• Referral and Marketing Arrangements Guidance (October 2019)

Question 1

Features which are likely to indicate that the payment is a prohibited referral fee:

Answer 1

1. The payment is made to a professional person acting for the lay client who has a duty to act in the best interests of that client when making a referral
2. The payment to an introducer is linked to specific referrals
3. The payment to an introducer for services provided by the barrister is not a set fee but is linked to the number of referrals
4. In a publicly funded case, the fee paid to an instructed barrister is less than the Legal Aid Agency fee for those advocacy services
5. The payment is a condition of receiving a referral
6. A payment for marketing or related services is higher than market rates

Question 2

Features which may suggest that the payment is not a referral fee:

Answer 2

1. The payment is made to an employee or agent of the barrister making the payment, e.g. a clerk or an outsourced clerking service, in return for the services they provide to the barrister and not for onward payment to any person who refers work to the barrister
2. The payment is made to a marketing or advertising agency and the amount does not depend on whether any instructions are received or on the value of any instructions received
3. The payment is made to an introducer who is not an authorised person or other professional person for the purpose of being included in a list of providers of legal services, and the amount is not dependent on the number of referrals received from that introducer

Question 3

Is

1. outsourced clerking arrangements

a prohibited referal fee?

Answer 3

The following are examples of cases in which a payment is not likely to be a prohibited referral fee:

Question 4

The following are examples of cases in which a payment is not likely to be a prohibited referral fee:

Answer 4

1. outsourced clerking arrangements
2. marketing services
3. barrister owned referral company
4. third party introducer
5. membership subscriptions