SRA threaten flagrant breaches of Referral Fee Ban

The CEO of the SRA Anthony Townsend has indicated that a relaxed approach is being taken to enforcement of the new Referral Fee ban in personal injury cases, apart from those who undertake ‘flagrant breaches’ of the rules.

The Law Society Gazette have today published details of the recent speech by Anthony Townsend, the Chief Executive of the SRA to the Legal Futures Conference, where he set out the up to date approach towards compliance with the new ban.

For a link to the article dated 7th June please click here.

Mr Townsend indicated that with only 9 weeks of the ban, the SRA are taking a proportionate and constructive approach wherever possible. There is a raft of guidance now available, most of which can be found in the SRA article.

It seems that the general approach being taken is that a strict interpretaion is being taken of the definition of a referral, in that the SRA would be looking for a direct reference to a client including name and address as evidence of breach of the rules. It is however very early days, so any firm considering how to recalibrate their exisitng relationships with providers of work should take great care not to breach not only the letter but the spirit of the ban.

Originally posted 2013-06-07 00:00:00.