Referral agreements

Referral agreements

The SRA’s core regulatory requirements in relation to referral and fee sharing arrangements are found in the two Codes of Conduct (the Code for Solicitors and Code for Firms), which should be read in the context of the SRA Principles.

SRA Standards and Regulations

There is no definition of ‘referral’. Instead the SRA defines the person or entity making the referral, ie the ‘introducer’.

Introducer

An introducer is any person, business or organisation that:

•
introduces or refers clients to your business
•
recommends your business to clients, or
•
otherwise puts you and clients in touch with each other

This is an extremely wide definition, no doubt to provide maximum flexibility to the SRA when interpreting firms’ arrangements.

There is no requirement for the introduction or referral etc to be made in return for money or other consideration.

Referral fee

‘Referral fee’ is defined by reference to section 57(7) of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO 2012), meaning that when the SRA talks about a ‘referral fee’, it means a fee paid for the referral

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