Advocating for Yourself

Searching for legal assistance

Recognize that organizations that offer these services are facing capacity issues. You are not the only one in line awaiting assistance with legal services. Although organizations are doing their best, you may fall through the cracks. Therefore, you ought to be both persistent and understanding of the situation when seeking assistance and interacting with these organizations.
Know the agency who you talked to and who you talked to within that agency and when. As well as who called you and who you talked to, and what they said they would do.
Ask for expectation setting: "When should I expect to hear from you?"
Follow up according to deadlines, and make sure you are doing everything they need from you
Additionally, if you find legal representation make sure to take yourself off any other queues to free up capacity

Who is who?

Clients:

You are the Client.

As a client, you are the expert of your own story and culture.
Clients provide the details that are
- Emotionally significant
- Chronologically significant

Attorney or Legal Provider

A person who navigates the legal system on behalf of the client
They translate the client's story into the laws of the U.S in order to achieve a specific outcome

Types of legal representation

Pro bono: Some organizations provide legal services free of charge to low-income clients. clients may or may not be expected to pay for any accompanying costs such as filing fees and mailing. Unfortunately, the demand for services is much greater than what can be met by organizations and individual attorneys who offer pro bono services. For example, CAIR-WA can accept a limited number of clients because we can only have three immigration attorneys on staff. There are other ways to get assistance with your immigration case if you are unable to find pro bono help.
Low bono: Legal services are provided at a price below normal market rates so that individuals who have some ability to pay, but may not be eligible for pro bono services are able to hire an attorney at a rate they can afford.
Paid: Representation at a standard/regular price. This may be a flat rate or an hourly rate. some attorneys will accept payment plans to make their services more accessible.

Limited scope: The concept of a lawyer agreeing with a client to handle only some parts of the client's legal matter as a way to keep costs down. The client performs other parts of their case themselves. it is critical for the scope of the lawyer's work and role to be clearly agreed upon and articulated in your retainer agreement.
Full representation: The attorney will represent the client for the entirety of the case according to the retainer agreement and will communicate with the government or opposing party on the client's behalf. This does not typically include filing any appeal if needed, which is typically an additional service requiring an additional retainer agreement.

Pro se: Self-represented, filing on your own behalf without legal counsel. There are many self-help resources available for people in this situation. This includes video and written step-by-step instructions, legal clinics and workshops where guidance is provided on how to best represent oneself when seeking a specific legal solution.

Accredited Representative: immigration services may be provided by an attorney or an accredited representative. Some community organizations have accredited representatives rather than attorneys to assist their immigration clients. These specially trained individuals are qualified to provide immigration services. You should have the same expectations that you would from an attorney.

Retainer Agreement

You are not guaranteed representation unless you have a retainer agreement with a legal provider.
Having a conversation or email exchange with an attorney does not mean that the attorney will provide legal representation.
A retainer agreement includes the terms and conditions of your representation.
Get a copy of the signed agreement.
This is the contract of legal work that is being done on your behalf, and includes:
- What kind of legal work
- Who is doing it
- Terms of service
- What your obligations are to your attorney, for example, to provide accurate information and respond in a timely fashion

If you have found a legal provider:

Make sure you know what type of representation you are receiving (see previous slides for Types of Legal Representation).
Make sure you are turning in all of the necessary information and documents in a timely manner.
Make sure you ask what the next steps are in your case.
Ask for expectation setting. For example: “How long will this task take?” (Keep in mind that these are estimations.)
Make sure you have a copy of the retainer agreement.
Reminder: It is not good practice to have multiple organizations doing different filings, something could get lost.

What you can do to help the filing process:

Practices and actions that clients may take to make the filing process go as smoothly as possible:

Inform your attorney of your preferred method for them to contact you, if your contact info changes, or any other updates or changes to your circumstances that could impact your case
Keep copies of your important documents in a secure location
- preferably both hard copies and electronic copies in case papers get lost
- Keep them organized and in a safe place, so that you will have no problem finding them

Keep paper and electronic copies of documents. These may include but are not limited to:

All forms of ID
- Passport
- Taskira
- Drivers License
- Student ID
Birth certificates
Tax documents
Bills
Evidence that helps prove your case
- Example: medical records/forms

Ask your legal representative for copies of:
- Any applications filed on your behalf
- All receipts
- Proof of any payments
- Retainer agreement
- Correspondence such as emails on your behalf

Keep these organized and in a safe place.

Language barriers and communication

If you have trouble communicating with your attorney due to language barriers, tell your attorney you need an interpreter.
For all clients:
- Ask questions
- Ask for clarification
- Make sure you know what is happening in your case
- It is imperative that you are articulating your goals and story
  - Ex: My goal is to get my husband a green card
- Make sure that everything is being read to you
- If you can read in your own language, make sure the org provides the retainer agreement in your native language

Interview to support your case

Although it might be very difficult, be honest with your attorney about your experiences because they need to know all of the details to build a strong case for you
These conversations likely will bring up trauma, so seeking a mental health services is encouraged.
We ask certain questions, but if there is something that is important please bring it up even if you were not asked about it directly.
It may take more than one meeting to collect and understand your situation and story and translate that into a case
- Frame work
- Fill in details

Sharing negative facts

It is important to be truthful with your legal provider even with facts you would rather not share.
Your legal provider cannot help with what they do not know about.
If some sort of evidence or story comes up later on that the attorney didn’t know about, it can lead to negative consequences for your case.
Legal providers can prepare for negative facts.
However, without preparation, some other evidence or story can have bad consequences on your case and it can be really hard for your legal provider to work out.

Changes

Changes may affect your case.
It is important to keep your attorney updated on changes in your circumstances, or changes that may affect your immigration case, so that they can adapt if necessary.
If you’re not sure if a certain change, situation, or question is relevant, ask your attorney.

Message from CAIR Washington Attorneys

This is YOUR case! You are in charge of the legal strategy.
It is your right to know all of the information that is being done on your behalf.
It only benefits your legal counsel for you to be an active participant in your case.
You have to walk through all of the stages of the application with your counsel.
Legal providers can tell you all of the legal hoops you have to jump through, but you’re the one who has to jump.
Ultimately, you are the one who gets put under oath.