I read Guy Platt-Higgins' comments about referral fees with interest (see [2011] Gazette, 22 September, 13). I should set out my stall. I am absolutely opposed to referral fees as I consider them incompatible with a profession that holds itself out as adhering to the highest ethical standards.

He is of course right; referral fees are irrecoverable upon assessment. But that misses the point. The real issue is not that referral fees are paid, it is who is demanding the fee. The insurance industry is constantly lobbying about the 'compensation culture'. Insurers say that premiums are rising because of the increasing number of claims, many of which are spurious and of low value. They claim lawyers and claims management companies are jumping on the bandwagon and driving this by encouraging people to make claims where otherwise they would not have done so; and that they are charging inflated fees for bringing the claim.

At the same time, these same insurance companies are selling any claims of which they may become aware. Some insurance companies even sub-contract their claims process through a claims management company.

The insurance companies cannot, on the one hand, complain about the increase in the number of claims and, on the other, drive that increase themselves.

The referral fee process is integral to this because it provides the insurance company with a motive for selling claims.

And it does happen. I had an accident a year ago and I received no fewer than four phone calls from the insurer's agent trying to persuade me to pursue a personal injury claim, even though I had not been injured.

Howard Shelley, QualitySolicitors CMHT, Walsall