Business of law – Sound Immigration

Social media for lawyers – 26 questions and answers

Thanks to the 1,372 lawyers who attended this week's social media ethics Legal Lunchbox talk. We understand it was the largest program ever hosted by the Washington State Bar Association, which speaks to the interest and angst that many of…

CLE materials – Tools for Streamlining and Automating Your Law Practice

Thanks to the Washington State Bar Association's Solo & Small Practice Section - I appreciate having the opportunity to speak today at the annual CLE with legal-tech futurist, and workers comp attorney Jordan Couch. This post houses materials for today's…

Make your practice more client friendly with design thinking

The law is notoriously verbocentric and dense. And from the client’s perspective, legal services are rarely delivered in a user-friendly way. Although design-driven businesses have been shown to outperform their competitors, the legal profession has been slow to adopt good…

How to Run Your Law Firm from India (With a Four Month-Old)

In this presentation, I talk about the vision behind our law firm, Sound Immigration. We strive to provide world-class service to our clients while allowing our attorneys the freedom to pursue lives of deep personal meaning. For me, that means having the…

Using contract attorneys to scale your law practice

Today we were joined by Andy Backlund of Emerald City Attorney Network, PLLC. On our webinar, Andy spoke about how law firms can use contract lawyers to build a more profitable practice and one that delivers quicker and better work product…

Covering Your Assets: Protecting Your Law Firm’s Intellectual Property

Do potential clients seem to know of you and your firm before you even have that initial consultation? How often does it happen that the same potential clients have already thoroughly scoured your website before you get to meet with…

Law firm value statements

Thanks to everyone who came out yesterday to hear Jenny Anderson and I speak at Seattle University School of Law. In her portion of the talk on building a law firm, Jenny spoke about the importance of articulating a law…

DIY videos for law firm marketing

October 11, 2016
Greg McLawsen
Business of law, Events, For lawyers, Updates
0 Comments

Producing videos for your law firm might seem daunting but it doesn’t have to be. Great videos can vastly increase your website’s search engine ranking and provide an important way to reach new clients. Best of all, relatively few attorneys…

The best (and most fun) free/low-cost legal tech for lawyers

Thanks to the Snohomish County Bar Association for inviting me to speak at today's CLE. Trying something new, I live broadcast a video of the talk on Periscope. You can view that video below, along with the slide deck from…

Free and Low-Cost Technology for Law Firms

This talk was prepared for the nice folks at the Kittitas County Bar Association. Thanks to the group for having me out to Ellensburg! In this video, we discuss various technologies that can help make your law practice easier. Topics include:…

What goes into an I-864 Affidavit of Support lawsuit complaint?
I’ve been representing clients in lawsuits to enforce the USCIS Form I-864, Affidavit of Support for about a decade at this point. Over that time, I’ve made a lot of changes to the template that we use for federal lawsuit complaints. (A complaint is the initial case document that sets forth the plaintiff’s legal claim…
What is a joint sponsor’s liability under the Form I-864, Affidavit of Support?
A joint sponsor (also called co-sponsor) has the same liability under an Affidavit of Support as the primary sponsor. By signing the USCIS Form I-864, the joint sponsor agrees to “joint and several” liability on the contract. The sponsored immigrant can sue the joint sponsor for financial support in state or federal court. A joint…
Can you enforce the Form I-864 Affidavit of Support in a divorce case?
Yes – in most states the USCIS Form I-864, Affidavit of Support can be enforced in a divorce case. A family law court has the authority to enforce the I-864 either (1) as a breach of contract claim or (2) through spousal maintenance (also called alimony). But as discussed below, divorce court is not necessarily…
USCIS Form I-864 enforcement in divorce court – another cautionary tale (Marriage of Bychina)
It is a theme that I have written about many times on this blog and elsewhere. Yes, the Affidavit of Support can theoretically be enforced in family law proceedings. But in practice, beneficiaries frequently encounter problems in that forum. Here is another example. Marriage of Bychina was a family law case in Illinois. See No.…
How do you calculate damages under the I-864, Affidavit of Support
In an important ruling for one of our I-864 enforcement clients, a Court ruled today that damages under the USCIS Form I-864, Affidavit of Support are determined based on taxable income. In Flores v. Flores, the Western District of Washington ruled that the term “income” is governed by the definition contained at 8 C.F.R. §…
How do you settle a claim under the USCIS Form I-864, Affidavit of Support?
As I explain elsewhere on this blog, almost all claims under the USCIS Form I-864, Affidavit of Support result in settlement. To get an idea of how long that process takes, read this post. Having settled many of these claims, here is an overview of how we generally approach settlement. What goes into an Affidavit…
Can you enforce the Form I-864 Affidavit of Support with a preliminary injunction?
Non-citizens needing to enforce the USCIS Form I-864, Affidavit of Support are usually in serious need of help. To have a claim under the Affidavit, their income needs to be below 125 percent of the poverty line. That’s about $1,400 per month for a household of one. But a lawsuit can take months or even…
What affirmative defenses are available to Form I-864 sponsors? None.
The Eleventh Circuit has held that the common law defenses of unclean hands, anticipatory breach, and equitable estoppel are unavailable to a sponsor who has signed a USCIS Form I-864, Affidavit of Support. Blevich v. Thomas, 17 F.4th 1048 (11th Cir. 2021). Belevich joins a growing line of cases that stand for the proposition that…
The federal right to immigration “alimony” under the Form I-864, Affidavit of Support
A version of this article first appeared in the Side Bar journal for the Litigation Section of the Federal Bar Association (Spring 2021). If you are like most federal litigators – this author included – you would never enter divorce court unless your name was on the case caption. The vitriol, the sabotage, the meanness.…
How long does the I-864 support last?
A sponsor's obligation under the Form I-864 lasts indefinitely. It terminates only upon one of five Terminating Events, including when the green card holder has 40 quarters of work or becomes a U.S. citizen. It *does not* terminate automatically after ten years, even though lawyers mistakenly