Tovarian Law Office

I retained Mr. Tovarian in July 2025 to represent me in a BIA appeal after I won political asylum. I paid $2,500 upfront. Within a month, I terminated the agreement and requested he file a Motion to Withdraw from my case. What followed was seven months of incompetence or deliberate sabotage. Mr. Tovarian filed three separate Motions to Withdraw — the BIA rejected two of them for the exact same deficiencies each time. After the first rejection, I sent him a detailed letter explaining exactly what the BIA required. He filed the next motion with the identical errors. The most concerning issue: because he remains the attorney of record, ALL correspondence from the BIA — including potential briefing schedules and deadlines — goes to his office. He has forwarded nothing to me since August 2025. I sent 8 certified letters to the BIA trying to get information about my own case. All responses went to Tovarian. I am essentially blind to my own appeal. I went through the State Bar's Mandatory Fee Arbitration (Case 25-A-137), and the arbitrator ordered him to refund $932.50. I have also filed formal complaints with the State Bar of California and the EOIR Disciplinary Counsel. I am a father of U.S. citizen children. Seven months of uncertainty about my immigration status while this attorney cannot complete a simple withdrawal procedure has caused enormous stress to my family. If you are considering hiring this attorney, please check his State Bar profile (SBN 264547) and ask about the status of any pending disciplinary complaints before making your decision. Denis P., Rancho Cordova, CA

A completely incompetent lawyer and his office. - a declaration was hastily filed in 7 days, slapdash, even though I had repeatedly filed requests to begin work three months before the trial. Important passages were omitted from the declaration. The declaration was slipped for signature two hours before the final deadline. Consequently, the translator stayed up nights translating it all. - 300 pages of articles were submitted that were completely irrelevant to the case, pure spam. - There was no preparation for the trial. AT ALL. - no questions regarding the case were considered, what the judge would ask, what questions the prosecutor would ask. Or does the lawyer not know what questions are being asked? Is this his first time in court? Or will the prosecutor and the judge sit silently? This is pure case sabotage. To undermine the case and make money on the appeal. - no brief was prepared - evidence for the episodes was submitted AFTER the trial. - Form 589 was submitted with errors and RE-submitted without corrections, despite being advised of this. - Form 589 did not provide details, only general statements, despite the fact that these general statements are used to close cases. - court dates were postponed several times due to overbooking. - does not respond to emails. - does not notify of court dates. - errors in witness names. - witness documents were not attached. - receipts for uploading my documents into the court system were not provided. - repeated requests for all my case materials were refused or ignored. Utter incompetence.