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Metro Law
Metro Law

    Areas of practice

    This library

    Metro Law Advisors — Plain-language reference for demanding areas of American law

    Removal Defense

    Calling an Expert Witness in Immigration Court

    Immigration court has no formal gatekeeping test for expert testimony. What decides whether an expert helps is the written report, the timing of its filing, and whether the opinion is tied to the specific person rather than to a general situation.

    6 min readFederal law

    An open notebook filled with handwritten notes beside a laptop and a stack of printed research papers
    Rail & Transit

    Railroad Rights of Way and What Happens When Service Ends

    Rail corridors were assembled by purchase, condemnation and federal land grant, so the interests range from full ownership to a limited easement. When a railroad seeks to abandon a line, the Surface Transportation Board decides whether to authorize it. Before abandonment takes effect, a trail sponsor may seek interim trail use under the National Trails System Act, which railbanks the corridor: the easement does not terminate and reversion does not occur.

    6 min readFederal and state

    Liens & Towing

    Signage That Makes a Private Tow Lawful

    Statutes authorizing removal of a vehicle from private property without the owner's consent generally require a sign posted in plain view at each entrance, of a stated minimum size with lettering of a stated height, prohibiting unauthorized parking, stating that vehicles will be removed at the owner's expense, and giving telephone numbers. Where the sign does not comply, the tow is unauthorized and statutes commonly impose double charges or other liability.

    6 min readState law

    HOAs & Condominiums

    The Declaration and Why It Binds a Buyer Who Never Signed It

    A common interest community is created by recording a declaration in the county land records. The covenants inside it are treated as equitable servitudes that run with the land, so they bind every later owner regardless of notice, agreement or signature. The declaration sits above the bylaws and the rules in the hierarchy of governing documents, and a provision in a lower document that conflicts with it is unenforceable to the extent of the conflict.

    6 min readState law

    Removal Defense

    What happens once the government files a case in immigration court, and the ways out.

    All articles

    Calling an Expert Witness in Immigration Court

    Immigration court has no formal gatekeeping test for expert testimony. What decides whether an expert helps is the written report, the timing of its filing, and whether the opinion is tied to the specific person rather than to a general situation.

    6 min readFederal law

    Rail & Transit

    Railroads, transit authorities and the crossings, injuries and fares that follow them.

    All articles
    Rail & Transit

    Railroad Rights of Way and What Happens When Service Ends

    Rail corridors were assembled by purchase, condemnation and federal land grant, so the interests range from full ownership to a limited easement. When a railroad seeks to abandon a line, the Surface Transportation Board decides whether to authorize it. Before abandonment takes effect, a trail sponsor may seek interim trail use under the National Trails System Act, which railbanks the corridor: the easement does not terminate and reversion does not occur.

    6 min readFederal and state

    Rail & Transit

    Trespassers on the Track and the Duty a Railroad Owes

    Most states owe a trespasser only a duty to refrain from willful or wanton injury, which means a railroad is generally not liable for failing to anticipate someone on the track. The duty rises where the railroad knows people are regularly present at a location, where a crew discovers a person in peril and can still act, and in some states where a child is attracted to dangerous equipment. State statutes separately criminalize presence on the right of way and define its width.

    6 min readFederal and state

    Rail & Transit

    Fare Enforcement, Citations and the Hearing That Follows

    Fare evasion was traditionally a criminal infraction. Many states now let a transit agency adopt an ordinance imposing an administrative penalty instead, enforced by designated inspectors on a proof-of-payment basis. The notice of violation sets a short period to pay or to request review, followed by an administrative hearing and, in most systems, a limited right of appeal to a court. Ignoring the notice usually escalates the amount and can send the debt to collection.

    6 min readState law

    HOAs & Condominiums

    Communities governed by recorded documents, an elected board and mandatory assessments.

    All articles
    A row of similar suburban houses with identical mailboxes and trimmed front lawns along a quiet residential street
    Uniformity along a street is usually the visible result of a document recorded before any of the houses were sold.

    Guardianship

    A court moving decision-making authority from one adult to another, and taking it back.

    All articles

    Acts a Guardian Cannot Take Without Going Back to Court

    Appointment grants a working set of powers and withholds another set entirely. The withheld powers share a feature: each one moves value or forecloses a choice in a way that cannot easily be undone, so the statute routes it back through a judge.

