I referred a case to a lawyer in another state and he agreed to pay me a one-third referral fee. He now says he will not pay since his state does not allow paying referral fees, except for quantum meruit. Do I have any remedy?  

The question is an interesting one. Pennsylvania is one of the most liberal states in terms of referral fees. As noted in previous articles, in 1979 the Pennsylvania Supreme Court abolished the quantum meruit requirement for referral fees. The reason the court did that was because there was too much soft corruption going around, i.e., referring cases and then later making up hours to justify getting a substantial referral fee. The court wanted to encourage lawyers to refer cases to lawyers who were perhaps better qualified to handle the case. As a result, the rule changed and the quantum meruit requirement was dropped for referral fees to lawyers.