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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 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.

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”.

Claims management companies looking to create legal arms as ABSs could fall foul of Solicitors Regulation Authority rules, a former SRA director has warned, while a leading insurance lawyer cautions over a loophole in the referral fee ban.

The government has set out how it intends to ban referral fees in personal injury, but has included a get-out if the payment is made “as consideration for the provision of services”. Its draft rules also allow the Lord Chancellor to ban referral fees in other areas of practice.