https://metrolawadvisors.com/ Plain-language reference for demanding areas of American lawen-us https://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/calling-an-expert-witness/https://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/calling-an-expert-witness/There is no formal admissibility test for expert testimony in immigration court, so the judge decides qualification and weight in the same breath. The written report filed before the hearing does most of the work: it establishes qualifications, states the materials reviewed, sets out the methodology and connects the opinion to the individual applicant. Filing deadlines are enforced, and an expert not listed by the deadline may not be heard.Removal Defensehttps://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/railroad-rights-of-way/https://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/railroad-rights-of-way/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.Rail & Transithttps://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/proving-hardship-to-a-relative/https://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/proving-hardship-to-a-relative/Cancellation of removal for a non-permanent resident requires exceptional and extremely unusual hardship to a citizen or permanent resident spouse, parent or child. The list of qualifying relatives is closed, hardship to the applicant does not count, and the standard demands hardship substantially beyond what ordinarily follows from removal. The record must address both the relative staying behind and the relative leaving, because the judge considers each possibility.Removal Defensehttps://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/signage-that-makes-a-tow-lawful/https://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/signage-that-makes-a-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.Liens & Towinghttps://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/getting-a-towed-vehicle-back/https://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/getting-a-towed-vehicle-back/After a vehicle is stored, notice must be given to the registered and legal owners within a short statutory window, stating where the vehicle is, why it was removed and how to request a hearing. Release is generally required within a stated time of the request, the owner may inspect before accepting, and no waiver of damage claims may be required as a condition. A poststorage hearing determines whether reasonable grounds for the storage existed.Liens & Towinghttps://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/the-declaration-and-what-it-binds/https://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/the-declaration-and-what-it-binds/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.HOAs & Condominiumshttps://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/ineffective-assistance-and-reopening/https://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/ineffective-assistance-and-reopening/A motion to reopen based on ineffective assistance is expected to include a detailed affidavit setting out what was agreed with the former representative and what was represented, evidence that the former representative was informed of the allegations and given an opportunity to respond, and a statement whether a disciplinary complaint has been filed and if not why not. Prejudice must also be shown, and the ordinary ninety-day limit still applies.Removal Defensehttps://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/telephone-price-quotes/https://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/telephone-price-quotes/Under the Funeral Rule a provider must give accurate price information to anyone who asks by telephone, drawn from its price lists or other readily available information. No name or telephone number may be required first, and no appointment may be demanded. Once a discussion of arrangements begins in person, a printed general price list must be handed over, and casket and container lists must arrive before those goods are shown. Price lists must be kept for inspection.Funeral & Cemeteryhttps://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/tracking-labels/https://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/tracking-labels/A manufacturer of a children's product must place permanent distinguishing marks on the product and its packaging, to the extent practicable, that enable the manufacturer to ascertain the location and date of production and cohort information such as a batch or run number, and enable an ultimate purchaser to determine the source, the date of production and detailed information about the manufacturing process. The mark supports recall targeting and consumer identification.Product Safety & Recallshttps://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/registering-to-handle-controlled-substances/https://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/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.Pharmacy & Controlled Substanceshttps://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/leasing-caps-and-grandfathering/https://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/leasing-caps-and-grandfathering/Rental restrictions are usually adopted by amendment to the declaration. Statutes in several states provide that an owner is not subject to a leasing prohibition or restriction unless the provision was effective before the owner acquired title, or the owner consented. Narrow carve-outs allow associations to regulate short-term rentals and limit the number of rentals per year for everyone. Statutes elsewhere impose a floor on how restrictive a cap may be.HOAs & Condominiumshttps://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/sealing-the-immigration-court-record/https://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/sealing-the-immigration-court-record/Hearings other than exclusion hearings are open to the public, subject to the judge's authority to limit attendance or close proceedings to protect witnesses, parties or the public interest. Proceedings concerning an abused spouse or child are closed, in the spouse's case unless that person agrees otherwise. A separate confidentiality rule bars disclosure of information contained in or pertaining to an asylum application without the applicant's written consent.Removal Defensehttps://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/getting-a-parentage-order-before-birth/https://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/getting-a-parentage-order-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.Adoption & Reproductionhttps://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/cancellation-for-a-green-card-holder/https://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/cancellation-for-a-green-card-holder/Cancellation of removal for a permanent resident requires five years of permanent residence, seven years of continuous residence after admission in any status, and no conviction of an aggravated felony. The non-resident version requires ten years of physical presence, good moral character, the absence of listed convictions, and exceptional and extremely unusual hardship to a qualifying relative. Neither version is available to several listed categories, and both are discretionary.Removal