High street practitioners may have wept to read the front page of the Gazette on 22 November. This reported that the Law Society Council believes that, if referral fees are to remain, 'there should be strict rules... aimed at reinforcing a solicitor's independence and duty to their client, which should be robustly enforced by the Solicitors Regulation Authority'.


We have heard this all before. They are treating the symptoms rather than the cause. They created the problem by removing the referral fee ban - and they created the rules.



The only interests which should be taken into account are those of the public and the profession. Skewed recommendations act against the public interest. The public would want an honest recommendation, not one influenced by payments. Clients are being badgered to use legal firms hundreds of miles away. Some third-party introducers make it a sackable offence for their staff if they do not steer clients to their paying solicitor. Some third parties even pocket the legal fees themselves and just pay a fraction to the solicitor.



From the profession's point of view, these legalised 'bungs' undermine our independence and diminish the trust the public places in us. This besmirches the profession.



If you are in any doubt as to the above, explain to non-lawyer friends what has happened and witness their amazed reactions. Do then email the Law Society and the Solicitors Regulation Authority, requesting that they please listen to the profession who voted three-to-one against all of this and have just been ignored.



Tim Foster, Foster Harrington, Camberley