November 2011 Archives

Each year the U.S. government allocates a limited number of H-1B visas for certain immigrant workers. In late September, this blog reported that the demand for H-1B visas has been high in recent years. The H-1B visa program is a professional employment visa for immigrants with at least a bachelor's degree or equivalent work experience in specialty occupations. The H-1B visa program allows immigrant workers in such filed as engineering, science and computer programming to work in the United States.

In October, this blog discussed employment-based visas for Florida businesses. Many Miami and South Florida businesses rely on the immigrant and non-immigrant employment visas available under U.S. immigration law to hire foreign nationals. However, as most Americans know, we live in a global economy in the 21^st century. Occasionally, foreign nationals visit the United States on business. That was the situation last week underlying an immigration status arrest of a German national in Florida's neighboring state.

An unusual wrinkle in the nation's apparent obsession with deportations recently hit the news. This blog has reported that removal proceedings resulted in a record number of deportations last year. Many deportations involve undocumented immigrants who have been convicted of a crime. Typically, a person convicted of a crime is required to serve their prison sentence before being turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for deportation.

This blog has previously reported that Immigration and Customs Enforcement has conducted several waves of audits of businesses in Florida, and nationwide, concerning I-9 compliance records. Employment eligibility verification is required of Florida businesses, even amidst the national public debate about the use of the federal E-Verify system.

When a doctor makes a mistake and a patient suffers an injury, the patient can file a medical malpractice claim against the doctor. But some may be surprised to hear that medical malpractice suits against veterinarians are on the rise as pet medical treatments become more sophisticated and expensive.

Two years ago, a fatal accident occurred when a car was struck by a train. The car had gotten between the two guardrails and was unable to get out of the way of a train traveling 60 mph. Then this past weekend, another crash occurred in the same spot.

When the death of a loved one is caused by someone else's negligence, family members are left wondering whether the negligent person or entity can be held responsible.