You may be hearing from your solicitor any day. Not necessarily to say you have won your case but to notify you that the hourly rate they will be charging you for their future work is going up by 2.28%.
Here's why. Solicitors in England and Wales are now set guidelines each year on what it is reasonable for them to charge the opposing party when that party has lost a case or an application in proceedings and had an order for costs made against them. These charging rates can be reduced or increased by the judge who fixes the final figure but they will usually be applied. Generally, though, what the opposing party is ordered to pay cannot exceed the amount you, the client, could be charged by the solicitor if dipping into your own pocket to pay for the work. So what you could be charged can be expected to be at least the same as the guideline rates.
The 2.28% increase in the hourly rate is to account for inflation since the last increase and will apply to civil but not family cases. They are intended to be used where the judge makes a summary assessment of what the opposing party has to pay in less complicated hearings but will often be adopted for detailed assessments in more substantial litigation.
Different hourly rates are used, depending on where the solicitor is based and who in the solicitor's firm is doing the work. The higher the status of the person doing the work in the firm, the higher the guideline rate for their work. At the top are solicitors and legal executives with over eight years' experience. They are followed down by solicitors and legal executives with over four years' experience. Then other solicitors and legal executives with less experience. And, on the bottom rung, come trainee solicitors and paralegals (who aren't qualified lawyers but support the qualified lawyers in the firm).
The highest new guideline rates are in London. For firms in the City and Central London, the hourly rate tops at £422 and drops to £157. However, when it comes to very heavy commercial and corporate work conducted by any centrally based London firm, that range jumps from £579 to £210. For firms in Outer London and Dartford and Gravesend, the range is from £319 to £146.
Out of London and Dartford and Gravesend, there are two groups of locations - the more expensive group including such places as Liverpool. Manchester and Nottingham and cities and towns within Hampshire and Surrey and the less expensive group for everywhere else. So in the first group, the new hourly rate ranges from £295 to £142 and in the second group from £288 to £142. To check into which group the firm you are or are thinking of using falls, go to https://www.judiciary.uk/guideline-hourly-rates-2026/ (see pages 3 to 14).
Some important points-
- The work may be carried out for you by more than one person in the firm. For example, a trainee solicitor may do a lot of it and a qualified solicitor with more than eight years' experience supervise them and do the rest of the work so that different charging rates may apply to different parts of the case.
- You may have agreed a fixed fee with the firm in which event the fee cannot be increased unless your agreement with the firm allows for an increase.
- The firm may quote you charging rates which are more or less than the guideline rates. There is nothing to stop you seeking to negotiate a lower rate and even shopping around. The guideline rates will give you an idea of what is regarded as a reasonable rate. But remember, the cheapest may not be the best and a simple case may justify a rate which is under the guideline rate: a complicated case, something greater.
- If the case is likely to involve court attendances, then it will probably be cheaper for you to use a firm in or close to that locality but, again, the cheapest may not be the best.
- There is much more on how to select the right lawyer for you - solicitor or barrister or both - in my book 'The Return of Breaking Law'.
