The new guideline rates coming into force next year have been published, with top-fee earners in London now able to claim £546 an hour.
The judicial office outlined the figures that will be applied from 1 January, covering grades A to D for London and the rest of the country.
Master of the rolls Sir Geoffrey Vos revealed last month that he would accept all the recommendations of the Civil Justice Council’s costs review, including an uplift in guideline hourly rates in accordance with the Services Producer Price Index (SPPI).
A working group is also being established to look at the methodology underpinning the rates.
Guideline hourly rates are not a hard and fast rule but are used as a marker by judges and costs lawyers for the fees that should be charged by different types of fee earners. They have been described by a previous master of the rolls as ‘broad approximations only’.
| Grade | Fee earner | London 1 | London 2 | London 3 | National 1 | National 2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | Solicitors and legal executives with over eight years’ experience | £546 (£512) | £398 (£373) | £301 (£282) | £278 (£261) | £272 (£255) |
| B | Solicitors and legal executives with over four years’ experience | £371 (£348) | £308 (£289) | £247 (£232) | £233 (£218) | £233 (£218) |
| C | Other solicitors or legal executives and fee earners of equivalent experience | £288 (£270) | £260 (£244) | £197 (£185) | £190 (£178) |
£189 (£177) |
| D | Trainee solicitors, paralegals and other fee earners | £198 (£186) |
£148 (£139) | £138 (£129) | £134 (£126) | £134 (£126) |
