A lookup tool for the Solicitors' Guideline Hourly Rates, framed for the
assessment of costs — checking the recoverable hourly rates of a
fee earner on a summary or detailed assessment.
Single lookup: pick a year, band and grade to read the guideline hourly
rate. Enter hours to get a time cost (rate × hours) at that rate.
Locations helper: use "find by area" to look up the National band (1 or 2)
for a town. London bands are set by postcode (see the note in the helper).
Bill estimator: add several fee earners — each at a chosen grade, band and
number of hours — to build up a total time cost at the selected year.
For the assessment of costs — checking a solicitor's recoverable hourly rates on a summary or detailed assessment. (For budget-phase work, use the Cost Budgeting Helper.)
These are guideline rates, not a cap. They are a starting point for the assessing judge, who may allow more or less depending on the complexity and circumstances of the case.
Loading guideline hourly rate data…
1Rate lookup
Pick a year, band and grade to read the guideline hourly rate. Add hours for a time cost.
A — solicitors and legal executives with over 8 years' experience (PQE).
B — solicitors and legal executives with over 4 years' experience.
C — other solicitors and legal executives, and fee earners of equivalent experience.
D — trainee solicitors, paralegals and other fee earners.
Guideline hourly rate
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Time cost (rate × hours)
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2Bill estimator
Build up a total time cost across several fee earners at the year selected above. Each row picks its own grade, band and hours; the rate fills in from the published table.
Fee earner
Grade
Band
Hours
Rate (£/hr)
Line cost (£)
Total
£0.00
Show working
Find your location's band
Area
Band
This lists the National band (1 or 2) for each area. The three London bands are set by postcode, not by this list: broadly, London 1 (EC and certain WC postcodes — heavy commercial work), London 2 (the rest of central London) and London 3 (outer London). Source: gov.uk.