Lawsuit against my lawyer(s)...?

[detri 0]

Do I have a case? I have been wronged constantly by this lawfirm:

First of all, my wife and I got married and began the process of transferring her visa from student. We decided to go with a law firm (left unnamed for now) to save ourselves trouble (big mistake #1). We met with a lady and were assured everything would be taken care of (along with my $2700 up front). The paperwork was filled out and filed with USCIS and everything began smoothly.

We checked up on everything periodically and was told everything was OK. A few months later, I received a notice in the mail saying that we had MISSED our interview date and that we would have to see an immigration judge or my wife would face deportation. Well, that was just wonderful, so I called up the law firm's office and learned that the person I was working with NO LONGER WORKED THERE. You know, this kind of information would have been nice to know when it occurred. This was the first sign of negligence from this law firm. I got ahold of the person who had been transferred to take care of my case and he said that he had a notice on file, but apparently it was never sent to me. How did this missing the interview notice get to me but the other ones not arrive? The lawfirm took care of refiling fees and starting to take care of my case again, but it would take more months of waiting due to refiling.

And now, I just called and there has been another change of lawyer for me, as a new 'more qualified' candidate applied for the position and took over for the guy that took over my case. I received no notice of this. So yesterday I receive a call from the person handling my case saying we're scheduled for an interview and we need to URGENTLY call her ... BUT DOESNT SAY WHEN... I get off work and get this message and now I have to wait until Wednesday since their office is closed until after New Years.

This is obvious negligence by the lawfirm itself. Should I file against them or is it just not worth it?

Opinions please!

Edited December 29, 2007 by detri

[LaL 418]

One item I do know about is why you may have received one notice and not others. I used a lawyer way back for the K1, and would get one or two notices, with everything else sent directly to the lawyer. I just chalked it up to USCIS not noting on the file that we had a representative handling the file, and certain notices would just be mailed out directly to the applicant/beneficiary, etc.

The first thing I would do would be to make an INFOPASS apppointment. Then from the attorney's office, I would ask for my complete file handed over to me, send them a notice of release, and report them to the AILA about their "service". Most importantly, get your complete file! I wouldn't sue.

[Wrath of Sithis 0]

Ditto. You need to get that file back. If you are going to use a lawyer in the future before you give them any money ask them if they are a partner. I wouldn't want hand my fate to some intern lacky that might be let go of at any moment.

Personally I would not sue at this point, anyways if your thinking about filing a suite you should talk to a lawyer about that..

Remember most people think it's no big deal to sue someone, well it costs money a lot of money unless your case is just too good for the atturney to pass up. It's sad but in many cases it's about money, and who has more of it.

[sereia 0]

One item I do know about is why you may have received one notice and not others. I used a lawyer way back for the K1, and would get one or two notices, with everything else sent directly to the lawyer. I just chalked it up to USCIS not noting on the file that we had a representative handling the file, and certain notices would just be mailed out directly to the applicant/beneficiary, etc.

The first thing I would do would be to make an INFOPASS apppointment. Then from the attorney's office, I would ask for my complete file handed over to me, send them a notice of release, and report them to the AILA about their "service". Most importantly, get your complete file! I wouldn't sue.

good advice. definitely get your file back and make an INFOPASS appointment ASAP! i'm sorry to hear about your situation. i too had a situation with a lawyer a while ago and he never showed up to the court date after i paid him in advance! didn't answer my phone calls or letters. total scam! i reported him to the bar association, got my money back from him, and later his license was taken away. i wish you luck!

Edited December 29, 2007 by sereia

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

I remember receiving copies of all notices from USCIS relating to the K3 that I had filed by a law firm (needlessly but this is a very good firm that I had worked with years ago when I immigrated and they never let me down). Of course, the law office would also send me copies of whatever they received. They said that USCIS, while they're supposed to send copies of notices sent to law firms to the applicants / petitioners directly, sometimes misses out on that little detail. Not too hard to imagine that USCIS might miss sending communications properly.

To the OP, it's horrible that this law firm apparently did a pisspoor job of handling your case. At the very least, I'd contact the respective lawyer association and maybe the state oversight authorities. To me it clearly seems that they were grossly negligent. Not sure whether suing them will do any good. But I'd demand some - if not all - of the initial payment back. Obviously you were charged for a service they did not exactly provide. At least not to the level that should be reasonably expected.

Good Luck!

[detri 0]

I remember receiving copies of all notices from USCIS relating to the K3 that I had filed by a law firm (needlessly but this is a very good firm that I had worked with years ago when I immigrated and they never let me down). Of course, the law office would also send me copies of whatever they received. They said that USCIS, while they're supposed to send copies of notices sent to law firms to the applicants / petitioners directly, sometimes misses out on that little detail. Not too hard to imagine that USCIS might miss sending communications properly.

To the OP, it's horrible that this law firm apparently did a pisspoor job of handling your case. At the very least, I'd contact the respective lawyer association and maybe the state oversight authorities. To me it clearly seems that they were grossly negligent. Not sure whether suing them will do any good. But I'd demand some - if not all - of the initial payment back. Obviously you were charged for a service they did not exactly provide. At least not to the level that should be reasonably expected.

Good Luck!

Thank you (and everyone else). I'll probably go down the refund (or partial refund if they do not budge) path, because their service was obviously inadequate.

[detri 0]

For those of you with experience with lawyers, how would I go about requesting a refund?

[detri 0]

Bumping.

[SusieK 3]

Bumping.

What you would need to do here is this for the time being...

Send a registered letter to the Law Firm stating why you want a refund. Also make sure that you report them to the Bar Association in your area (u can google them and get the form) . They have 30 days in which to respond to your allegations (sorry just a techincal word) and from there its either you respond back to their answers or the Bar takes action, either to slap them down a bit or slap them across america or having a ruling that there was no neglience per se.

If you get a ruling in your favor, then you have more power on the refund.

Good Luck to you and I wish you luck on your journey

Susie