Court Rates

Current guideline hourly rates effective from 1st January 2025.

The Guideline Hourly Rates which were last increased effective from 1st January 2024 have been increased again for inflation. The increases are effective from 1st January 2025.

The Courts in Devon and Cornwall fall within National band 2. The guideline hourly rates for National band 2 have increased from 1st January 2025 to the following:

Grade A £282.00 per hour
Grade B £242.00 per hour
Grade C £196.00 per hour
Grade D £139.00 per hour

The current and previous Guideline Hourly Rates for the country are set out in table below. The new hourly rates from 1st January 2025 are shown in black and the 2024 figures in red.

 

Guideline hourly rates effective from 1st January 2024.

The Master of the Rolls announced on 17th November 2023 that the 2021 Guideline Hourly Rates would be increased for inflation with the increases being effective from 1st January 2024. The new figures have now been published. You will recall that the guideline rates were increased for the first time in over 10 years with effect from 1st October 2021.

The Courts in Devon and Cornwall fall within National band 2. The guideline hourly rates will increase effective from 1st January 2024 to the following:

Grade A £272.00 per hour
Grade B £233.00 per hour
Grade C £189.00 per hour
Grade D £134.00 per hour

The current and the new Guideline Hourly Rates for the country are set out in table below. The new hourly rates are shown in black and the 2021 figures in red.

 

Guideline hourly rates effective from 1st October 2021

The 2021 Edition of the SCCO Guide To The Summary Assessment Of Costs did not contain a specific date for the new rates to come into force, although the intended date was 1st October 2021.  If you have amended any of your retainers to take effect from a date sooner than that, that is not a problem.

You may have seen from the decision in the case of Axnoller Events Limited v Brake & Anor [2021] EWHC 2362 (Ch) (23 August 2021), the Judge (who was sitting as a High Court Judge) stated that the new guideline hourly rates should be used now, including for work already done. 

The decision was on the basis that the pre-existing hourly rates which were in place since 2010 and are now well out of date and ‘of little assistance’.  The Judge also commented that the new guideline hourly rates had been used in summary assessments in the High Court already, referring to ECU Group plc v Deutsche Bank [2021] EWHC 2083 (Ch) in which the new guideline rates were relied upon in a case where proceedings were issued in 2020.

Therefore, the decision suggests that if your existing retainers already provided for an hourly rate at least equivalent to the new guideline hourly rates, these can be applied to work done prior to 1st October 2021.

Of course, paying parties will argue that the hourly rates did not formally come into effect until 1st October 2021 but these are helpful cases to seek to rely upon the new guideline rates retrospectively where your retainers already accommodate the new guideline hourly rates.

Expect paying parties to increase the frequency of spurious objections to the grade of fee earner undertaking the work.

Grades of fee earner

The grades of fee earner are as follows:

[A] Solicitors with over eight years post qualification experience including at least eight years litigation experience and Fellows of CILEX with 8 years post qualification experience.

[B] Solicitors and Fellows of CILEX with over four years post qualification experience including at least four years litigation experience.

[C] Other solicitors and Fellows of CILEX and fee earners of equivalent experience.

[D] Trainee solicitors, trainee legal executives, paralegals and other fee earners.

• Qualified Costs Lawyers will be eligible for payment as grades B or C depending on the complexity of the work done.
• Employed barristers’ rates should be allowed at the grade which best reflects the length of their litigation experience.
• “Legal executive” means a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives. Those who are not Fellows of the Institute are not entitled to call themselves legal executives and in principle are therefore not entitled to the same hourly rate as a legal executive.
• Clerks without the equivalent experience of legal executives will be treated as being in the bottom grade of fee earner i.e. trainee solicitors, paralegals and fee earners of equivalent experience. Whether or not a fee earner has equivalent experience is ultimately a matter for the discretion of the court.

Rates effective from 1st April 2010

Rates effective from 1st January 2009

Rates effective from 1st January 2008

Rates effective from 1st January 2007

Rates effective between 1st January 2005 and 31st December 2006

All rates are per hour

Please note that as stated by the Supreme Court Costs Office (SCCO) these are guideline rates. The rates are intended as broad approximations only but although never intended to be a fixed scale have effectively been adapted as such now by most courts. The guideline rates were introduced for summary assessment only but are used as a starting point in most detailed assessments. The rates incorporate a notional 50% uplift.

Grades of Fee Earner

A  Solicitors with over eight years' post qualification experience including at least eight years' litigation experience

B  Solicitors and legal executives with over four years’ post qualification experience including at least four years’ litigation experience

C  Other solicitors and legal executives and fee earners of equivalent experience

D  Trainee solicitors, paralegals and other fee earners

Note. A “legal executive” is a Fellow of the Institute of Legal Executives.

Brief Guide to Grades

Prior to April 1999 a common rate for all levels of fee earners was used. This rate was adjusted by a percentage mark up for the profit element of the Solicitors’ charges.

After April 1999, a system of three categories of fee earner was utilised:

Grade 1  Solicitors with four years’ post qualification experience

Grade 2  Other solicitors and legal executives and fee earners of equivalent experience

Grade 3  Trainee solicitors and fee earners of equivalent experience

In July 2001 this system was further categorised into the system used today.

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