    6 min readState law

    Adoption & Reproduction

    How the law assigns and reassigns legal parentage.

    All articles
    Adoption & Reproduction

    Getting a Parentage Order Entered Before Birth

    In states with an enabling framework, a party to a surrogacy agreement may seek an order declaring each intended parent to be a parent, declaring the person who gave birth and any spouse not to be parents, and directing the registrar to record the intended parents on the birth record. The court may issue the order before birth and stay enforcement until delivery. Other states enter an order only after birth, sometimes on an expedited timetable measured in days.

    7 min readState law

    Adoption & Reproduction

    The Revocation Window After Consent Is Signed

    Consent statutes set a minimum interval after birth before a birth parent may sign, then a revocation period measured either in days or by reference to court approval. Some states make consent binding on execution for a newborn and allow only fraud or duress as a later challenge. Others allow a fixed number of days, or a waiver of the right to revoke signed with counsel. Federal law adds a separate rule where the child is an Indian child.

    6 min readState law

    Adoption & Reproduction

    The Putative Father Registry and the Deadline Running Against It

    Most states maintain a registry where a man who believes he may have fathered a child files identifying information to preserve a right to notice of an adoption or termination proceeding. Registration does not establish paternity and confers no custody. Deadlines are short, commonly measured from the child's birth or from the filing of a petition. A certificate that a search found no filing lets a court proceed without notice to any unregistered man.

    6 min readState law

    Funeral & Cemetery

    Who decides what happens to a body, and the rules the trade must follow.

    All articles
    A plain black desk telephone with a coiled cord sitting beside a closed notebook on a bare office table in daylight
    Price comparison under the federal rule is designed to be possible from a telephone, before any visit takes place.

    Hospitality & Lodging

    The duties an establishment owes a guest, and the ones a guest owes back.

    All articles

    The Innkeeper's Duty to Receive and the Narrow Grounds to Refuse

    Innkeepers were treated differently from other merchants for centuries because travelers had nowhere else to go. The duty survives in a modern form, and the list of lawful reasons to refuse someone is shorter than most front desks assume.

    6 min readState law

    Pharmacy & Controlled Substances

    Registration, prescribing and dispensing of medicines the state watches most closely.

    All articles
    Pharmacy & Controlled Substances

    Registering to Handle Controlled Substances

    Federal law requires a separate registration for each principal place of business where controlled substances are manufactured, distributed or dispensed, and a separate registration for each independent group of activities. A practitioner registration depends on state authority to dispense: when the state license ends, the federal authority it rests on ends with it. Registrations expire on assigned cycles and must be modified when the address or the schedules handled change.

    6 min readFederal and state

    Pharmacy & Controlled Substances

    The Drug Schedules and What Each One Restricts

    Congress set five schedules and gave the Attorney General authority to add, remove or move substances after a scientific and medical evaluation. Each placement rests on findings about abuse potential, accepted medical use and the dependence a substance produces. The schedule then determines the ordering, prescribing, refill, storage and recordkeeping rules that apply, and a change in schedule changes all of them at once.

    6 min readFederal law

    Pharmacy & Controlled Substances

    Refills, Transfers and Partial Fills by Schedule

    Schedule II prescriptions may not be refilled and their partial fills run on tight deadlines measured from the prescription or the first fill. Schedules III and IV permit up to five refills within six months of issue, and refill information may be transferred between pharmacies once unless they share a real-time database. Every partial fill and refill generates a record entry, and the total dispensed can never exceed the quantity prescribed.

    6 min readFederal and state

    Product Safety & Recalls

    Reporting a hazard, running a recall, and the products that may not be sold at all.

    All articles
    Close view of a molded plastic surface with small raised characters and a printed code stamped into the material
    A mark that survives the life of the product is the point of the requirement.

    Liens & Towing

    Selling someone else's property without ever going to court.

    All articles

    Signage That Makes a Private Tow Lawful

    The sign is not a courtesy to drivers. In most states it is the condition on which the property owner's authority to remove a vehicle rests at all, and the statutes specify its dimensions, its lettering height, its content and exactly where it must stand.

    6 min readState law