The essential guide to conduct, compliance and competence, and the Legal Services Act
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SRA calls on government to provide more clarity over referral fee ban
The government needs to provide further clarity and guidance on how the ban on referral fees will operate in practice, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has warned. Issues such as the definition of a referral fee need to be resolved.
“Growing lobby” to stop use of ABSs to get around referral fee ban
There is a “growing lobby” to stop claims management companies, solicitors and insurers from using alternative business structures to get around the ban on referral fees, it was claimed yesterday. Insurers were also asked to be honest about whether motor premiums will go down after the ban.
CMCs will start running – and under-settling – cases to survive, lawyers warn
Changes to the personal injury landscape mean that claims management companies and others may step out of regulation altogether to run cases which commercial pressures may lead them to under-settle, the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers has warned.
Why is marketing fine except when done by CMCs?
Introducing work to others is a common part of business life – just another cost that businesses incur in ‘selling’ their product. Law firms incur plenty of costs this way. So, asks Barbara Hamilton-Bruce, why is it different for claims management companies? Is their behaviour so abhorrent that the government should consider banning it?
Ombudsman should have jurisdiction over will-writers and not-for-profits, says report
The Legal Ombudsman should press to extend its jurisdiction to complaints about non-lawyer will-writers and the not-for-profit sector, while the government needs to review its inadequate powers over complaints against CMCs, a study has recommended.
Defendant insurers and lawyers lobby over referral fee ban “loopholes”
A group of insurers and their lawyers lobbied former justice secretary Jack Straw last week as part of a bid to close “loopholes” in the proposed referral fee ban. They have also questioned whether the Claims Management Regulator will be willing to enforce the ban.
Banning referral fees will achieve nothing, warns government adviser
Banning referral fees will have “no effect on legal costs” and instead make something that is “currently reasonably transparent into something totally opaque”, the architect of the claims management regime has warned MPs.
MPs reject Straw’s bid to back up referral fee ban with criminal sanctions
MPs last night rejected a bid by former justice secretary Jack Straw to make paying referral fees in personal injury cases a criminal offence. Debated during the report stage of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill, they voted 302 to 208 against.
Talk about a low impact
The raging referral fee debate – set to hit Parliament today – is focused mainly on claims arising from low-impact car accidents. So it seems fitting that the two impact assessments released by the government yesterday to justify the ban are similarly low powered. We can tell the Ministry of Justice is on shaky ground when it admits that instead of hard evidence, the assessment “provides some anecdotal evidence received from various sources”.
CSC threatens government with judicial review over referral fee ban
The Claims Standards Council, the trade body for claims management companies, has threatened the government with judicial review if it presses ahead with its proposed ban on referral fees in personal injury cases.
