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Others say the fee-splitting among golfers is cumbersome.

Mr. Witkoff said he became incensed during the call when Mr. Goldberg suggested that Mr. Witkoff had known about the fee-splitting arrangement.

“In fact, if there was fee-splitting, he had an obligation to tell us.”

Law firms that practice law in name only spend tens of millions of dollars a year on television and radio ads and websites designed to draw in lung cancer and mesothelioma patients and then forward those leads on to trial lawyers, who give the referring attorneys a piece of the fees in exchange, despite ethics rules generally prohibiting fee-splitting unless lawyers do meaningful work on a case.

Why do most states ban fee-splitting?