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The Legal Services Board (LSB) has confirmed that it does not back reinstating the ban on referral fees but said that instead all agreements between lawyers and their introducers should be published. As first reported on Legal Futures last month, the LSB said today that there is insufficient evidence to make the case for a ban, but that transparency and disclosure need to be improved. It also said there should be the same rules for the different parts of the regulated legal market so far as possible.

Referral fees should not be banned, but require greater disclosure and more stringent regulation, the Legal Services Consumer Panel has concluded. This could include conveyancing clients providing written consent to be referred and a ban on auctions for work.

One of Lord Justice Jackson’s own assessors – the Senior Costs Judge, Peter Hurst – has cast doubt on the judge’s recommendation that referral fees be abolished, it has emerged. The news comes ahead of two influential reports examining referral fees that are to be published next month.

I have read with interest the letters in the Gazette about personal injury claims and referral fees over the last few weeks following the release of the Insurers’ report (aka the Jackson report).