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These comments do make me chuckle. God forbid someone makes money out of what they do.

I suspect most of these comments are from employees with no grasp of the commercial aspects of a law firm or even any business for that matter. No matter what area of law you are in, or business, there will be some form of referral fee paid. It may not be as blatant as buying a whiplash claim, but there will be something there. You just don't see it, it goes on behind closed doors by the managing partners.

Lets not forget the conduct of banks and insurers in 2008, their bail out cost £500 billion, that's roughly £7,700 for every human being in Britain, even babies! That was off the back of huge commissions and bonuses AKA referrals. Greed and fraud and only one of them got a custodial sentence. Don't worry though, the PI reforms will save you 35 quid a year so in around 220 years you should be about square.

The legal profession is no exception to the corporate world, we are a business, we provide a service and have had to adapt. Without a profit we cannot function. The nostalgia of the quill pen and Mrs Jones coming in for a coffee and a chat over her will, are over - get with the times. Its not nice making money from a terminally ill man but when he wants a power of attorney or will, most of you would be round like a shot, don't kid yourself. A PI lawyer making £500 out of a whiplash claim - the cheek of it.

If you strip out the negativity of PI, it's just like any other business. In fact, it is probably more transparent. What other area of law, let alone business, would allow a customer to incur several thousands of pounds of disbursements and profit costs, but wait to get paid maybe 1-3 years later - interest free! oh, and if it doesn't work out you won't have to pay anything? These forums make PI lawyers out to be rogue traders. Next time you take your car for repairs or get a plumber round to fix your boiler, just bear in mind that "greedy PI lawyer" ripping everyone off.....

Obviously paying referral fees is banned and I get that, but it hasn't stopped most, if not all the insurers from deriving an income from PI claims. Granted, these two at Zen are no Direct Line but their comments do carry some merit. I doubt DLG Legal or Ageas Law have too many issues with the SRA and the income they derive from PI claim.