Telephone: (334) 832-9090
Email: usvisa@visaus.com
Copyright 2002, Boyd F. Campbell, All Rights Reserved.
How to find, hire, and work with a U.S. immigration lawyer
By BOYD F. CAMPBELL
Attorney at Law and Civil
Law Notary
Selecting
a good immigration lawyer is very much like selecting a good doctor or
any other professional person to help you. The time to do it is when you
don't need one. Unfortunately, most of us don't even begin to think of
looking for legal help until an emergency arises.
Having
a qualified immigration lawyer on your team -- someone you know, trust,
and can call on in emergencies -- can provide a great deal of peace of
mind, even to foreign nationals who prefer to handle some matters on their
own without the advice of an immigration lawyer. Some businesses, wealthy
people, and a few people who seem to need help all the time, may need to
keep an immigration lawyer on retainer, but most people find it better
to pay an immigration lawyer a retainer and an hourly rate for the legal
services he provides on a case-by-case basis.
I
handle legal matters involving private international law, international
labor and employment law, immigration and nationality law, cross-border
hiring and permitting of labor, visas for professionals and researchers,
commercial and small-business problems, and adoption (both domestic and
international). Because I have experience in dealing with the Immigration
and Naturalization Service (INS) of the U.S. Department of Justice, with
the U.S. Department of State and Department of Labor, and with courts and
administrative proceedings, I can help you keep your legal affairs in order
and can refer you to other attorneys whom I know and trust, if that becomes
necessary. I do this because it is in my best interests to make sure
that your best interests are properly cared for. I also provide
direction in commercial transactions and foreign investments.
I
sometimes associates other lawyers with a given case when it feels it is
in their client's best interests to do so, but that doesn't come up very
often, and the client has final approval over any association of another
lawyer to handle any legal matter. If you decide not to choose me to serve
as your legal counsel, I strongly urge you to find the lawyer who best
meets your legal needs. For a list of things that immigration lawyers
can do for you, please click on the following link: Why
hire an immigration lawyer?
Finding the right lawyer
Finding
the right lawyer is generally the most important decision you will make
in addressing a legal matter. Finding someone who is a satisfied
client of a lawyer is usually the best way to get a good recommendation,
and word of mouth is the very best place to start. Even if you are
new to the United States, you will find that your business associates,
neighbors, accountants, fellow church members, and sometimes bank employees
will recommend the name of a lawyer. If you are a foreign national,
however, it is likely that the people you ask for a recommendation will
not be familiar with your special needs, so beware. Make sure that
the recommendations you get from friends or acquaintances are based on
a prior business relationship with the lawyer and not on a personal one,
or because the lawyer is simply associated with your friends' or acquaintances'
business interests. And make sure that your friend or acquaintance
consulted the lawyer about an immigration or visa matter. The practice
of U.S. immigration and nationality law is highly specialized. And
please remember this: The INS treats forms filed with its district
offices and service centers as legal cases submitted to the federal
agency for adjudication.
If
you decide not to hire me, and you can't find a lawyer based upon the personal
recommendation of a friend or acquaintance, we urge you to contact a State
Bar lawyer referral service in the state where you live. If your
legal matters involves U.S. immigration and nationality law, I urge you
to contact the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) in Washington,
D.C., at (202) 216-2400, for a referral. Generally, State Bar referral
service lawyers must be in good standing and have appropriate malpractice
insurance coverage before being listed with a State Bar lawyer referral
service. Also, the national headquarters of AILA in Washington, D.C.,
is very familiar with the experience levels of its member lawyers in all
50 states, and in some foreign countries, and is a valuable referral resource.
AILA has established a new lawyer referral service program.
When
you call the State Bar, tell the State Bar employee who answers your call
that you want the "Lawyer Referral Service." When you get the Lawyer
Referral Service on the line, tell the person what type of legal problem
you have (don't give the person lots of facts or a long story; tell it
to the lawyer later) and you will be given the name and telephone number
of a lawyer near you. Generally, a State Bar referral service lawyer
is required to provide you with a low-cost, initial legal consultation.
If
you exhaust all other avenues in your search, you may find a lawyer through
advertisements in the telephone book "Yellow Pages," or in a newspaper.
Searching the "Yellow Pages," even though you find advertisements from
many lawyers there, is not necessarily a good method to use to find an
immigration lawyer to meet your legal needs. The best immigration
lawyers often do not advertise their services. They don't have to.
Even lawyers who do not place display advertisements are listed in the
"Yellow Pages," however.
Regardless
of the method you use to get names and telephone numbers of immigration
lawyers, you should interview them before making a final selection. You
may be charged $50 or more for thirty minutes of the lawyer's time, but
this is a very inexpensive way to find the right lawyer to meet your legal
needs. Remember, that the purpose of your visit is to interview the lawyer.
Don't be afraid to ask questions about his practice, his staff, his fees
and expenses, and especially his experience in handling the legal matters
you think will come up later or are dealing with now. If you are
looking for an immigration lawyer to help you with a family immigration
matter, for example, it would be a good idea to take your spouse and possibly
a grown child along, because they may deal with the lawyer as much as,
or more than, you will.
Small firm or large firm?
Many
people ask whether a small firm or a large firm is best. There are good
lawyers in firms of all sizes, including solo practitioners, and there
are advantages and disadvantages in both small and large firms. You
may want to choose a small law firm with practitioners whose skills overlap,
giving them the ability to care for each other's clients should an illness,
emergency, or vacation make it impossible for one of them to handle a particular
legal matter. If you are interested in choosing a sole practitioner, you
should find out how the sole practitioner handles matters for his clients
when he or she is ill or on vacation. Sometimes finding a lawyer who is
right for you may be just a matter of luck, but by following these recommendations,
you will certainly increase your chances of finding the right lawyer to
meet your needs and to form a lasting, confidential relationship with you.
