Law society urged to adopt $25K cap on referral fees in Ontario
TORONTO — Lawyers in Ontario should have their fees for referring clients to another lawyer capped at a maximum of $25,000, a report released on Monday recommends.
In addition, the report says lawyers should have to record referral fees paid or received in their books, and report on their referral-fee practices in their annual reports to the body that regulates the profession in the province.
The recommendations, to be voted on Thursday by the governing body of the Law Society of Upper Canada, come from a working group that has been looking into the issue after serious concerns were raised that “certain fee-arrangement practices are misleading or detrimental to clients,” the regulator said.
In February, the law society voted in principle to implement a cap and to further regulate referral fees to protect the public.