Alvino Guajardo

My sister-in-law contacted this attorney to review an immigration case and to determine if she needed to amend a final divorce degree so that her immigration case can continue. The reason we need a lawyer is to determine what is our best course of action. We need to hire an attorney to represent my ...sister-in-law in the event that we need to change her divorce decree. She decided to talk to him because his website shows that he practices law, including family and immigration law. They agreed to meet up at a Starbucks, and once he got there (he was already 30 minutes late, I was early), he demanded that my sister-in-law pay him $120 upfront fee just to talk to him for a brief consultation. Once he collected the money, he wanted to know who paid specifically. Although three of us were there, he would really only address the person who paid. I wanted him to speak in English since I understand what is going on and I would make the decision to hire him or not. However, because I did not pay, he wanted to only address my sister-in-law who speaks Spanish. I do not speak Spanish very well and he would not address me specifically. This was greatly disrespectful because I do not speak Spanish well and I felt he wanted to hide how much he knew about immigration law. I did not disclose want I did for a living, but he wanted to know if I was an attorney or not. I told him I was not but I helped my sister-in-law in filing her case. (I did the divorce, and immigration paperwork, so I was the most knowledgeable about it). He refused to address me and even ignored questions I asked him. Specifically, I asked him questions regarding what he can do with my sister-in-law’s case, does she need a new court order, and is the language already in the order sufficient. Although he stated this case is going to be difficult, he did not have any answers and told us that we need an immigration attorney. During the consultation at Starbucks, he stated that Family courts in Texas are not Juvenile courts and he did not know really what a juvenile court was. He reviewed the Amended Final Divorce Decree and stated that this order contains everything that the Request for Evidence (RFE) USCIS sent my sister-in-law, but he said the Divorce Decree was not ordered by a Juvenile Court. He then spent a good 15 minutes (wasting time) regarding the child custody agreements inside the divorce, which did not to what we needed to find out. Although, I know that my sister-in-law paid him for his legal advice, I am complaining because his website says he practices immigration and family law, but he told us that he is not an immigration Lawyer. He provided false advertisement claiming to practice immigration law on his website, but then tells us that he is not an immigration lawyer. If we knew he was not an immigration attorney, we would not have paid the fee and we would have gone with someone else. I am not sure if this is standard practice, but I was there to ensure the attorney was a good and honest person. Because of the way he refused to speak in English showed that he did not want to address me or explain what we should do, or need to do, I cannot recommend him. I am very knowledgeable in immigration law and the only reason we need an attorney is to help amend the divorce decree to make it in compliance with what USCIS needs to approve an SIJ case. He misrepresented his expertise, and took my sister-in-law’s $120 as well as showed disrespect to me.