Defensehttps://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/acts-that-need-a-further-court-order/https://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/acts-that-need-a-further-court-order/Statutes divide fiduciary authority into acts that may be taken in the ordinary course and acts requiring notice and specific court authorization. The second category typically includes gifts, sale or encumbrance of the adult's home, creating or revoking a trust, changing beneficiaries, exercising an elective share, and making a will. Several personal decisions sit in the same category, including certain psychiatric procedures and, in some states, a move to a more restrictive residence.Guardianshiphttps://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/titling-an-abandoned-vehicle/https://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/titling-an-abandoned-vehicle/Converting a possessory lien into a transferable title requires an application to the state vehicle agency, which supplies the registered owner and every recorded lienholder from the title record. Notice goes to each of them with a stated opportunity to pay or to oppose. Where no valid opposition is filed, the sale proceeds after publication and the buyer applies for a certificate of title supported by the lien sale documents.Liens & Towinghttps://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/trespass-and-the-duty-owed/https://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/trespass-and-the-duty-owed/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.Rail & Transithttps://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/why-a-dismissed-case-still-counts/https://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/why-a-dismissed-case-still-counts/For immigration purposes a conviction exists where a court entered a formal judgment of guilt, or where adjudication was withheld but the person was found guilty, pleaded guilty or no contest, or admitted facts sufficient to warrant a finding of guilt, and a judge ordered some form of punishment, penalty or restraint on liberty. Later expungement or rehabilitative relief generally leaves that conviction intact, and a suspended sentence still counts toward a term of imprisonment.Removal Defensehttps://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/the-revocation-window/https://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/the-revocation-window/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.Adoption & Reproductionhttps://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/the-repair-lien/https://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/the-repair-lien/Statutes give a person who performs labor or supplies materials on a vehicle a lien on it for the reasonable value of the work. The lien is possessory: it depends on retaining the vehicle and is generally lost by voluntary surrender, without revival when the vehicle returns. It secures only authorized work, so a shop that exceeds a written estimate or works without authority may hold no lien for the excess.Liens & Towinghttps://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/the-duty-to-receive-guests/https://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/the-duty-to-receive-guests/At common law an innkeeper had to receive any traveler able to pay and fit to be received. Modern lodging statutes restate the duty and list the grounds for refusal: no vacancy, inability or refusal to pay, intoxication or disorderly conduct, exceeding posted occupancy, and use of the room for an unlawful purpose. Federal public accommodation law and state civil rights acts remove protected characteristics from the list, and disability law adds obligations rather than exceptions.Hospitality & Lodginghttps://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/dismissal-and-termination/https://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/dismissal-and-termination/Dismissal is available only on a government motion resting on the grounds that permit cancellation of the charging document, and it is without prejudice to either side. Termination is ordered by the judge, is mandatory where one of seven listed conditions is met, and is discretionary in a further set of situations. Administrative closure ends nothing: it suspends the case temporarily and the matter can be recalendared on a party's motion at any time.Removal Defensehttps://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/newer-methods-of-disposition/https://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/newer-methods-of-disposition/State law authorizes disposition methods by name. Conventional burial and cremation are available everywhere; alkaline hydrolysis and natural organic reduction exist only where a statute defines the process and licenses the facility. Natural burial is not a separate legal method but a set of cemetery rules on chemicals, containers and vaults. What each produces differs, and the destination rules that follow depend on how the statute classifies the output.Funeral & Cemeteryhttps://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/the-putative-father-registry/https://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/the-putative-father-registry/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.Adoption & Reproductionhttps://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/post-adoption-contact-agreements/https://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/post-adoption-contact-agreements/Statutes in many states permit an enforceable agreement for continuing contact between an adopted child and birth relatives, on conditions: a writing signed by the parties, court approval at or before the decree, and a finding that the arrangement serves the child. A breach does not invalidate the adoption, the consent or the termination. The usual remedies are enforcement or modification, often after mediation, and modification is decided on the child's interests rather than on fault.Adoption & Reproductionhttps://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/the-home-study/https://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/the-home-study/State statutes require a written study before a child is placed, prepared by a licensed agency or an approved professional. It covers household composition, health, finances, background checks on adults in the home, references and a home visit. Federal funding conditions bar approval where a check reveals a felony for specified violent or child-related offenses at any time, or for assault, battery or a drug offense within five years.Adoption & Reproductionhttps://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/abandoned-cemeteries/https://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/abandoned-cemeteries/Maintenance of a cemetery is funded by an endowment care fund built from a percentage of each sale, with only the income spendable. Where the fund is absent or too small, statutes assign residual duties to townships or counties, often triggered only by a finding of abandonment. Descendants rarely compel maintenance but do hold statutory access rights to graves on private land, enforceable by injunction.Funeral & Cemeteryhttps://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/when-a-recall-stops-being-voluntary/https://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/when-a-recall-stops-being-voluntary/A