The Law Society will lobby the government and Legal Services Board to ban the use of referral fees by all providers of legal services.

The Law Society’s council voted to change its policy on referral fees yesterday. It adopted a motion by council member Sue Carter to alter council’s existing policy, which has been in place since November 2007, by a sizeable majority.

However, the Law Society’s council does not have the power to change the rules on referral fees, which as a regulatory matter must be dealt with by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

The council’s policy will be amended so that the Law Society will ‘make representations to government and the Legal Services Board that referral fees do not have a place in markets for legal services’, and should be banned. The new policy goes on to say that referral fees ‘have the potential to limit access to justice and reduce the quality of legal services’.

Under the new policy, the Law Society will also pressure the LSB to ensure that all approved regulators ban referral fees.

Andrew Caplen, council member and chairman of the Law Society’s access to justice committee, said: ‘It is my understanding that the LSB does not regard the question of referral fees as a priority, while the SRA is likely to consult on extending the use of referral fees to publicly funded work.’