Guidance
Solicitors' guideline hourly rates
Guideline figures for carrying out a summary assessment of court costs, listed by pay band and grade for different parts of the country.
Guideline hourly rates
| Pay band | Fee earner | London grade 1 | London grade 2 | London grade 3 | National grade 1 | National grade 2 | National grade 3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | Solicitors and legal executives with over 8 years’ experience | £409 | £317 | £229–£267 | £217 | £201 | £201 |
| B | Solicitors and legal executives with over 4 years’ experience | £296 | £242 | £172–£229 | £192 | £177 | £177 |
| C | Other solicitors or legal executives and fee earners of equivalent experience | £226 | £196 | £165 | £161 | £146 | £146 |
| D | Trainee solicitors, paralegals and other fee earners | £138 | £126 | £121 | £118 | £111 | £111 |
These are the guideline rates in effect from 2010. Find out previous guideline rates for 1999–2009.
London grades
| London grade | Area | Postcodes |
|---|---|---|
| London grade 1 | City of London | EC1–EC4 |
| London grade 2 | Central London | W1, WC1, WC2 and SW1 |
| London grade 3 | Outer London | all other London postcodes |
National grade 1
Covers the following areas:
- Aldershot, Farnham, Bournemouth (incl Poole)
- Birmingham Inner
- Bristol
- Cambridge City, Harlow
- Canterbury, Maidstone, Medway, Tunbridge Wells
- Cardiff (Inner)
- Chelmsford South, Essex, East Suffolk
- Fareham, Winchester
- Hampshire, Dorset, Wiltshire, Isle of Wight
- Kingston, Guildford, Reigate, Epsom
- Leeds Inner (within 2km of City Art Gallery)
- Lewes
- Liverpool, Birkenhead
- Manchester Central
- Newcastle - City Centre (within 2m of St Nicholas Cathedral)
- Norwich City
- Nottingham City
- Oxford, Thames Valley
- Southampton, Portsmouth
- Swindon, Basingstoke
- Watford
National grade 2
Covers the following areas:
- Bath, Cheltenham, Gloucester, Taunton, Yeovil
- Bury
- Chelmsford North, Cambridge County, Peterborough, Bury St Edmunds, Norfolk, Lowestoft
- Chester, North Wales
- Coventry, Rugby, Nuneaton, Stratford, Warwick
- Exeter, Plymouth
- Hull (City)
- Leeds Outer, Wakefield, Pontefract
- Leigh
- Lincoln
- Luton, Bedford, St Albans, Hitchin, Hertford
- Manchester Outer, Oldham, Bolton, Tameside
- Newcastle (other than City Centre)
- Nottingham, Derbyshire
- Sheffield, Doncaster, South Yorkshire
- Southport
- St Helens
- Stockport, Altrincham, Salford
- Swansea, Newport, Cardiff (Outer)
- Wigan
- Wolverhampton, Walsall, Dudley, Stourbridge
- York, Harrogate
National grade 3
Covers the following areas:
- Birmingham Outer
- Bradford, Dewsbury, Halifax, Huddersfield, Keighley, Skipton
- Cumbria
- Devon, Cornwall
- Grimsby, Skegness
- Hull Outer
- Kidderminster
- Northampton, Leicester
- Preston, Lancaster, Blackpool, Chorley, Accrington, Burnley, Blackburn, Rawenstall, Nelson
