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A distinction needs to be made:

1. Accredited immigration solicitors
2. Solicitors

This is one major obvious issue which has not been picked up on.

The Law Societys own rigorous testing for its Immigration Accreditation Scheme is entirely voluntary.

Granted if you want to work in a legal aid firm it is mandatory, but a large proportion of poor advice comes from privately funded cowboy qualifed solicitors who have not sat any exams since their PSC. Walk down any ethnic high street and you will not see a legal aid firm. You will see privately run ethnic law firms that grasp their clients because the workers there are of the same ethnic group.

Year in year out they do the bare minimum CPD and advertise as immigration lawyers. I'm sure if you looked through their files they charge extortionate prices and just recycle the same cover letters for each and every client.

Its about time the law society made Accreditation Schemes mandatory per individual and if you did not have accreditation then you could not practice that area of law.

The law society recently just amended the Immigration Scheme but guess what, it doesnt matter! The cowboys wont sit any exams anyway! and theres nothing forcing them to so they never will! They dont want to work in legal aid because they dont want to have their case files audited! The days of practicing certificates and CPD records has opened up this abuse.