Statute of Limitations: Pay attention!
The Statute of Limitations thing is gonna getcha every time. I read the print off the pages in my Maryland Rules of Court. That book must be read front to back, including the annotations below the Rule. I saved one filing by doing that. It was a combination Immigration/Criminal appeal. This was another one of those cases that we shared with a fellow attorney.
Of course, by the time we were retained, the 30 days "Appeal as of Right" had passed. The Alien had pled guilty, and was serving his sentence. However, Dept. of Homeland Security (formerly INS) had sent him a notice that he would be picked up and held in detention when he was released. That's where we came in. I read every single page in the file, and discovered that he could petition the Judge to modify his sentence, and he could make a Motion for a New Trial. Both of these had a 90 day limit.
Well, here it was, the 90 days was about to run out on May 29. Lucky for us, that was Memorial Day weekend. The Court rules provide that when the day of the event falls on a
Viola! We made it within the 90 days SOL in the Criminal Court. Then we had to worry about the detention hearing in the
Well, long story short: we lost our New Trial motion in the Criminal Court, making his conviction "final" for Immigration purposes. Thus, the Immigration Judge finally gave him deportation orders. As we often say, what a learning experience. The Alien's family plans to appeal the Deportation Order, but we declined to participate.
There is good news to the story on that case. We were able to place on the record an argument to change the law in
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