Opinion ID: 1442616
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Amnesty Law Letter

Text: In July 1984, petitioner mailed between 500 and 800 letters to past and present clients declaring that Congress had passed the Simpson-Mazzoli Amnesty Act. [2] The purpose of this letter was to advertise petitioner's availability to provide legal advice regarding the new law. Believing other attorneys had sent similar letters, petitioner felt the correspondence necessary to maintain his immigration law clientele. Petitioner based his letter on a San Francisco Examiner newspaper headline, without conducting his own research to verify that Congress had indeed passed the bill. In fact the bill did not pass until November 6, 1984. When petitioner realized his error, he attempted to call some of his more active clients. According to petitioner, approximately 10 people inquired about the advertisement by telephone and 4 people visited his office.