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A letter that I typed up addressed to the Texas Bar to hold attorneys accountable for malpractice.
To
whomever this may concern,
On August
1st 2007 my wife (Rachel Patel) and I (Samir
Patel) met with Toni Garza, a paralegal at the Redgate law office, located at 6836
san Pedro Ave. Ste. 101, San Antonio, TX-78216. We were seeking
representation for three matters that were made clear to Toni.
File an application for
permanent residence for me Samir Patel
File an application for a
work permit for me Samir Patel
File an application for a
travel document for me Samir Patel
We were told that the fees for said services would be $1500 and
reassured that the approximate timeline from filing to completion would be
approximately four to five months. I
have a pending DWI case in Bexar County
of which Toni was informed.
On August 28th
2007, after making the necessary financial arrangements, we paid Steven
Redgate the sum of $1500 to
represent me through the end of this process for the aforementioned items.
On September 14th 2007 I received a receipt notice
for the form I-485 Application to
register permanent residence and on the same day I received a receipt
notice for the form I-131 Application
for travel document. I was informed by this law office that there was a
change in USCIS policy in which the forms I-485 and I-765 (Application for
Employment Authorization) were to be filed together with a combined fee
totaling to $1,010.00. Due to this I prepared a money order for this amount as
well as another for $355.00 for the travel document and gave it to Steven
Redgate.
During my school semester, I opted to work for Dynapac as an Intern. My primary
responsibility was that of a programmer. After graduating school in December
Dynapac was still interested in hiring me for a full time position. This is
when I started getting concerned about the employment authorization document as
I had not received a notice from USCIS notifying me of the status of this
application. Mr. Greczka (Dynapac’s
Lawyer), Connie Nivens (Human
Resources), Reuben Collins (Network
Administrator), Toni Garza (Paralegal
at Redgate Law Office) and Samir Patel
(myself) had a phone conference on December
21st 2007 in regards to the status of this EAD.
Toni Garza clearly stated that the application for the Employment
Authorization Document had been submitted and that it was pending with the USCIS, they had a
tremendous back log of applications and would process the application in the
order that it was received. At this time Mr. Greczka requested me that I ask
Redgate for a copy of my file so he could take a look at a copy of the
documents that were submitted for accuracy. The office refused to give me a
copy of my own file, stating that it was not their policy to give clients a
copy of their own file.
A few months later my wife and I were called in for the
interview at the local USCIS office. During that time I asked the interviewer,
an officer at USCIS, the status of my application for employment. She notified
me that there was no record of any such
application on file. The next day I approached Redgate and requested a copy
of the application that was submitted to USCIS. His assistant told me that they
do have a copy of the application “but
it does not have your signature on it.”
Since the document was not signed by me it was obviously not
submitted along with the other two applications for which I received receipt
notices on the same day. When I called the office to investigate this matter
further, the assistant told me that she had handed my wife an envelope on November 2nd 2007 that was
delivered to Lees Summit, MO-64064. She
claimed that this envelope contained my application for employment.
I have two concerns with this explanation that I was provided:
If the document was indeed
in that envelope, why was it submitted in November and not September like the
other two applications?
If the application for
employment was in this envelope, then why does USCIS not have any record of
receiving this application for employment?
As
soon as I was told this story, I called customer care at USCIS and requested
them to put in a document tracer for me. After a month of research they
determined that there was no application for employment bearing my name in any
of their offices.
Again
I confronted Redgate with this information, he claimed that USCIS loose
documents all the time and that this application was lost. In such a fashion he
effectively disclaimed any responsibility of the application altogether and
left the burden of finding an effective solution on my shoulders.
At
this point I told him that we should file another application as that was the
only other recourse. So on April 1st
2007, Almost Eight months after the initial application was filed we got to
submitting a new application for employment. I was told to bring two passport
size photographs and sign the forms. I then personally went to the post office
and sent the form to the local USCIS
office in San Antonio with no fee
and a wrong return address, which was filled in by his assistant. Twenty days
passed and I did not hear back from them, so I signed up for an InfoPass
appointment, on my own accord and went in to speak with the InfoPass officers
to determine the cause for this delay.
Here
is what I was told:
“Since
your application for employment was filed separate from the Application to
Register Permanent Residence, there should have been a fee of $340 included with the application. Furthermore
the San Antonio District office Does not
process EAD applications!”
Frustrated
and disenchanted I called the office of Steven Redgate right away. The
assistant picks up the phone. I tell her what happened, and asked her to speak
to Redgate right away. She said that he was busy, took my phone number, and
assured me that he will call me back. 7 days have passed; I have tried calling
the office repeatedly, but to no avail. My calls have been ignored and my case
has been put to the side as if I was not a client anymore.
At
this point, out of the initial three goals that were to be completed, only one
of them has been seen to fruition. That is the application for my travel
document.
I believe that my case has been
handled in the most unethical manner imaginable. I believe I was told
fabricated myths in order to prolong the case and to reduce the amount of work
that this office would have to do. I also believe that if this office would
have acted ethically and admitted to making a mistake and not submitting my
application, this issue would have been resolved and I would not be typing this
remorseful letter and I certainly would not be seeking grievance.
Since this office has nothing more
to offer me, I would like for my file in its entirety to be handed over to me
as soon as possible. I would also like Redgate never to represent me from here
on out and all matters and communications between myself and the USCIS are to
be forwarded to my place of residence even if they are accidently received by
this office. Furthermore I would like to make my experience with this attorney
public and let the world know of my case and how it was handled. I hope and
pray that my efforts to publicize this issue will serve to better inform some
other unsuspecting person in a similar position.
I am aware that the Texas Bar does
not provide a financial remedy for Attorney Client grievances. I would however
like this governing body to know that I have been unemployed since I graduated
from UTSA in December of 2007. My wife has been working 12 hour days (including
weekends) with the false hope that my employment documents would come in and I
would relieve her of her burdens. This false hope was provided to us by none
other than the Law Offices of Steven Redgate. Our justifiable reliance on this
attorney has caused my family a great amount of hardship, both financially
emotionally and mentally.
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