inquisitive40

Well I am near the last straw with my attorney, have been trying to contact him since Tuesday this week, he has not recalled several calls I have made to him and I have been to his office twice, today his secretary contacted him and he said he would return my call on Monday, yet he knew I was at his office while she spoke to him.
My question here is, am I expecting too much here? I have dropped by most of my paperwork to him and yet I cannot get an update on whether there are any problems with what I have given him OR even query him on some of the remaining paperwork that I have to present.
Are ALL attorneys so busy that they do not return calls for 4 - 5 days and in most cases do not return calls at all. The only time he has promptly replied to me is when I told him to stop work on my file until we discussed his fee.
Feeling quite frustrated right now, is 2 weeks away from when I am intending to file and really don't want to have to swap lawyers at this late stage.
Anyone got any views?
Patrick

Ray

Do you contact them a lot...your averaging 13 post a day here.. I hop you are not calling him every day ..13 times ..they will go deaf to you ..

inquisitive40

3 times this week, all requesting a return call. Twice to his office both handing in papers. My filing is in two weeks and on Tuesday I gave his receptionist 90% of the requested paperwork that he wanted.
Is this too much?
Patrick

Ray

I have no idea!!! I would have thought it would be a matter of
1. inital interview..they give you list of things to get together.
2. you handwrite forms and return them
3. they return a draft copy of form all nicely filled in with maybe a few points marked where still waiting info or querying what you said.
4. they send you a final copy for your inspection..your satisfied
5 it is filed by them ...
Perhaps others who have done it could comment !

Of course in my day we just gave Noah his $50 and got off the boat..

inquisitive40

Well I printed out the filled out forms, I-130, I-485, G325a (for myself and spouse), I-765 and I-864 including tax transcripts and pay stubs, I also gave him divorce decrees, birth certs and he took passport photocopies, all that is left is the ADIT pics and an outstanding divorce decree. The questions I presently had were pretty simple, my SO's passport name is different to her birth cert, her birth cert is the only one which has her first name spelled in a particular way and so wanted to fill him in on the difference, also I wanted to find out if my birth cert is ok (is an original Irish birth cert but is not long form due to my original adoption).
With only two weeks from filing I would like a little more open lines of communication between attorney and myself, I know I am not his only case, but a phone call takes 2 mins to make whereas office visits take more of his time and he is on a fixed fee so would make more business sense than having me come into his office.
Patrick

Ray

You don't need your wifes passport for this at all.....

inquisitive40

But all here normal id is spelled the same as her passport, her birth cert first name was spelled wrong when it was originally written out and so is the only document with that spelling.
Patrick

lpdiver

Why only 90%? Do you want him to have to double handle everything and do twice the work all on a fixed fee. Reviewing a file in a case like this is the sort of thing you want to get your head into and wrap your mind around the task at hand. Now he has to review your file get back to you, wait for the other ten percent, then rewrap his mind on your task...ad infintum.

Generally a set fee involves a set amout of service...no?


Anthony

Rete

Well she can have the birth certificate changed to the correct spelling. In either case, she should on the bio form and any other form where indicated list the incorrect spelling on others names used or known by. It is not a big problem, if a problem at all.

As for attorneys and call backs, I can only relate my personal experiences. As many know, I work as a legal secy and paralegal for the corporate department/commercial finance area of a major law firm with offices in New York, Los Angeles, Memphis and Chicago. The partner and associate that I work directly for, and myself included, attempt to return all client phone calls within an hour of a missed call. It is my practice to return calls for either of the attorneys when they are in conference and/or in a closing and/or out of the office with at least a message that the attorney is currently unavailable and ask if I could direct them to someone else to answer any questions and/or could I help them myself or if they need the attorney personally their call will be returned either within a few hours or the next day. It should be noted that our attorneys will make call backs even if they are on personal holiday and have blackberries that allow them to view and respond to all e-mails sent to the office.

My husband has an attorney in Canada who has his power of attorney and a personal tax accountant in Canada as well. Jim sold his condo in Ottawa while we were on vacation last week. During the two weeks leading up to the closing, never once did his attorney or accountant respond to any of his phone calls regarding the anticipated closing. He heard only from the secretaries of both firms who asked questions regarding paperwork. In fact the closing was on the 16th of July and he still has not heard back that the condo sale has been completed and what the outcome was.

As for your situation, I, too, would be upset with a non-response, as I am with my husband's attorney, but in the way of offering an excuse, I would think that perhaps your attorney feels that your issues/questions are so minor that he has placed your calls at the bottom of the pile and is dealing with more urgent ones that require immediate attention. Or perhaps, he feels that you are just being a bit too demanding.

This does not negate the fact that you have paid him for his representation and should at least get a phone call back from his secretary with an answer to your question. I am assuming you are walking into his office without an appointment. If so, then you should not feel that you are entitled to see him when you just drop by. I would suggest you call his office and make an appointment to see him and then write down, prior to the visit, all the questions you have an present him with your questions at that time.

Rete

mrsm

My US husband's name was spelled incorrectly to on his birth certificate too, we didn't worry about it and it didn't cause any problems with USCIS. It is spelled correctly on all his ID and so on the forms for my AOS.

inquisitive40

90% is more than he has actually asked for so far, he has not asked for any divorce decrees for my wife to be and also I gave him the completed I-485 and I-765 which he did not ask for either (maybe he has enough info from the G-325 and I-130?).

My worries with him has stemmed from when he handled my divorce and he did not do anything about papers the courts had not received until I had questioned him on it when I visited his office and he said he was just about to contact me (this was less than a month from when the decree should have been final). The divorce went through with no problems but it was a worry that I did not need at the time either.
Patrick

psychobabbler1

I wonder why you continued on with him after that. It's good it all went well in the end, but based on that experience, I think
maybe some warning bells should have gone off that maybe he was not as with it as needed. Now, whether it was because of caseload or procrastination who knows, but either way it would have worried me enough to consider using another atty. Of course, it didn't happen to me and it's easy to say "Well, *you* should have...".

I agree with the suggestion of making an app't to talk in person and going in with a list of questions/concerns. Playing chase on the phone is not working. Not having calls returned in a timely manner is one of my personal pet peeves. It's not very professional, IMO.

cindyabs

Just my curiosity Patrick but is he an immigration attorney or just a regular "GP ?" Your immigration situation may be something that he is not able to race through if it's unfamiliar territory to him.
Also, if you didn't feel that he completely handled your divorce to your satisfaction why in heaven's name would you have him handle this matter?

lpdiver

Maybe it's just me but...Immigrations law is a pretty specialized arena. He is your divorce attorney also. I doubt that he is good in both arenas. A good friend of mine used a good lawyer that had no immigrations experience and had many problems.

Immigrations law is a very specialized sector of law and within immigrations there are further specialities. Depending on your situation and possoible complications you may just need a "general" immigrations attorney or a specialist. From my very limited experience there is as much art involved as science.

Is his primary area of practice immigrations?


These are questions you should ask.

ALP

cindyabs

I agree, when I had to use my divorce attorney again about non payment of alimony and subsequent court hearing I told her about my then engagement to my DH. She promptly recommended an attorney here in town who specialized in immigration. Believe me if she thought she could have handled it she would've offered to!!