The board of the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) is debating once again the 'thorny issue' of referral fees (see [2007] Gazette, 13 December, 16). What is there to debate?


Rule 1.02 of the new Code of Conduct, which was imposed on us all by the SRA in July this year, compels us, as practising solicitors, to 'act with integrity', and rule 1.03 directs that we must not allow our 'independence to

be compromised'.



Sorry, but at a stroke the payment of referral fees to introducers negates impartiality and compromises our independence.  From the moment you pay a referral fee, your paymaster is pulling the strings. Do as they say or the tap of introduced work will be turned off. It happened with claim farmers and it is now happening with estate agents.



Referral fees dilute the integrity and independence of the profession, and continuing to sanction their payment will sound the death knell for impartiality and objectivity in the provision of legal services.



Finally, rule 1.06 of the new code says that we 'must not behave in a way that is likely to diminish the trust the public places in you or the profession'. I suggest the board of the SRA practises what it preaches.



Peter Morgan, Osborne Morris & Morgan, Leighton Buzzard