The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill includes sections in Part 2 which seek to ban payment of referral fees. Clearly, a ban would cause damage to the AG Network scheme if it was to fall within its ambit.
However, Lord Pannick has proposed an amendment which exempts referrals from one solicitor to another from the ban. This amendment will be debated further, but it is an important movement for solicitors.
There remains doubt about whether a ban on referral fees and certain forms of legal advertising is practicable. Only last week health minister Simon Burns was quoted as saying that it was “not acceptable to display adverts for law firms in hospitals”. But this advertising is an important part of hospital budgets and is often used to pay for key specialist equipment. If there are to be budgetary cuts then the government can ill afford to lose any area of funding from important frontline services. Therefore, it is not yet clear that the strong rhetoric from parts of the government can be translated into equally strong legislation.
AG Network works to ensure any amendments or changes that affect the way in which we operate have the lowest possible impact on the scheme. We also do everything we can to ensure that information is promptly passed to all members.
