled to (not that you are/would be rude..but it's human nature after all you've been through.)

Anything you send should be sent in a matter that someone has to sign for it.

As a long-term gov't manager, I can tell you that any federal agency hates to get that call from the White House (especially about something that could have been resolved otherwise. The issues are usually given priority treatment.

I would not recomend this if someone was at the beginning of their journey or was dead wrong BUT I've read of your plight and you certainly deserve a fair hearing NOW.

BTW It would not hurt to slip in the mention of contacting the media...since you are at your wit's end and don't know where else to turn

[sjoefl01 1]

This lawyer has obviously been lying to you from the beginning. Trust me, if he had put together this tremendous PDF document and sent it off he would be quite proud of it. He would be anxious to show you how hard he had worked for you.

I would start dealing with him like the liar and cheat that he is. Let's face it. Nobody sues a lawyer and wins. When this is all behind you then you will find there is nothing you can do. It may be possible to punish him therough some sort of bar association of through the AILA. You may also have some freedom to terrorize him on this web site that you all speak of but overall he probably has more problems than this.

I think an implied threat is in order here.

[Autumnal 25]

I wasn't familiar with your case before, Girona, but reading this is just heartbreaking and I can imagine it's only the tip of the iceberg! You have much support from this quarter, and I hope that honestly you'll get the attention you deserve.

Definitely try calling the Bar association and escalate all the way to the top if you can't get a satisfactory response farther down. I would document all e-mails, phone calls, letters and the like to have a package of information to throw at anyone that disputes your claim. If he is a member of AILA, they should be contacted as well. There are measures that probably exist to help. I don't know if you will be able to recover your money from him -- he hasn't produced what he was contracted out to do and failure to honour his contract has to amount to something, but honestly, I don't know what.

Getting media involvement would probably be a good resort if you feel there's nothing else that can be done. It sounds like the district office is helpful, at the very least, and receptive to the situation but man... Keep escalating up the government chain of command, and someone is bound to hear you.

[gimygirl 0]

i still say that you should go ahead with the media. you have so much time, dcumentation, and emotions involved in this ... any tv news reporter (dateline, 20/20, 60 minutes) would EAT this up! i wouldn't hesitate to tell the world after 3 years of this #######!

trust me ... if they can grant a canadian skater US citizenship for the olympics in a matter of weeks ... you can have something done for your son.

[Shari 6]

Glenys: Do you have an update for us? I hope it's a good one!

[Girona40 0]

Not really, Shari. It's been pretty quiet here. Got the "Argument" and a copy of the "Motion to Reconsider" from the attorney. It has now gone to the DC office and, presumably, the AAO.

Whilst the Argument was a good one - putting into a legal document all the things we have been saying to the USCIS - it would have been nice if we had actually seen a draft of the document before it went. The attorney, in several places, put my new last name instead of my son's last name, technically getting his name wrong! I just hope the USCIS can make it out.

I'll let you all know just as soon as we hear anything, but I think it may be several months.

[Shari 6]

Well, at least there is one brief stressor over - you got the Complaint after all the fussing and fighting over that. I wish you guys luck and a speedy resolve