221CGiving or receiving fee or benefit for claim referrals

221C Giving or receiving fee or benefit for claim referrals (1) A person commits an offence if the person— (a) gives, or agrees to give, a fee or other benefit to someone else for a claim referral; or (b) arranges for someone else to give a fee or other benefit to another person for a claim referral.

A2026-7 Civil Law (Wrongs) Amendment Act 2026 page 9 (2) A person commits an offence if the person— (a) receives, or agrees to receive, a fee or other benefit from someone else for a claim referral; or (b) arranges for someone else to receive a fee or other benefit from another person for a claim referral. (3) This section does not apply— (a) to a claim referral by a law practice acting for the claimant to another person (a third party) for the purposes of the third party providing a service to the claimant; or (b) in any other circumstances prescribed by regulation. (4) This section does not apply if— (a) all or part of a law practice (the current practice) is sold to another law practice (the new practice); and (b) the new practice gives or agrees to give, or arranges for someone else to give, a fee to the current practice for the claim referral of the claimant to the new practice; and (c) the amount of the fee is not more than the claimant’s current legal costs; and (d) the claimant consents to the claim referral. mentioned in s (3) and s (4) (see Criminal Code, s 58). (5) In this section: claim referral— (a) means the referral of a claimant to a person for the purposes of— (i) the person providing a service to the claimant; or (ii) someone else providing a service to the claimant; and

(b) includes the disclosure of a claimant’s personal information. current legal costs, for a claimant, means the legal costs that— (a) were incurred by the claimant before the sale of the law practice; but (b) have not been included in a bill given to the claimant before the sale. legal costs—see the Legal Profession Act 2006, dictionary.