Carman Fullerton, PLLC

Focus and practice areas

Carman Fullerton, PLLC handles immigration law as its primary field, and the firm names a wide set of matters inside it. Those include asylum applications, removal and deportation proceedings, cancellation of removal, U visas and T visas, bond proceedings, Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, claims under the Violence Against Women Act, and the Cuban Family Reunification Parole Program. The firm represents clients before the immigration courts and the Board of Immigration Appeals.

Four further areas sit alongside the immigration work. The firm handles family law, criminal defense, personal injury and workers' compensation. Each carries its own detail on the site.

Family law at the firm covers divorce, child custody, child support and prenuptial agreements. Criminal defense covers misdemeanor and felony charges, with DUI defense named separately. Personal injury work includes auto accidents, slips and falls, and medical malpractice. The workers' compensation practice extends to appeals.

How immigration matters generally proceed

Removal proceedings begin when the government files a charging document with an immigration court. An immigration judge hears the case, and an adverse decision can be appealed to the Board of Immigration Appeals. From there, review can move into the federal circuit courts.

Asylum claims run on their own track. An applicant may file affirmatively with the asylum office or raise the claim defensively once removal proceedings are underway. Both routes turn on documentary evidence, country conditions material and sworn testimony.

U visas and T visas exist for crime victims and trafficking victims respectively, and both usually require certification or corroboration tied to a law enforcement investigation. VAWA self-petitions let certain abused spouses, children and parents file without the abuser's involvement. Special Immigrant Juvenile Status starts in a state juvenile or family court, which makes findings about abuse, abandonment or neglect before the federal petition is filed. Bond proceedings are separate hearings about release from detention while a case is pending.

How the team is built

The site names seven attorneys: Dan Carman, Kirby J. Fullerton, Franklin Paisley, Andrew Brown, Jay Oakley, Jason Hargadon and John Sienkiewicz. Two of them carry published biographies with detail.

Dan Carman is the managing partner. He is admitted in all Kentucky state courts, in the U.S. District Courts for the Eastern and Western Districts of Kentucky, and in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. That last admission matters for immigration work, since Sixth Circuit review is where a Kentucky client's case lands after the Board of Immigration Appeals.

Carman's background before private practice covers two distinct roles. He clerked for the Honorable Jennifer B. Coffman, and he served as a judge advocate in the United States Marine Corps. He took his law degree at the University of Kentucky College of Law in 2005, after Davidson College in 2001.

Kirby J. Fullerton's practice is focused on immigration. He appears before the immigration courts and the Board of Immigration Appeals, and he has practiced criminal defense. The firm connects those two threads directly: a criminal charge can change a client's immigration position, and Fullerton's biography addresses that overlap.

Both Carman and Fullerton speak Spanish. The firm also says its attorneys have assisted clients who speak other languages.

What the published biographies cover

Carman's page carries the fullest credential record on the site: court admissions, clerkship, military service and both degrees with years. Fullerton's entry describes his forum experience and his criminal defense background. The five remaining attorneys appear in the site navigation by name.

As a reviewer, the pairing of a Sixth Circuit admission with a dedicated immigration practice is the most useful combination a directory reader can take from these pages. It maps to the appeal route that Kentucky immigration cases actually follow.

Where the firm works

The firm's base is Lexington, Kentucky. It also lists a second office in Tampa, Florida.

The published service area covers seven central Kentucky counties: Bourbon, Clark, Fayette, Franklin, Jessamine, Scott and Woodford. Fayette County contains Lexington itself, and the other six ring it. That geography lines up with the state courts where family law, criminal and personal injury matters are filed for clients in the region.

Kentucky's immigration cases are heard through the federal immigration court system, which operates separately from the state courts. A Lexington-based practice therefore works across both structures. Family law and criminal matters run through Kentucky circuit and district courts, while removal cases follow the federal path.

How the practice areas connect

The combination the firm publishes has a practical logic. Criminal charges carry immigration consequences for non-citizens, and certain convictions can trigger removability or block relief that would otherwise be available. A firm doing both can weigh a plea against its effect on status.

Family law overlaps too. Special Immigrant Juvenile Status requires findings from a state juvenile or family court before the federal petition proceeds. VAWA petitions arise from the same domestic circumstances that produce custody and divorce filings.

Personal injury and workers' compensation sit slightly apart from that cluster. Both are compensation claims, and both involve medical evidence, insurers and, in the workers' compensation setting, an administrative process with an appeal stage. The firm names appeals as part of that work.

General context on workers' compensation

Kentucky workers' compensation claims are decided by administrative law judges rather than juries. A disputed claim moves through evidence gathering, medical proof and a hearing. Appeals go to the Workers' Compensation Board, and then into the state appellate courts. Naming appeals as part of the practice signals coverage past the first decision.

What the record shows

The site gives a clear picture of scope and a partial picture of the roster. Practice areas are described down to the level of individual petition types, which is more granular than many firm sites offer. Attorney credentials are published in depth for one attorney and in summary for a second.

Some data points remain unpublished. No founding year appears on the pages. Law schools and bar admission years for the attorneys other than Dan Carman are absent, as are titles beyond the managing partner designation. There is also an inconsistency in the addresses: the home page office block and the site's structured data give different Lexington street addresses.

In my opinion, the immigration listing carries the most weight for a reader comparing Kentucky firms, because it names the specific forms of relief the attorneys handle rather than describing immigration as a single category. Asylum, cancellation of removal, U and T visas, VAWA and SIJS are procedurally distinct from one another, and a firm that lists them individually is describing separable bodies of work.

Spanish-language capability is stated for both named partners. For an immigration practice, that is a functional detail about how client interviews and document review happen. The firm's published service area covers seven counties in central Kentucky, and it maintains offices in Lexington and Tampa.