Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Reaction to Padilla v. Kentucky


Last blog discussed the Supreme Court holding in Padilla v. Kentucky that defense counsel failed to adequately represent a non-citizen client by not informing the client of deportation possibilities.  Since Padilla, defense attorneys have sought to better train themselves in immigration-related issues and other issues concerning non-citizen clients.  Defense attorneys around the nation have woken up to an understanding that their clients need to be ensured that they are “receiving the fullest and most competent legal advice”  Morales, Francisco. Practicing After Padilla: Where do we go from here? Assistant Federal Public Defender. S Dist. TX. 
Part of the list advocated on the Federal Defender website (www.fed.org) includes defense attorneys obtaining all possible information about their client’s legal status and family’s legal status.  This requirement also speaks to the clients as no matter how many questions an attorney asks his or her client, only the client can provide adequate information.  For a further discussion on this well formulated list and on how to better serve clients facing immigration issues see http://fd.org/odstb_ConstructImmigrationCON.htm.  The list advocated by the Federal Defender website is fairly straight forward and beneficial as a common outline when assisting a client.  The website also includes other beneficial resources to be used by both defense attorneys and their clients. 

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