- Click here on Thomson West for purchasing details.
- Click here on Table of Contents to learn more about the Manual.
- Click here on sample material to view a model pleading from the Manual.
Immigration Pleading and Practice Manual is a Thomson West publication authored by Anna Marie Gallagher and Thomas Hutchins. The 500 page loose-leaf publication provides practitioners with model letters and pleadings to guide them through immigration litigation before immigration judges, the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”), and federal courts. Model materials also include letters and requests to Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) officials for the release of aliens on bond or parole, and for copies of aliens’ files (FOIA requests).
The model letters and pleadings are samples that readers can study and adapt. Each sample contains a realistic fact pattern, legal authority, and argument. The fact pattern demonstrates what degree of detail is necessary to prevail. The legal authority provides a starting point from which to begin legal research on a particular issue. The argument illustrates how to apply immigration law to the facts at hand.
Immigration Pleading and Practice Manual is divided into five chapters, which are followed by extensive appendices. Chapter One covers requests made to DHS. It explains recurring procedural issues like certificates of translation and service. Chapter Two covers proceedings in immigration court. Chapter Three covers proceedings before the BIA. Chapter Four covers proceedings before federal district courts. Chapter Five covers proceedings before federal circuit courts of appeals. The appendices include an immigration court directory, a directory of immigration court local operating procedures, BIA contact information, a directory of Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) district counsel, contact information for clerks of the U.S. courts of appeals, contact information for the Office of Immigration Litigation, and BIA citation guidelines.
Many of the model pleadings in Chapter Two, and several in Chapter Three, concern themselves with the hypothetical immigration proceedings of one individual. He is Patrice Lubangsa, a fictional native and citizen of the Democratic Republic of the Congo who is seeking asylum in the U.S. Basing many pleadings on one case study demonstrates how pleadings build upon one another. It illustrates the range of pleadings necessary to represent just one alien. It conveys a sense of realism which guides and instructs newcomers who are defending their first clients in immigration proceedings. Several pleadings based on a single case study are found at other points in the publication as well, for the same reasons.
Immigration Pleading and Practice Manual comes in two parts, a CD ROM, and a loose-leaf volume. The CD ROM contains electronic versions of each model letter and pleading. Practitioners can download model material from the CD, then edit and adapt it as they choose.
The loose-leaf volume contains detailed practitioners' notes which accompany the print version of each model. The notes explain the legal principles and the practical considerations applicable to that particular model. They include annotated directories of relevant statutes, regulations, agency memoranda, and agency and judicial decisions. They provide references to related treatises and other publications.
Together, the CD ROM, sample motions and practitioners' notes provide newcomers to immigration law with roadmaps and tools which will enable them to draft quickly and with confidence. They give established practitioners opportunities to update and revise materials already used.
Immigration Pleading and Practice Manual can be purchased on-line.
- Click here on Thomson West for purchasing details.
- Click here on Table of Contents to learn more about the Manual.
- Click here on sample material to view a model pleading from the Manual.
