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‘Internet disruption makes legal research difficult’
Lawyers, particularly immigration lawyers and law offices’ staff, are greatly affected by IT&E’s network outage.
A staff at a law firm specializing in immigration matters told Saipan Tribune yesterday that they usually give their clients updates about their cases by regularly checking their status online. With the Internet down, however, they could not provide these updates, said the staff who asked to be identified only as Sarah.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services also does not accept walk-in clients, Sarah said. New clients need to obtain an InfoPass by going online, she said.
“Since the Internet is down or slow, clients could not get their InfoPass,” she said.
Sarah said the problem is compounded when an email has an attachment.
“It’s takes forever to open the attachment,” Sarah said, adding it’s severely affecting their business.
For law offices’ staff like her, Sarah said it’s also very inconvenient. As they could not make online filing, law offices’ staff have to go to the Superior Court and U.S. District Court for the NMI.
At the Superior Court, Sarah said, just making a payment requires falling in a long line.
Doing legal search is a big problem too, not only for law clerks but private lawyers also.
Saipan Tribune learned that some lawyers even go to Tinian, where the Internet has no problem, just to do legal research for their cases.
Although both federal and local courts have law libraries, law clerks need to do their research online.
As a result, lawyers have delayed the filing of documents or pleadings in court.
On Wednesday, Office of the Attorney General Solicitor Division chief James Zarones, joined by deputy attorney general Lillian Tenorio and assistant attorney general Teresita Sablan, requested the U.S. District Court for the NMI to give the CNMI government more time to file an opposition to a motion for default in a lawsuit filed by Dr. Gary Ramsey.
Zarones, Tenorio, and Sablan said the recent disruption in the Internet service has made legal research “exceedingly difficult or impossible.”
With down websites, courts’ calendar of hearings was also not available.
