Referral fees

Until the mid 1990s, if you had had an accident you would probably ask around and approach a local solicitor who was experienced in these claims – much the same as if you wanted a doctor, a dentist or any other professional.
 
As professionals, we looked after our clients, secure in the knowledge that if we did a good job for them, we would be paid a reasonable fee.
 
Greed has now got in the way of professionalism, with claims management companies and insurers at one end of the business raking in referral fees and, at the other end, large personal injury practices - some might say factories - shelling out money to buy the claims, with a sharper eye on the fees they will earn rather than on the client’s best interests.
 
Referral fees add no value to the system, they damage the profession and reduce the level of service the client should expect and lawyers should provide. In this brave new world of ‘Tesco law’, without professionalism we will just be another retailer.
 
Take the high ground. Stamp out referral fees, make them illegal and the system will work properly - as it used to.

Nick Richardson represents victims of clinical negligence and all types of accidental injury, ranging from a claim against a multinational following a serious accident on a North Sea oil platform to claims against rail companies in connection with a major rail crash. He is a long-time member of the Law Society's Personal Injury Panel and an APIL senior litigator.