For more
information about immigration lawyers, please visit the American Immigration
Lawyers Association home page: CLICK
HERE
I have
been practicing law in Montgomery, Alabama, since 1988. In addition
to my private international law and immigration and nationality law practice,
I am Alabama's first practicing civil law notary, and can provide civil
law notarial services. I represent U.S. companies with international
business interests and foreign, multinational corporations in connection
with investments and visa and employment matters.
I
also help individual foreign nationals with family and employment visa
matters. I assist U.S. citizens or foreign nationals who have assets
overseas with investments and estate planning. I have been actively
associated with crafting U.S. public policy initiatives in immigration
law circles since 1989, when I became involved with the American Bar Association
(ABA) and later with its Coordinating Committee of Immigration Law.
I was a member of that committee from 1994 to 1998. I served as chair
of the ABA's Immigration Law Committee of the General Practice, Solo &
Small Firm Lawyers Section, and served as chair of the International Law
Section of the Alabama State Bar from 2000 to 2002. I am a member
in good standing of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA),
and am affiliated with AILA's Atlanta Chapter.
I
am a frequent speaker at colleges and universities, and civic and church
organizations, addresses immigration matters and public policy, and conduct
seminars and workshops on immigration law and private international law.
For information about how to schedule me to speak to a seminar or workshop,
or to your group, please click on the following hyperlink: Speaker.
I
received a bachelor's degree from the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa,
Alabama; a master's degree from Columbia University in New York, New York;
and a law degree from Jones School of Law in Montgomery, Alabama.
I was selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America Consumer
Guide, published by Woodward/White, Inc.: www.bestlawyers.com
To read more about me,
CLICK HERE.
How to consult with and hire a lawyer
Consulting
an immigration lawyer to find out whether you need help with a legal matter
need not be expensive. Most immigration lawyers charge a nominal
fee for an initial legal consultation, especially if you reach them through
a State Bar lawyer referral service.
The
best lawyers are very busy people. We are all impatient to get our
business done, and we demand attention. But please don't assume --
simply because you cannot get the lawyer to talk to you on the telephone
when you place your first call to him -- that he and his employees are
not interested in helping you. If you call a lawyer whom you know
to be good at what he does, you should not expect him to be sitting in
his office, waiting for your call.
I
do my best to make myself available to people who are not my regular clients,
but sometimes this is not possible, and my attention must first go to those
who have already hired me to devote my time and attention to their legal
needs.
Just
as you would expect to pay a doctor for his experience, knowledge, and
training in medicine, you should expect to pay a lawyer something for his
experience, knowledge, and training, and for the time he spends listening
to the facts of the situation you might bring to him and for advising you
or providing you with a referral to another lawyer, even if this time is
spent on the telephone and not in the lawyer's office.
Just
as in any profession, the best lawyers often charge the most money as an
hourly rate or a flat fee. But a lawyer's hourly rate should not be your
only measure of whether you have the best lawyer or the right lawyer.
Again, it is best to talk with friends, acquaintances, and family members
to get a recommendation. Ask the person giving you the lawyer's name whether
they used the lawyer to handle a legal matter and what kind of legal matter
it was. Talk to those who have had similar legal problems to yours
and find out whom they consulted, and please interview the lawyer yourself.
How to work with your immigration lawyer
Once
you have found the right immigration lawyer, you will want to get to work
immediately to address the problem that caused you to find a lawyer in
the first place. But first things first: If you cannot trust a lawyer
you have hired, STOP! Fire the lawyer and find one you can trust.
If the attorney-client relationship is nothing else, it is a relationship
based upon trust and confidence. You have every right to trust your lawyer
with the most intimate details of your life. Your lawyer is absolutely
prohibited from discussing your private matters and personal information
with anyone else. In fact, neither local or federal police, nor state or
federal judges can require U.S. lawyers to reveal confidential information
about their clients.
You
should give your lawyer with the best, most accurate, most complete information
about your situation that you possibly can. A lawyer's legal work on behalf
of his clients does not operate very well in an information vacuum. You
probably hold the keys to much of the information your immigration lawyer
needs to come to your rescue. If you don't give him the keys, he can't
start the car.
If,
at any time, your situation changes, or you have good information that
could affect your case, call your lawyer. Don't assume he has heard about
it. You have every right to expect your lawyer to communicate with you
regularly about progress in your legal matter. So please let your lawyer
know when you learn something that might affect your case, even if you
do not know whether it is important.
Finally,
if you become dissatisfied with your lawyer, do not write letters to the
INS or the State Department or the immigration judge in the case, or file
legal documents a cousin or friend created for you on his word processor,
or that you bought from an office supply store. You will do more harm to
yourself. Fire your lawyer first. A simple letter telling the lawyer you
no longer need his services will do.
The
time to identify a lawyer to help you with legal matters is before you
need the help. Whether or not you decide to hire me to help you,
please identify a lawyer today who can best meet your future legal needs,
and pay him or her a visit.
This page is sponsored
by
Immigration
Law Center, L.L.C.
P.O. Box 11032
Montgomery, Alabama 36111-0032
USA
Telephone: (334) 832-9090
E-mail: CLICK
HERE
NAVIGATION: Back to the Immigration Law Center Home Page: CLICK HERE