Articles From Our Firm

• Immigration Law
• Kidney Disease
• Litigation
• Personal Injury
• Wrongful Death

For a copy of Kurzban’s Immigration Sourcebook, please visit AILA Agora.

Kurzban Kurzban Tetzeli and Pratt P.A. provides legal information to help you make informed decisions that are right for you. We stay on top of current legal news and trends to offer our clients the most knowledgeable representation possible.

For further reading please refer to the articles’ listings below.

• It Is Time for Florida Courts to Revisit Gooding 

Immigration Law

Immigration Update

We are pleased to offer a periodic e-newsletter keeping you abreast of immigration news, developments, and information. Feel free to subscribe or view past issues from the archive below.

Other Articles

• Practice Advisory on the Impact of the Eleventh Circuit’s En Banc Decision in Patel v. U.S. Att’y Gen.: Obtaining Judicial Review Despite the Decision
• Protecting the Materiality Requirement in False Citizenship Claim Cases Outside the Eleventh Circuit
• If you’re a skilled worker, but not from India, good luck getting into the U.S.
• Class-Action Lawsuit aiming to end the EB-5 Visa Backlog
  • According to one regional center, that truism accounts for the growing visa backlog that has crippled the EB-5 program. In a recent lawsuit in federal district court, American Lending Center (ALC) and thousands of Chinese investors represented in a class-action lawsuit by the law firm Kurzban Kurzban Tetzeli & Pratt argue that the U.S. government has been miscounting the limited annual supply of EB-5 visas. This mistake, they contend, is responsible for the EB-5 visa backlog. If their lawsuit is successful, it will substantially shorten the time that Chinese investors have to wait to immigrate to the U.S. based on their EB-5 investments.
• Citizen Kurzban Lawyer Ira Kurzban, An Immigrant’s Son Himself, Champions The Cause Of Today’s Huddled Masses
  • It’s a paradox. You beat up on a man and he sings your praises. Perry Rivkind, former district director of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service in Miami, is now with the Department of Transportation in Washington, D.C. Ira Kurzban is what he has been for the past 13 years or more — immigration lawyer extraordinaire. A man who has successfully argued three cases before the U.S. Supreme Court when the impossible dream of most lawyers is simply to argue one.
• Your Money Is Good Here, Judge Tells EB-5 Visa Seeker
  • Law360 (February 1, 2019, 5:12 PM EST) — A Chinese citizen’s investment of loan proceeds in the U.S. counts as a cash investment that can qualify her for the EB-5 visa program, a D.C. federal judge said Thursday, rejecting the federal government’s stance that money from a loan should be classified as debt rather than cash.
• Haitians worried about deportation should start planning now, lawyers say
  • Starting in February, Haitians began showing up at the low-cost health center run by Borinquen Medical Centers of Miami-Dade worrying about what they’ll do if the federal government ends the program that protects them from deportation.
• Exonerated, Then Deported
  • Jules Letemps thought he would be celebrating. On October 14, 2016, he was exonerated of the 1989 rape of a woman in Orlando, Florida, after serving 27 years in prison. Letemps, now 53, had dreamed of this day: of seeing the ocean, attending Baptist church with his mother, and reconnecting with his extended family and three children. Most importantly, he could finally prove that he was innocent.
• Defending EB-5 Permanent Residency: Litigation Strategies After an I-829 Petition Denial.
  • Congress created the EB-5 immigrant visa program in 1990 to benefit the U.S. economy and create jobs by attracting investment from foreign investors seeking permanent legal status in the United States.
• Immigration to the U.S.: Statistics highlight the need for an attorney
  • Immigrants that attempt to represent themselves in court without an attorney are drastically less likely to be successful than their represented counterparts.
• Seeking refuge in the United States: A new law designed to help children
  • Those seeking refuge in the United States may benefit from a recently proposed law designed to assist the young and vulnerable.
• U Visa program offers victims of crime the opportunity to stay in America 
  • The U.S. government recognizes the humanitarian need to protect victims of crime through the “U nonimmigrant visa” program.
• USCIS reports record-breaking number of H-1B visa applications
  • Applicants for highly sought-after H1-B employment visas face particularly long odds this year, according to USCIS data.
• Visa wait extended for family of U.S. citizens
  • Many Americans who seek green cards for foreign relatives have been distanced from their loved ones for a lengthy period as a result of delays at Citizen and Immigration Services.
• No ICE Reimbursement, No More 48-Hour Hold, Says Miami-Dade
  • A new detainer policy has gone into effect in Miami-Dade County, representing a dramatic shift in policy, after the county’s commissioner announced that the county would stop covering the cost of housing immigrant detainees, something the county previously agreed to do as part of a long-standing arrangement to honor immigration detainers issued by U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE)
• In Florida – and Nationwide – most support a path to citizenship
  • More than 60 percent of Florida residents are in favor of creating a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants currently living in the United States, a recent poll revealed
• What are the requirements for an H-1B visa?
  • An H-1B visa allows U.S. businesses to employ foreign workers, in certain fields and for a limited period of time, in their U.S.-based operations
• How to Avoid Common Issues with K-1 Visa Applications
  • A fiance visa (also known as a K-1 visa) allows a foreign citizen to travel to the United States and marry his or her U.S. citizen spouse.
• The Federal Lawyer Magazine – Immigration Law Nov/Dec 2010
  • Federal an state courts have recently been called on to address issues arising in the context of actions commenced by divorced foreign national spouses who seek enforcement of the affidavit of support requirements of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).
• EB-5 Investor / Employment Creation Visas
  • Mr. Kurzban has been involved in litigating EB-5 cases since 1998 and was counsel of record in Chang v. U.S.
• Fighting to Keep Permanent Residency
  • Fighting to Keep Permanent Residency published in EB5 Investors magazine discusses federal court litigation and I-526 and I-829 review litigation options for investors and regional centers
• Immigration Law Bible in 10th Edition
  • The latest edition of a widely used immigration law textbook, written by a prominent Miami attorney, has been released
• Reform the Law Rationally
  • Politicians are again talking about immigration – and immigrants, their U.S citizen families and professionals in the field are cringing.
• Employers Beware: Work Site Enforcement to Increase
  • Newsletter Issue No. 1 (February 2010)
• A Closer Look at Motions to Reopen and Rescind In Absentia Orders
  • MOTION TO REOPEN AND RESCIND AN IN ABSENTIA ORDER OF DEPORTATION, EXCLUSION OR REMOVAL
• Stop denying immigrants due process
  • The Immigration debate in the United States is not new or even of recent vintage.
• Miami judge blocks deportation of Nicaraguans
  • The deportation of thousands of Nicaraguans who came to the United States in the 1980s to escape unrest in their homeland was blocked by a federal judge Tuesday, and an attorney for the immigrants hailed the move as a “major victory.”
• U.S. Supreme Court Ruling on Miami Haitian’s DUI May Halt Automatic Deportations
  • The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled Tuesday that a Miami man was wrongly deported to Haiti after serving two years in prison for drunken driving an opinion that could have far-reaching impact on hundreds of similar cases involving immigrants.
  • 81-Year-Olds Death Called Haitian Tragedy
    • The Rev. Joseph Dantica fled to the United States nearly a month ago, seeking asylum after gangs in his neighborhood ransacked his church and threatened to kill him.
    • Qualifying family members may be eligible for a derivative U visa
      • A U visa – which is valid for four years – grants a victim of trafficking and violence permission to live and work in the United States.
    • Post April 2010 BIA and Eleventh Circuit Decisions
      • One of the few cases interpreting the reason to believe standard under 212(a)(2)(C).
    • Testimony of Ira J. Kurzban, Esq.
      • Former Counsel to the Governments of Rene Preval and Jean Bertrand Aristide And Chairperson, Board of Directors of the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti
    • Undocumented Haitians – We Can’t Send Them Back
      • In 1966 President Lyndon B. Johnson took an historic step forward when he began flights from Cuba to the United States to prevent physical harm to people leaving that country by unsafe boats.
    • Haiti – A Creditor Not a Debtor
      • If we are to believe the G-7 finance ministers, Haiti is on its way to getting something it has deserved for a very long time:
    • Without Review, President Becomes King
      • On Sunday at sundown, members of the Jewish faith throughout the world will begin a one-day fast in compliance with Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.
    • Shots fired as Powell visits Haiti palace
      • Gunshots were exchanged Wednesday outside Haiti’s presidential palace in Port-au-Prince as U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell held meetings there, U.S. State Department officials said. 
    • Haiti Council Names Interim Prime Minister
      • Haiti’s advisory council named an interim prime minister to pave the way for elections, while U.S. Marines said they would start helping disarm the general population in a potentially volatile move after weeks of bloodshed.
    • Aristide’s exit
      • Is Jean-Bertrand Aristide a political prisoner or an exiled president telling a tale?
    • Aristide says U.S. deposed him in ‘coup d’etat’
      • Ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide says he was forced out of Haiti in a “real coup d’etat” led by the United States, in what he called a “modern way to have a modern kidnapping.”
    • NFL Makes Major Grant for Brain Injury Research
      • In any personal injury action that involves head trauma, the injury victim’s attorney must work diligently to document the full extent and effects of the resulting brain injury.
    • Patients Die as Doctors Fear Malpractice
      • Last month, 53-year-old Barbara Masterson was rushed to a Palm Beach County, Fla., hospital suffering a stroke and in need of life-or-death care.
    • Jury Awards $5.75 Million in Medical Malpractice Suit
      • Salvador Plasencia v. Jorge Echenique, M.D. and Miami Urological Surgical Consultants Plaintiff attorneys: Associate Jed Kurzban at Kurzban Kurzban Tetzeli and Pratt P.A. in Miami.
    • Limit on compensation for injured Florida patients ruled unconstitutional
      • Even as recent studies show medical errors are surprisingly common, Florida courts have declared Florida’s law banning juries from deciding proper compensation for injured patients unconstitutional.

