The Law Office of Edward Tanner

     After graduating from law school in 1992, Edward began a solo law practice in Atlanta, GA. While practicing in Atlanta, his practice was focused on criminal defense and family law cases. During his career, Edward has served as lead counsel for the accused in more than five hundred cases, ranging from shoplifting to murder. Unlike many attorneys, Edward does not focus on trying to talk his clients into accepting plea offers that are convenient for the attorney but not so good for the client. Many criminal defense attorneys have never tried a case and they will use whatever means they can to convince their clients into avoiding trial, even if the government’s case is weak. Edward has tried many criminal cases as well as hundreds of divorce and other family law cases. Criminal cases require not only knowledge of the law but also an attorney who is familiar with the practices of the prosecutor and judge in each case. Edward has represented defendants in more than forty Georgia counties, before hundreds of different judges. Family law practice requires not only knowledge of the law, opposing counsel and the practices of the judge, it also requires an attorney who is willing and able to guide someone, who usually has had no experience with the legal system, through what can be a lengthy process filled with acrimony and emotional upheaval.

Until the beginning of the current decade, immigration enforcement primarily involved deporting people who posed a threat to the safety and security of the United States. In 2001, Edward began receiving calls that many of his past clients who had arrived to the United States without documentation were now finding themselves being removed (deported) from the US for very minor violations. Even more remarkably, he began seeing people who were legal permanent residents of the United States, who had not yet obtained citizenship, being jailed and deported for fairly minor offenses they may have committed fifteen years earlier. For most of us, a ticket for rolling through a stop sign might result in a small fine and nothing more. For an undocumented person, no matter how long he has lived and worked in the US, and regardless of the fact that he is married with small children who were born in this country, such a minor mishap is the first step into a nightmare of arrest, incarceration in a local jail, being held in an immigration detention center far from his family, and, finally, removal (deportation). For a legal permanent resident who was arrested and coaxed by an attorney with no immigration law experience into pleading guilty to a crime such as shoplifting a candy bar, the ultimate penalty may be deportation. This type of injustice led Edward into concentrating on defending the rights of those who are at risk of being removed (deported).

Problems with ICE (immigration) can come from almost any criminal or traffic case. Often, immigration issues are raised in family law matters. People who are in the United States without documentation fear seeking help for relief from abusive spouses. Children who were brought to the United States as infants and who grew up in the United States now find themselves forbidden from attending colleges, universities and even GED classes. They cannot obtain driver’s licenses and they are unable to seek or accept employment. Many of these young adults can now be helped. If you have any of these problems, do not give up. Many of these cases can be resolved favorably with the assistance of an attorney experienced not only in immigration law, but also in the areas of the law that serve as the means used to remove undocumented residents from this country.