voluntary corrective action is a negotiated plan agreed with staff and publicly announced. A mandatory recall requires the Commission to determine, after affording interested persons an opportunity for a hearing, that a product distributed in commerce presents a substantial product hazard and that notification or remedy is in the public interest. The compulsory route offers procedural protections the negotiated route does not, at the cost of time, cost and publicity.Product Safety & Recallshttps://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/bond-flight-risk-and-danger/https://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/bond-flight-risk-and-danger/An immigration judge deciding custody makes two distinct findings: whether release would pose a danger to persons or property, and whether the person is likely to appear at future hearings. A danger finding ends the inquiry, because no sum of money answers it. Where danger is not found, the amount is set to secure appearance, above a statutory minimum, and is driven by ties to a community, immigration history and the strength of the case for relief.Removal Defensehttps://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/bonds-inventories-and-accountings/https://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/bonds-inventories-and-accountings/Courts require a conservator to furnish a bond or an equivalent verified receipt, sized to the estate plus expected income, unless the court finds security unnecessary. An inventory is due shortly after appointment, commonly within ninety days, with notice to the adult and interested persons. Periodic reports must contain an accounting of receipts, disbursements and holdings, a statement of deviations from the approved plan, and disclosure of benefits received by the conservator or family.Guardianshiphttps://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/fare-enforcement-and-citations/https://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/fare-enforcement-and-citations/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.Rail & Transithttps://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/advertising-and-conducting-the-sale/https://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/advertising-and-conducting-the-sale/Before a lien sale the operator must publish an advertisement, typically once a week for two consecutive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation in the area, with a posting alternative where no such newspaper exists. Statutes increasingly recognize online auction sites, either as a substitute publication or as the sale venue. The sale itself must be conducted in a commercially reasonable manner, which addresses method, publicity and timing rather than price alone.Liens & Towinghttps://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/detention-no-bond-hearing-reaches/https://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/detention-no-bond-hearing-reaches/The detention statute requires custody for people charged with certain criminal and security grounds, and the regulation removes those categories, along with arriving noncitizens, from an immigration judge's redetermination authority. The only argument available before the judge is that the person is not properly included in the category. That hearing turns on whether the conviction actually matches the ground charged, not on ties, hardship or rehabilitation.Removal Defensehttps://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/the-stop-time-rule/https://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/the-stop-time-rule/Continuous residence and continuous physical presence end at the earlier of two events: service of a notice to appear under the statute, or commission of an offense that renders the person inadmissible under the criminal ground or removable under the criminal or security grounds. The Supreme Court has held that a document omitting the time and place of the hearing is not a notice to appear for this purpose, and that a later notice supplying the missing detail does not cure the defect.Removal Defensehttps://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/the-drug-schedules/https://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/the-drug-schedules/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.Pharmacy & Controlled Substanceshttps://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/refills-transfers-and-partial-fills/https://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/refills-transfers-and-partial-fills/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.Pharmacy & Controlled Substanceshttps://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/quiet-zones-and-horn-rules/https://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/quiet-zones-and-horn-rules/A federal rule requires the horn to be sounded in a prescribed pattern in advance of every public highway-rail grade crossing. A public authority may suspend that requirement by establishing a quiet zone, which requires every public crossing in the corridor to have flashing lights and gates, plus supplementary or alternative safety measures or a risk level below the threshold. Notice to the railroad and the state and federal agencies is required, and the zone can be terminated.Rail & Transithttps://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/reselling-recalled-goods/https://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/reselling-recalled-goods/It is a prohibited act to sell, offer for sale, distribute in commerce or import a consumer product that is subject to a voluntary corrective action taken in consultation with the Commission and publicly announced, or subject to an order requiring notification or remedy. The same prohibitions apply to banned hazardous products and banned hazardous substances. Liquidation, clearance and secondhand channels are the routes through which recalled stock most often reappears.Product Safety & Recallshttps://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/waivers-for-criminal-grounds/https://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/waivers-for-criminal-grounds/The general criminal waiver reaches the moral turpitude ground, the multiple convictions ground, prostitution, certain immunity assertions, and one marijuana possession offense. Eligibility runs through fifteen years and rehabilitation, extreme hardship to a citizen or resident relative, or self-petitioner status. Murder and torture offenses are excluded absolutely, a permanent resident faces two further bars, and a violent or dangerous crime requires an extraordinary showing.Removal Defensehttps://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/the-standard-a-volunteer-board-is-held-to/https://metrolawadvisors.com/metro/the-standard-a-volunteer-board-is-held-to/A director must act in good faith, in a manner believed to be in the best interests of the corporation, and with the care an ordinarily prudent person in a like position would use, including reasonable inquiry. Directors may rely on officers, counsel, accountants and committees they believe competent. Courts will not review the wisdom of a decision made on that basis, but the protection falls away for self-dealing, bad faith, failure to investigate and failure to enforce the documents at all.HOAs & Condominiums