You reported last week that the Solicitors Regulation Authority ‘voted 13 to two, with one abstention, not to reimpose a ban on referral payments’ (see [2009] Gazette, 8 January, 3). This is correct, save that the vote you refer to was the second vote. This took place immediately after the first vote, which was carried seven to six on whether the SRA should revisit the subject later to look specifically at whether a ban on referral fees should be reimposed.

I was at the meeting and there was a definite ‘frisson’ after the first vote which caused the second vote to be proposed, the outcome of which was going to be certain.

Interestingly, it was widely and openly admitted around the table that the referral fee sections of rule 9 were not working in practice. Although some suggested that they might be scrapped, others correctly said that, in that case, you would have no transparency, with all the implications of duping of the public that follow from that. They identified the dilemma and ended with no solution.

Tim Foster Foster Harrington, Camberley