Singh

*640 MEMORANDUM **

BACKGROUND

One month after illegally entering this country on or about March 15, 1996, Gurmit Singh (“Petitioner”) filed an application with the Immigration and Naturalization Service (“INS”) for asylum and withholding of deportation, alleging that he had been persecuted in India on account of his suspected support for the Sikh independence movement. Ultimately, an Immigration Judge (“IJ”) found Petitioner ineligible for this relief, and ordered his deportation on February 22, 1998. Petitioner timely appealed this decision to the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”), which summarily denied his appeal on July 9, 2002. Following the BIA’s ruling, Petitioner met with a new attorney, Bruce Burns, who “promised ... that he would file a timely appeal before the Ninth Circuit.” Petitioner alleges that as the thirty-day deadline for filing an appeal approached, he “became worried about the lack of any action in [his] case.” Accordingly, Petitioner sent emails to Burns on three separate occasions — July 24, 26, and 29, 2002 — inquiring about the status of his appeal. The last email from Petitioner read:

Burns responded to Petitioner on August 9, 2002 (the deadline for…