TALLAHASSEE (Florida Record) — Miami attorney Nashid Sabir has been publicly reprimanded by publication in the Southern Reporter following a June 28 Florida Supreme Court order over poor communication in an immigrant's case, according to a recent announcement by The Florida Bar.
"Further, Sabir shall attend ethics school," the state bar said in its July 31 announcement of the discipline and the Supreme Court's order. "Sabir did not diligently handle an immigration matter after being retained. He did not adequately communicate with the client and he failed to inform her when her petition was denied."
In its single-page order, the state high court approved the uncontested referee's report filed in the matter before reprimanding Sabir and ordering him to pay $1,250 in costs.
Sabir must attend ethics school within six months of entry of the court's final order, according to the consent judgment filed with the court. The consent judgment also includes Sabir's conditional guilty plea.
Florida court orders are not final until time to file a rehearing motion expires. Filing such a motion does not alter the effective date of Sabir's reprimand.
Sabir was admitted to the bar in Florida on May 27, 1983, according to his profile at the state bar website.
Allegations against Sabir stemmed from his client's entry into the U.S. from her native country of Haiti in January 2010 to join her husband, already a U.S. citizen, according to the consent judgment. Over the next several years, Sabir submitted several petitions on the immigrant's behalf but there were issues with two of them. At one point, the immigrant contacted U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) on her own after making several unsuccessful attempts to contact Sabir, according to the consent judgment.
The immigrant "did not suffer any lasting prejudice" as the USCIS ultimately reopened one petition, the denial of which Sabir had not informed her about, according to the consent judgment.
Sabir was alleged to have violated rule of professional conduct regarding diligence and communication, according to the consent judgment.