Vet Your Lawyer

This Time, Legal Advice for Immigrants Is Real – City Room Blog – NYTimes.com.

Here is a news story that proves average people need to vet their lawyers just like big companies do.

Victor M. Espinal

According to the NYT, this guy had been “practicing” for nearly two decades before he was caught. He was apparently quite prominent; a local bar association was offering scholarships in his name. This is what happens when people rely only on word of mouth, which is inherently out of date and unreliable. Espinal’s practice, like Marc Dreier before him, was all a house of cards. One victim was quite forgiving, however, underscoring the most poignant part of this tragedy:

With no right to a court-appointed lawyer, low-income immigrants facing detention and deportation often end up with cut-rate lawyers whose genuine law licenses do not mean competence.

This is why we make every effort to make our services affordable. Everyone, from the Fortune 500 to the newest immigrant, ought to have an objective basis for confidence in their lawyer.