Kidney Disease

• Why Is Kidney Disease Often Misdiagnosed?
• Tips for Living a Good Life if You Have Kidney Disease
• 3 Signs of Early Kidney Disease and 7 Ways to Stop It From Progressing

Litigation – General

• Offers of Judgment: The Current Minefield
  • Florida first enacted an offer of judgment rule in 1972, when the Florida Supreme Court adopted Fla.R. Civ.P I.442 in an effort to encourage settlement and avoid the necessity of trial. Hernandez v. Travelers Ins. Co., 331 So.2d 329, 331 (3d DCA 1976). Rule 1.442 was “die sauce as” Rule 68 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and was put into effect on January 1, 1973. In re The Florida Bar, 765 So.2d 2 I (Flu, 1972). This rule only allowed defendants – and not plaintiffs – to serve an offer of judgment.
• What Can Florida Attorneys Expect with Justice Canady II?

Personal Injury Law

• The right case away from eliminating a separate class of citizenry in Florida Wrongful Death cases
  • Providers urged to apologize for errors
    • A federal agency is recommending that doctors and hospitals take a new approach to handling medical errors.
  • Court decision on Obamacare may cut health care access for millions
    • If the ACA is eliminated, the impact on access to health care would be devastating.

Wrongful Death

• The Right Case Away From Eliminating A Separate Class Of Citizenry In Florida Wrongful Death Cases