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“"The fees they charged me was 2-3 times lower than other specialists I found in the same area of expertise."”
How do you fight extradition to the United States?
You are outside the United States. Washington wants you on a plane to face charges there. Your lawyers are preparing for the extradition hearing, and you have a question none of them can answer for you: will my body survive what comes next?
Peter Mihaylov asked himself that question in Bulgaria. He was dealing with oncological problems, a blood coagulation disorder, and multiple pulmonary embolisms. He feared he would not survive incarceration in an American prison.
Two cases at once
Peter's lawyers had the extradition case: the treaty, the charges, the legal objections available under Bulgarian law, from whether the alleged conduct is a crime in both countries to whether any treaty exception or human-rights protection applies. That was their work, and it stayed theirs.
Peter had a second case running alongside it, and it lived in his medical records. He wanted the Bulgarian court to understand what transfer and detention in the United States could mean for someone with his conditions. Diagnoses scattered across years of hospital files don't make that argument on their own. Someone has to organize them into a document a judge can read.
That is the work he brought to us. Scott worked with Peter on the matter. Carole prepared a medical report and affidavit addressing his conditions and his concerns about medical care in U.S. prisons.
What Carole built
Peter described the result in his review:
"Carole prepared for me truly great medical report/affidavit regarding the risks and lack of medical care in US prisons, which I presented to the local court in the extradition hearing. The report was very detailed, straight to the point."
A judge in an extradition hearing has a stack of legal filings to get through. A medical document that wanders loses that reader. One that ties each condition to the records behind it, and states plainly what the risk is, gives the court something it can weigh.
If you are building one, start with the questions a judge would ask. What is the diagnosis, and where is it documented? What treatment are you on right now, and how often? What happens if that treatment is interrupted or delayed? What would a detention facility have to provide to keep you stable? Your doctors' records answer most of those. The report puts the answers in one place.
Any factual or medical claim in it has to be supported. A sworn document is only as strong as the records under it.
In the courtroom
Peter presented the report and affidavit to the local court at his extradition hearing. The court rejected the extradition.
He chose his words about the document carefully:
"I believe it played a role in the rejection of the extradition."
The Bulgarian court made the decision, applying its own law to everything in front of it, with Peter's attorneys arguing the case.
If the answer had been yes
Peter won his hearing. Many people facing extradition don't. Your medical file matters either way.
If you are sent to the United States, the same records follow you through pretrial detention, sentencing, and into the Bureau of Prisons. The BOP assigns every person a medical care level, from 1 for the healthiest to 4 for those who need the most intensive care, and people with serious conditions may be designated to a Federal Medical Center. Those decisions are made from documentation. A complete, organized file helps you whether a court abroad reads it or a BOP designator does.
If your records are in Bulgarian, Spanish, or any language other than English, get certified translations of the important ones now. Nobody in a U.S. courthouse or prison medical unit is going to translate them for you.
What it cost
Peter compared our fee with the other specialists he had contacted:
"The fees they charged me was 2-3 times lower than other specialists I found in the same area of expertise."
That is his comparison, based on the people he called. When you are paying lawyers in two countries, it is worth making the same calls he did.
This week, pull every medical record from the last five years. Count how many are in English and how many tie a diagnosis to a current treatment. Whichever way the hearing goes, that file is what speaks for your health when you can't.
Thank you,
Justin Paperny
Written by
Justin Paperny
Founder White Collar Advice