Why an expert in Russian law is so necessary in the USA: the story of Karina Duval - ForumDaily
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Why an expert in Russian law is so necessary in the USA: the story of Karina Duval

Immigration to the United States after successfully practicing law in your home country usually entails enormous difficulties. The huge difference not only in legislation, but also in legal systems leads to the fact that even the most highly qualified lawyers have to retrain in America practically from scratch. Given that the process of licensing lawyers in the United States is complex, and legal education is among the most expensive, immigrants often have to change professions, choosing something “simpler” at first and thereby abandoning past achievements.

Photo from the personal archive of Karina Duval

But Karina Duval I saw in this situation not an obstacle, but new opportunities. Even the most professional American lawyers often had no idea about Russian or Ukrainian law, while they had to resort to it quite often in the country of immigrants. Divorce proceedings, the division of property located abroad, entering into an inheritance, doing business with a foreign partner and much more required knowledge of national legal systems. As a result, Karina was able not only to help thousands of clients, but also become a sought-after expert, advising courts and private organizations on issues of Russian and Ukrainian law.

Use previous baggage

Karina Duval came to America with her family almost 18 years ago from Russia, where at that time she was already a practicing lawyer. Karina admits: a few years before her departure, she began to specialize in international law. Even then, the lawyer had an education and practical experience in two countries - in Ukraine and in Russia.

Karina notes that in America she had to obtain a license as a consultant in the field of foreign law, which was also not an easy process.

«Licensing requires compliance with many formalities, including recommendations and the existence of a permanent practice for at least the last three years. In addition, it is highly desirable to have a valid lawyer status in your home country.', she lists. - "Luckily I had it all».

According to Karina, starting a business in the United States was pretty easy, and any good professional would be able to find a way to market their services. The main thing that is important for immigrants to remember is that while raising the level of education, one should not forget one's previous achievements and skills. Different professions have their own opportunities to build the previous “baggage” into a new life. For Karina, this opportunity was the need for American courts to consult on Russian or Ukrainian law.

Enlightening Americans

«A fairly common example: spouses divide their property in the process of divorce. One of the parties argues that the apartment privatized during the marriage is not jointly acquired property. However, American judges have no idea what the privatization process is in Russia and believe that the couple purchased the apartment while they were married. I have to explain the difference to them.", - explains the lawyer.

Another painful topic for many is the export of children abroad. American lawyers and judges were especially interested in whether it is possible to recognize and enforce the decisions of American courts in Russia, given that there is no treaty on legal assistance between the countries. Sometimes the opposite situation arose: the need to recognize and enforce the decisions of Russian courts in America. Here the help of Karina Duval is also invaluable.

Photo from the personal archive of Karina Duval

How Karina Duval can help

With the onset of the pandemic, Karina had to reconsider a lot in her work. The woman decided to devote the resulting free time to her studies, and in the first year of the epidemic she graduated from law school in New York. In the second year of the pandemic, she entered another law school in Arlington, Virginia, where she is still studying under the Public Contracts program. In her free time, Karina helps New Yorkers solve their pressing issues remotely.

The lawyer assures that a lot of issues can be resolved at a distance, with a duly certified power of attorney. Karina began to provide services to immigrants in compiling such powers of attorney and their legalization, affixing an apostille, as well as restoring lost documents, marriage issues, real estate transactions, inheritance, export of children, notary services and assistance in sending documents to Russia and Ukraine in conditions of temporary restrictions of postal services in its office in Brooklyn.

One of the most common problems for immigrants, according to Karina Duval, is the lack of all the necessary documents from the registry office, including birth certificates, marriage certificates, divorce certificates, name changes, and so on.

«To start any immigration process, you need to have a birth certificate, all documents on the change of marital status and their translations. Even today we can request all types of registry office documents from any country, including all regions of Ukraine", - explains Karina Duval.

The second most common problem, according to the lawyer, is the need to sell property at home. If in Soviet times leaving for the United States was always a “one-way ticket”, with an extract from the apartment and renunciation of citizenship, now few people come for permanent residence. Most people come to study, work, get married, and the need to sell real estate arises years later. Then there is a need to deregister.

Sometimes immigrants, not knowing what to do with the apartment, ask their relatives to look after it. In most cases, this entails a loss of money, since it is not typical of our culture to take payment from relatives. Sometimes it happens that relatives re-register an apartment for themselves. Karina said that once her client, after the death of her father, asked her own aunt to look after the apartment. Years later, it turned out that she not only “looked after the apartment”, but also entered into the inheritance after the death of her brother, hiding from the notary the fact that the testator had her own daughter.

«Unfortunately, it is much easier for relatives to deceive you. If you let strangers in, with a properly executed power of attorney, there is no risk in this - you can always evict them even at a distance. Of course, you can also evict a relative, but in this case there is a risk of spoiling relations with him for life, which is unlikely to bother you if we are talking about unfamiliar people.", - explains Karina.

Obtaining bank cards at a distance, transactions with accounts, obtaining certificates of no criminal record and certificates of the fact of being alive is also an important part of the work Karina Duval's office.

Photo from the personal archive of Karina Duval

unknown love

Karina recalls one rather amusing episode. She was approached by a client in her forties who complained of ... a lack of happiness in her personal life. It turned out that the man could not marry in any way, because he was already married, but did not remember at all who exactly. It was in early youth, after a student party. The young wife took the marriage certificate with her and never appeared again in his life. The client vaguely remembered that her name, it seems, was Lena. As luck would have it, the young spouse was a citizen of Kazakhstan, and the accidental wedding took place in Russia. He was not stamped in a foreign passport, and attempts to find at least the full name of his wife were unsuccessful.

«He graduated from Moscow State University a long time ago, moved to America and became a university professor, but he could not find either a wife or any document about his marriage. As a result, I found a document - as I also found out that the unknown wife, it turns out, had already divorced him through the court a long time ago. I received divorce papers for him, after which the path to the family happiness of the man was opened", - says Karina Duval.

According to her, after she spoke about this case on the radio, she was approached by dozens of men who had lost contact with their wives and wanted to find them in order to get a divorce.

There was another case when a woman who lived for some time in the United States and then returned to Russia suddenly discovered an American marriage after her death. Her second husband, who allegedly never heard from her about her first marriage, was sorting through documents after his wife's death and found an old marriage certificate. He did not find a court decision on divorce, or did not want to find it.

After that, the widower decided that everything he acquired after the wedding became his personal, and not jointly acquired property. In court, he argued that since the first marriage was not annulled, the subsequent marriage becomes invalid. Other heirs of the deceased woman asked to know if she divorced her first husband in America. Karina Duval was able to find a court decision on divorce from her first husband in the American court archives, which forced the court to recognize the validity of the marriage and fairly distribute the inheritance.

«From all this we can conclude that in no case should important documents be lost, and most importantly, everything should be done on time. A divorce not filed on time can then "shoot" in the most unexpected way.", the lawyer warns.

Material prepared in partnership with

Karina Duval - lawyer, notary, expert in international law

Russian registration: #78/857
NYS registration: 4775086
Notary public, registration: 02DU6376542

tel: + 7 (921) 946-0582 (in Russia) / + 1 (718) 704-8558 (in USA)
Email:
[email protected],
Website:
https://karinaduvall.com/
www.integrika.com

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