Immigration solicitors are concerned that they have been ‘singled out’ from other legal aid lawyers through the introduction of a new reaccreditation process.

The compulsory immigration and asylum accreditation scheme, administered by the Law Society, was launched in 2004, with reaccreditation required after three years.

No reaccreditation scheme was put in place until January this year, when solicitors received letters informing them that they would need to pass an exam by the end of July if they wanted to conduct work under the new civil contract that runs from October 2010.

The deadline for passing the reaccreditation process has since been extended to 31 March 2011. However, Mark Phillips, chairman of the Law Society’s immigration committee, said: ‘Immigration lawyers feel battered and bullied… They feel they are being singled out and treated differently from other practitioners in the way they are accredited.’

The Law Society said the two-hour exam was ‘the most sensible solution’.