Solicitors have voted three to one in favour of reinstating the ban on referral fees.
20,000 Law Society members voted on the motion deploring the council's decision to sanction referral fees and calling on it to reinstate the ban. Some 73.5% voted in favour.
Law Society president Edward Nally said: “The council will consider the result of the ballot at its December meeting and decide the way forward then.
"The Society has in any event undertaken to review the workings of the new referral fee rule after a year of operation, in the spring of next year.”
Almost 120,000 ballots were sent out – with a 17% response. The result is not binding on the council. However, it is persuasive.
Nally said: “When the council makes or changes rules, it has to decide the matter on the basis of the public interest and for that reason the council cannot be bound on regulatory issues by any ballot of members.”
Birmingham council member Derek French – one of the leading opponents of referral fees – said that “on a matter of such importance to the profession, the council cannot ignore such a strongly held view”.
He added: “If we purport as a council to represent the profession, it is paternalistic in the extreme to say [the council has] a better perception of the public good.”
Yorkshire member Philip Hamer put down the motion that led to referral fees being allowed. He said the council will not ignore the ballot, but predicted it would not change the course of events.
He said the Master of the Rolls, Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers – who is known to have his doubts about referral fees, had asked for the 12-month review, and that no change to the rule could be made without his approval. “I doubt he'll agree without that assessment,” Hamer said.