- Scarborough, Ripon
- Stafford, Stoke, Tamworth
- Teesside
- Worcester, Hereford, Evesham, Redditch
- Shrewsbury, Telford, Ludlow, Oswestry
- South and West Wales
National grades: A–Z by area
| Area | Grade |
|---|---|
| Accrington | 3 |
| Aldershot | 1 |
| Altrincham | 2 |
| Basingstoke | 1 |
| Bath | 2 |
| Bedford | 2 |
| Birkenhead | 1 |
| Birmingham Inner | 1 |
| Birmingham Outer | 3 |
| Blackburn | 3 |
| Blackpool | 3 |
| Bolton | 2 |
| Bournemouth | 1 |
| Bradford | 3 |
| Bristol | 1 |
| Burnley | 3 |
| Bury | 2 |
| Bury St Edmunds | 2 |
| Cambridge City | 1 |
| Cambridge County | 2 |
| Canterbury | 1 |
| Cardiff (Inner) | 1 |
| Cardiff (Outer) | 2 |
| Chelmsford North | 2 |
| Chelmsford South | 1 |
| Cheltenham | 2 |
| Chester | 2 |
| Chorley | 3 |
| Cornwall | 3 |
| Coventry | 2 |
| Cumbria | 3 |
| Derbyshire | 2 |
| Devon | 3 |
| Dewsbury | 3 |
| Doncaster | 2 |
| Dorset | 1 |
| Dudley | 2 |
| Epsom | 1 |
| Essex | 1 |
| Evesham | 3 |
| Exeter | 2 |
| Fareham | 1 |
| Farnham | 1 |
| Gloucester | 2 |
| Grimsby | 3 |
| Guildford | 1 |
| Halifax | 3 |
| Hampshire | 1 |
| Harlow | 1 |
| Harrogate | 2 |
| Hereford | 3 |
| Hertford | 2 |
| Hitchin | 2 |
| Huddersfield | 3 |
| Hull (City) | 2 |
| Hull Outer | 3 |
| Isle of Wight | 1 |
| Keighley | 3 |
| Kidderminster | 3 |
| Kingston | 1 |
| Lancaster | 3 |
| Leeds Inner (within 2km of City Art Gallery) | 1 |
| Leeds Outer | 2 |
| Leicester | 3 |
| Leigh | 2 |
| Lewes | 1 |
| Lincoln | 2 |
| Liverpool | 1 |
| Lowestoft | 2 |
| Ludlow | 3 |
| Luton | 2 |
| Maidstone | 1 |
| Manchester Central | 1 |
| Manchester Outer | 2 |
| Medway | 1 |
| Nelson | 3 |
| Newcastle - City Centre (within 2m of St Nicholas Cathedral) | 1 |
| Newcastle (other than City Centre) | 2 |
| Newport | 2 |
| Norfolk | 2 |
| Northampton | 3 |
| Norwich City | 1 |
| Nottingham | 2 |
| Nottingham City | 1 |
| Nuneaton | 2 |
| Oldham | 2 |
| Oswestry | 3 |
| Oxford | 1 |
| Peterborough | 2 |
| Plymouth | 2 |
| Pontefract | 2 |
| Poole | 1 |
| Portsmouth | 1 |
| Preston | 3 |
| Rawenstall | 3 |
| Redditch | 3 |
| Reigate | 1 |
| Ripon | 3 |
| Rugby | 2 |
| St Albans | 2 |
| St Helens | 2 |
| Salford | 2 |
| Scarborough | 3 |
| Sheffield | 2 |
| Shrewsbury | 3 |
| Skegness | 3 |
| Skipton | 3 |
| South Yorkshire | 2 |
| Southampton | 1 |
| Southport | 2 |
| Stafford | 3 |
| Stockport | 2 |
| Stoke | 3 |
| Stourbridge | 2 |
| Stratford | 2 |
| Suffolk, East | 1 |
| Swansea | 2 |
| Swindon | 1 |
| Tameside | 2 |
| Tamworth | 3 |
| Taunton | 2 |
| Teesside | 3 |
| Telford | 3 |
| Thames Valley | 1 |
| Tunbridge Wells | 1 |
| Wakefield | 2 |
| Wales, North | 2 |
| Wales, South | 3 |
| Wales, West | 3 |
| Walsall | 2 |
| Warwick | 2 |
| Watford | 1 |
| Wigan | 2 |
| Wiltshire | 1 |
| Winchester | 1 |
| Wolverhampton | 2 |
| Worcester | 3 |
| Yeovil | 2 |
| York | 2 |
Published 19 April 2010