A client had a quickly planned hearing less than three days away, so Skyler Bentley, a Utah-based immigration attorney, did what he always did. He asked the judge based in Aurora, Colo., if he could appear by phone.
The hearing was to decide whether the 18-year-old man could be released while his case was pending.
But the Colorado judge denied Bentley’s request — a routine motion that had previously almost always been approved.
The attorney had few options. He could buy a $700 plane ticket and go there himself to represent his client or try to find an attorney who happened to be in Colorado who could cover for him.