Junior Bar is being badly damaged by solicitors' referral fees, says Bar Council

Junior barristers are losing out on work thanks to the increasingly widespread tendency among solicitors to pay referral fees to each other and the growing number of solicitor advocates, the Bar Council has said.

As reported by Legal Futures, the Bar Council's Professional Practice Committee (PCC) has called for a blanket ban on referral fees, which are currently only prohibited for personal injury cases. According the PCC, this widespread practice among firms and freelance solicitor advocates has a "negative impact [on clients and is] against the public interest. They [referral fees] threaten to compromise the integrity of those who receive them. At best they limit the client'’s choice of advocate: at worst, they can result in the lay client receiving a substandard service". In addition, the PCC said that cuts in public funding may encourage solicitors "to brief advocates based on economic criteria rather than on which advocate would provide the best representation for the lay client".

Worryingly, the PPC also raised concerns over junior barristers losing out on work that is vital both to their ability to earn a living and to their need to gain experience, which will decrease the quality of the Bar in the long term. The PPC stated: "Pupils typically begin their career at the Bar many thousands of pounds in debt. An effect of referral fees is ultimately likely to be to dissuade those from less privileged backgrounds from a career at the Bar. The junior Bar will not only see the quality of its new members diminish, but also its diversity. In time, this will impact upon the quality and diversity of the senior Bar and the judiciary."