The Government has released updated guideline figures for the hourly rates for Solicitors, legal executives, paralegals and fee earners.

This update came into effect from 1 January 2024 and thereafter, will be uplifted for inflation, in accordance with the Services Producer Price Index.

These changes were accepted by the Master of the Rolls, who has accepted the recommendations of the Civil Justice Council Costs Review that was published in May 2023.

These guideline figures are to be used for carrying out a summary assessment of legal representatives' costs, listed by geographical band and grade for different parts of the country.

The figures are outlined below with the previous guideline rates from 1 October 2021 to 31 December 2023 presented in brackets for reference.

There is an analysis of the percentage increase per grade/band presented in the below table.

Grade	Fee earner	London 1	London 2	London 3	National 1	National 2
A	Solicitors and legal executives with over 8 years’ experience	£546 (£512)	£398 (£373)	£301 (£282)	£278 (£261)	£272 (£255)
% increase		6.64%	6.70%	6.73%	6.51%	6.66%
B	Solicitors and legal executives with over 4 years’ experience	£371 (£348)	£308 (£289)	£247 (£232)	£233 (£218)	£233 (£218)
% increase		6.66%	6.57%	6.46%	6.88%	6.88%
C	Other solicitors or legal executives and fee earners of equivalent experience	£288 (£270)	£260 (£244)	£197 (£185)	£190 (£178)	£189 (£177)
% increase		6.66%	6.55%	6.48%	6.74%	6.77%
D	Trainee solicitors, paralegals and other fee earners	£198 (£186)	£148 (£139)	£138 (£129)	£134 (£126)	£134 (£126)
% increase		6.45%	6.47%	6.97%	6.34%	6.34%

 

There appears to be a mean increase of 6.62% across the rates, with the largest increase being for Grade D fee earners in Band London 3, who enjoyed an increase of 6.97%. The lowest increase was seen by Grade D fee earners in both National bands 1 and 2.

For reference, Bank of England base rate rose from 0.1% in December 2021 to 5.25% in August 2023, and has remained at this level until the present day.

These guidelines will be vital to those involved in drafting schedules of costs, as Judges regularly have regard to them when making assessments.

The guideline rates and description of the bands can be found at

Solicitors' guideline hourly rates - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

UK interest rate statistics - Interest Rates and Monetary Policy: Key Economic Indicators - House of Commons Library (parliament.uk)