THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
By Alan Johnson
July 25, 2012
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2012/07/25/ohios-top-court-shutters-service.html
An Ohio Supreme Court order has put a Columbus firm out of business that justices said provided immigration services without a law license.
By a 7-0 vote, the court approved a consent decree with Immigration Associates LLC, 37 W. Broad St., ordering the firm to stop marketing and providing services and legal advice to foreign nationals who come to them for help with immigration issues.
The firm has gone out of business.
Gerald and Barbara Abbitt, the principals in the firm, agreed to “not advertise or engage in any business in which they prepare immigration forms, applications, petitions or supporting documents for a fee.”
As a result of the agreement, the firm did not need to pay a civil penalty, the court decided.
The action resulted from a complaint filed by David Kalokoh, a native of Sierra Leone, who came to Immigration Associates in 2006 seeking helping with a citizenship application. Kalokoh later found numerous mistakes in the application, including the wrong middle name and wrong phone numbers, plus a wildly incorrect weight, 1,687 pounds. The man claimed the mistakes caused a long delay in his citizenship process.
A board that reports to the Supreme Court conducted an investigation and found that Immigration Associates was providing services that constituted an unlawful practice of law. Neither of the Abbitts is a lawyer.
The firm was investigated on a similar complaint in 2004 but no action was taken.
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