The Appellate Division, First Department, has reinstated a legal malpractice action against a Manhattan immigration law firm that gave "misguided" advice to an Ecuadorian woman and subjected her to deportation. In a unanimous opinion, the First Department said a client of Bretz & Coven "sufficiently alleged that defendants followed an unreasonable course of action" in counseling a client who had illegally entered the country to apply for readmission.
Delgado v. Bretz & Coven, 116181/10, involves a native of Ecuador who illegally entered the country through Mexico a year after she was thrown out for illegal entry. As a previously removed immigrant who returned to the United States without permission, Monica Patricia Tenesaca Delgago was "inadmissible" under the Immigration and Nationality Act and could not apply for readmission for 10 years.
