The Legal Services Commission (LSC) is unfairly targeting legal aid immigration solicitors, the Law Society claimed last week as it predicted a further exodus from the sector.

The LSC is proposing to end the contracts of practitioners who fail to reach a 40% success rate in immigration and asylum appeals. In a response to its consultation, the Society said this could deter advisers from taking on immigration work and exacerbate advice deserts.


Statistics gathered by Chancery Lane indicate that there is a steady month-by-month decline in the number of solicitors' offices handling legally aided immigration and asylum work. In the six months to February 2006, numbers fell from 302 to 264, with acute shortages in Yorkshire and the west midlands.


The Law Society has protested to the LSC over its approach towards immigration solicitors. President Kevin Martin said: 'An assessment based on a percentage success rate is a crude and misleading method of evaluation. It does not take account of variables such as the changing circumstances in the asylum seeker's home country and judicial inconsistency in decision-making. As with retrospective funding for appeals, the LSC appears to be singling out immigration solicitors for particularly onerous contract requirements.'


The Law Society has also complained that the consultation lasted four weeks, rather than the standard six. 'There is nothing to justify [this] and it falls short of the contractual requirements,' Mr Martin said.


'It is of particular concern that the LSC is acting this way following criticism of its handling of the specialist support consultation process. It demonstrates the LSC's willingness to take hasty decisions without proper evidence and in the absence of a meaningful assessment of the impact on access to justice.'


Meanwhile, three London solicitors are the first to become advanced caseworkers, the highest level under the Law Society's immigration and asylum accreditation scheme: Michael Hanley of Wilson & Co, Jawaid Luqmani of Luqmani Thompson & Partners and Fiona Ripley of Southwark Law Centre.