Since the introduction of the Civil Procedure Rules in April 1999 the Courts have been encouraged where appropriate to assess the costs payable by one party to another following the end of a hearing summarily, rather than incur the increased costs and delay of the alternative, detailed assessment. So as to assist and encourage this the costs section of the High Court regularly provides updated guideline hourly rates to enable the Courts in carrying out such steps to assess whether the hourly rates claimed are reasonable and should be allowed.

Those rates were once again increased with effect from 1 January 2008 although those were not published until a little while later.

The advisory committee on civil costs is conducting thorough research into guideline hourly rates for solicitors with a view to issuing a completely new set of rates by mid-2008 but, in the meantime, the previous rates have been increased across the board by approximately 4% to keep them in line with average earnings in the private sector.

The rates which apply depend on the location of the solicitors concerned and the grade of fee earner (from A through to D).

The current rates for the London area is set out below.

	Grade*	Hourly Rate - £
City of London: EC1, EC2, EC3, EC4	A** B C D	402 291 222 136
Central London: W1, WC1, WC2, SW1	A** B C D	312 238 193 124
Outer London (all other London post codes save those referred to above: W, NW, N, E, SE, SW and Bromley, Croydon, Dartford, Gravesend and Uxbridge	A** B C D	321 238 193 124

* The four grades of fee earner are as follows:-

A – Solicitors with more than 8 years’ post-qualification experience, including at least 8 years’ litigation experience.

B – Solicitors and legal executives with more than 4 years’ post-qualification experience, including at least 4 years’ litigation experience.

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

D – Trainee solicitors, paralegals and fee earners of equivalent experience.

** an hourly rate in excess of the guideline figure may be appropriate for grade A fee earners in substantial and complex litigation where other factors, including the value of the litigation, the level of complexity, the urgency or importance of the matter to the client as well as any international element would justify a significantly higher rate to reflect higher average costs for the work carried out.

The rates have increased since those published for 2008 by an average of 1.6% for the City of London and 2.6% for both Central and Outer London.

Although primarily to be used for summary assessment, these figures are often cited in detailed assessments of costs at the conclusion of substantial litigation. It is always worth comparing the hourly rates you agree with your solicitor, their grade within the above bands with the hourly rates which the Courts are currently allowing recovery of from an opponent, whether on a summary or a detailed assessment. Although in general, a rate in excess of that agreed for the provision of legal services between a solicitor and a client would not be recovered even if it would be in accordance with the above guidelines (unless, for example, a conditional fee agreement has been entered into which may entitle a solicitor to recover more in costs from the opponent than a client might be liable to pay), there should be little difficulty in recovering the rates charged where they are less than the guideline hourly rates and this will be an important factor in deciding which solicitors you instruct.