Caution: These sample template state court filings are presented for illustrative purposes. You should not submit any of these documents to a state court verbatim. The templates in this collection were prepared and reviewed by the Children’s Program at Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES) in Austin, Texas and reviewed by the legal team at the ABA Children’s Immigration Law Academy (CILA). The documents represent best practice in Texas SIJS state court matters in the experience of the RAICES and CILA teams. However, the expectation is that each lawyer using these documents apply their own knowledge of the law and their specific case to determine which template is appropriate and edit the template accordingly. In SIJS situations, all cases are different—they have different facts and legal issues, no two cases are alike. The client is relying on your legal training and experience to know what law applies to their case and how to present it. As lawyers we have an ethical duty of competency; if you do not understand or are not certain if the template works for your client’s situation, please contact CILA for technical assistance.
