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?

There was a time when it looked like the Jackson report was heading for the long grass. Instead, it has now been embraced almost in its totality by the Coalition government, with the referral fee ban being the piece of the famously “interlocking” reforms that few had expected to see until very recently. Though Lord Justice Jackson himself is becoming peripheral to their implementation, PI lawyers need to be planning now for a very changed future.

The latest move by Co-operative Legal Services (CLS) is very smart, rather exciting and even a bit surprising. It is smart because CLS has proved various things by hiring Jenny Beck and Christina Blacklaws. Recruiting two of the best-known family lawyers around is convincing evidence that it is serious about family law and doing it right.

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”.

What is LawVest? It’s a question I’ve been asking those behind it for a bit but the information they have released to Legal Futures today has not made things a great deal clearer. They are keeping their model confidential for the time being, which is fair enough. But getting a firm like DLA Piper on board, and particularly Sir Nigel Knowles – who knows a thing or two about taking something small and making it very big – is a statement of significant intent.