Excellent question. Lawyers are expensive, ask too many
questions (inquisitive - if we want to be nice), have a reputations of sharks
and liars and thieves! (one scumbag ruins it for all of us honest ones!) Why on
earth would we need them – especially in the immigration world where the US
government kindly provides all the forms clients would need on their website
(for form-filing cases).
Well my
friends, unfortunately for your pockets, the world of law and immigration is an
extraordinarily complex and complicated place.
While plenty of people are able to go pro se (fancy term for representing yourself without a lawyer), one
mistake and your case could be a goner! Especially in the immigration world. One form filled out incorrectly can cause
your filing to be thrown out and the consequence might be deportation.
Lawyers go
to school to learn all the complexities of the actual laws, and (you hear this
all the time in law school) to learn to think like a lawyer. You actually do have to learn to approach
problems in a different way. This can come natural to some people, and others
have to learn how to think if they want to be successful in this field. Law school helps with that. Next, when you are out of school, you have
this knowledge and begin to apply it practically. Even first year lawyers are going to be of
more help to you than you trying to represent yourself because they know how to
approach a problem in a legal way (and hopefully they know the laws better than
you as well). We also have a fantastic base of lawyers to acquire advice from
(shout out to you Washington County Bar in Arkansas, AILA, and of course my
partner Don & the McCrummen folks). Unfortunately, you as a client do not
have these resources accessed as easily; we will make your legal path much
easier and (hopefully) more successful.
Coming back
to immigration again. While the US Government has done a good job developing
their USCIS website and allowing immigrants to read summaries of various forms,
and fill them out online, the process itself is often incredibly
complicated. The number of forms you
need to send out for things like marriage adjustment (answer: 12 if you use a
lawyer!), the small things USCIS offices appreciate but do not announce (eg. including
a cover page to your form packet), or the discretionary complex world of asylum
and refugee applications (get yourself a lawyer for these). Lawyers who handle these end up seeing similar
situations over and over again – this will make things easier for you because
you should have a competent lawyer on your hands. And on the other hand, lawyers who handle
these will see new fact patterns and situations with your case – this will make
things easier for you because they are prepared with an arsenal of options you
may not have considered (or you may not have a case – but then if they are
ethical, they will tell you before you waste your money).
If you made it this
far through this rambling answer, I hope you feel a little better about paying
a lawyer. Most lawyers are decent
people; most immigration lawyers are even better because they are trying to
help you stay in the United States and usually came to this field because of
the compassion they feel for your plight. Your stories are sometimes so sad and
we want to do everything for free (pro
bono is the fancy way to say it). However, we need to eat too…and provide
for our own families, and pay off law school, and pay to keep our office open and…you
get the idea. So we are going to charge you. But we will make sure we are worth
your money.
Why should you hire a lawyer? Because the law is often incredibly complicated
and lawyers have the knowledge, connections, resources, expertise, experience,
skills, and understanding to help you. And
when this country has a growing trend towards anti-immigration, has complex
immigration procedures, and still has no reformed its immigration procedures,
you probably need all the help you can get.
You might need to hire a lawyer. (www.ballanaylorlaw.com)
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