Assisting Registered Migration Agents
Legal representation
Our firm specialises in immigration and administrative law. As immigration lawyers, we are admitted to the Courts of Australia to provide legal services to clients. Our services are not limited to providing legal advice and assistance to lay clients but can also include professional immigration agents.
Registered migration agents must strictly demonstrate knowledge in Migration Law and Practice but do not necessarily need to be lawyers. As a law firm, we have a team of experienced immigration lawyers who have practical legal experience and knowledge. We, as immigration lawyers, can help fellow agents in the following areas (not limited to):
● Discuss legal arguments or points of law that can be attacked;
● Represent your lay client at AAT, Federal Circuit Court of Australia or Federal Court of Australia;
● Prepare case before the Tribunal Member and at court;
● Assist in judicial review cases
● Recovering consumer claims from other authorities or bodies;
● Claiming damages from previous agents, authorities or other bodies etc.
One of the less common appeal avenues explored by migration agents is judicial review. This avenue is generally considered if the case is still unsuccessful after appealing to the AAT. Judicial Review is different to appealing to AAT. You need to prove to the courts that there was some legal error committed by the Tribunal Member or the Department, and only practising lawyers can represent clients at court. Hence, a lot of migration agents shy away from this avenue as they are not able to help their clients in this way.
You can contact us now to discuss your client’s case (provided they give you express consent to discuss the details of their case with us) so we can assist in identifying legal errors that may be grounds for judicial review. We will then work in a team to assist our client in success at courts.
Complex Cases
Immigration law can be extremely difficult to interpret, understand and apply. We are able to assist fellow agents with:
● Case law research;
● Drafting legal submissions;
● Discussion and guidance on creative strategies to assist with your client.
Case Law Research
Sometimes, cases can be extremely complex and traverses over many different sections and regulations of the Migration Act and Regulations. It can even be difficult for us lawyers to interpret the lawyer correctly. In these cases, we complete case law research to see how the courts have previously interpreted and applied the law. Case laws are also useful when completing legal submissions as it is provides precedence to the whatever you are trying to argue. This can be extremely time consuming depending on:
The type of legal argument you are trying to make; and
The facts of your case
A law student typically reads over 500 cases in a semester of law school. So, reading is not difficult for us (but it is time consuming). Nonetheless, the speed of reading for a law graduate is on average much faster than a normal person, which makes it more efficient for us to be completing case law research. Let us help you find the correct case laws to add to your submissions.
Drafting Legal Submissions
If legal writing is not your area of expertise, you can engage us to complete the legal submissions for your client. You will just need to tell us the facts of the case and which legal criteria you are trying to meet. If there is a specific argument you are trying to make, you can also let us know so we have a starting direction. If you simply do not know what the argument is, we will also assist by providing you and your client with advice on the types of arguments that have been successful in the past.
Included in this service is case law research. We will complete the research and add the case laws to our final legal submissions.
Discussion and Guidance
At Agape Henry Crux, we take pride in our expertise in dealing with complex cases. We come up with many creative strategies and take preemptive steps before some sort of change in law occurs. This is because we stay up to date with news in the immigration space and any updates that come from Parliament which shows there may be some changes to be made to the law. Immigration law is constantly changing and is probably different at least every half year.
If you receive a case that is particularly challenging and complicated, come talk to us. We will conduct a consultation at our office with you (and your client if you wish) on the different options and strategies that may be available for your client.