The Law Society Council voted last month against reinstating a ban on the payment of referral fees by solicitors despite the results of the recent postal ballot of the profession which showed widespread support for such a move.

The Society's standards board will instead conduct a review of the controversial issue this spring, as required by the Master of the Rolls, Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, when he originally approved the lifting of the ban in March 2004.


As part of the review, the board will obtain feedback from the Society's professional ethics department, its practice standards unit, and the rules and ethics committee. It will also carry out a regulatory impact assessment, as well as track complaints relating to alleged breaches of the rules.


Philips: 12-month agreement

Stakeholders, including Citizens Advice and the Office of Fair Trading, will be asked for their comments, while questions on the subject were included in the annual omnibus survey of solicitors conducted last month.

A motion put forward by Tim Readman, council member for sole practitioners, calling for a return of the ban was defeated by 57 votes to 25, with six abstentions.


Some 73% of respondents to the postal ballot held last September opposed the relaxation of the ban, although only 16% of the profession overall took part (see [2004] Gazette, 7 October, 1).


Andrew Holroyd, chairman of the standards board, promised that the review would be wide-ranging. He said: 'Our determination to carry out a rigorous review has been strengthened by the postal vote.'