I've been a little quiet recently in terms of tweeting and blogging on LASPO, Jackson and all that. To be honest I am a bit weary of it all...all the speculation and jaw jawing, of listening to possible ways of getting round the ban (not supposed to be looking at ways of doing that are we; thought we were just meant to comply?). Of course we all still await the definitive definition from the SRA as to what consitutes a 'referral fee'.
A formal consultation process conducted by the SRA started on the 23rd October and will end on the 18th December. There is to be an 'SRA Referrals Symposium' (to be held at the Royal Albert Hall?). Code changes are to be approved by the SRA Board on the 23rd January 2013, changes to the Regulatory Framework will be approved by the LSB mid February 2012, final version published 'early March 2013' and Implementation of the ban - April 2013.
Reading about the Consultation on the SRA website is making my contact lensed eyes water, so you can check it out for yourselves at www.sra.org.uk/sra/consultations/referral-fees-2012.page if you like. It might make your eyes water too.
I hear it being said by many, and indeed to avoid being accused of hypocrisy, I have also sounded off to this effect previously, 'how can we possibly plan for the future when nothing is written in stone?'. I still believe that to be true for instance in the case, for example of what the fixed fee under the RTA portal will come down to (I believe that at the recent MASS conference many delegates were saying that they believed that the fee will not come down to the oft quoted figure of £400, but is more likely to be fixed at double that).
However, the one thing that is certain is that referral fees will be banned, that is that LASPO 2012 as implemented in April 2013 will prohibit the 'payment and receipt of referral fees in personal injury cases'. I do not see that the SRA is going to provide much more in the way of a deeper definition. Indeed it has already said that it does not intend to provide a blue print for firms. It will rely on self-regulation to a great extent and to my mind it will boil down to this - at the moment Mr/Mrs/Ms RTA/PI Solicitor you receive quite a bit/some/an awful lot of your work by paying a referral fee to a CMC/Insurance broker or to some other organisation to receive a personal injury claim - ie you pay £X for a PI or you pay £XXX to receive 20 claims a month or whatever. After the first of April that will not be allowed and you can dress it up in fancy ways, but it will still be banned, and you know that it will be banned, so don't do it. If you do do it, well first of all, remember that you are under a duty to self report breaches of the SRA Code of Conduct. If you don't report yourselves, you might get away with it, or we might catch you - that is a risk that you may or may not wish to take. However you know the Rules and so if you do decide to be naughty, well you will be looking over your shoulder for the rest of your days (or until the ban is relaxed/collapses in farcical fashion or is otherwise done away with - all of which are possible, but not certain). You can wave leading Counsels opinion on some brilliant new scheme that you have come up with as a way of getting round the ban, at us, but ultimately if it involves making a payment for a PI claim, it is banned. End of.
So there you have it. What you can do is go out and market properly and attract clients that way, but you'd better get going seriously if you haven't started already - and don't expect those 100 guaranteed new cases per month that you are getting at the moment by paying XYZ CMC Ltd £75,000 a month - no, no, no, that is not going to happen, certainly not in the near term (or to be honest in the long term). Alternatively you can form an ABS - but that is a separate issue altogether and provides enough material for 20 more blogs.
Anyway, I have just heard the theme tune to 'I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here' chiming up, so time to go and watch Nadine Dorries getting bitten by some more rats or submerged in a bath of maggots. Maybe ITV could try an alternative theme "I'm a PI Claimant Solicitor - Get Me Out of Here." At £40,000's worth of appearance money - now, there's a thought. That would buy an awful lot of claims (until 1st April 2013)!
As ever all of these off the wall views are my own in their entirety.
No comments:
Post a Comment