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.

Applies to England and Wales

Guideline hourly rates

Grade Fee earner London 1 London 2 London 3 National 1 National 2
A Solicitors and legal executives with over 8 years’ experience £546 £398 £301 £278 £272
B Solicitors and legal executives with over 4 years’ experience £371 £308 £247 £233 £233
C Other solicitors or legal executives and fee earners of equivalent experience £288 £260 £197 £190 £189
D Trainee solicitors, paralegals and other fee earners £198 £148 £138 £134 £134

These are the guideline rates in effect from 1 January 2024. You can find the previous guideline rates that were in effect from 1 October 2021 to 31 December 2023.

London bands

London band Area Postcodes
London 1 Very heavy commercial and corporate work by centrally based London firms Not restricted to any particular London postcode
London 2 City and Central London EC1 to 4, W1, WC1, WC2 and SW1
London 3 Outer London All other London boroughs, plus Dartford and Gravesend

National band 1

Covers the following areas:

The counties of:

  • Berkshire
  • Buckinghamshire
  • Dorset
  • Essex
  • Hampshire (and Isle of Wight)
  • Kent
  • Middlesex
  • Oxfordshire
  • Suffolk
  • Surrey
  • Sussex
  • Wiltshire

Plus:

  • Birkenhead
  • Birmingham (Inner)
  • Bristol
  • Cambridge City
  • Cardiff (Inner)
  • Leeds (Inner) (within 2km of City Art Gallery)
  • Liverpool
  • Manchester (Central)
  • Newcastle City (within 2m of St Nicholas Cathedral)
  • Norwich City
  • Nottingham City
  • Watford

National band 2

All places not included in London 1 to 3 and National 1

National grades: A to Z by area

Area Grade
Aberystwyth 2
Accrington 2
Aldershot 1
Altrincham 2
Amersham 1
Ashford 1
Aylesbury 1
Banbury 1
Barnsley 2
Barnstaple 2
Barrow-in-Furness 2
Basildon 1
Basingstoke 1
Bath 2
Bedford 2
Bedlington 2
Berwick-upon-Tweed 2
Beverley 2
Birkenhead 1
Birmingham Inner 1
Birmingham Outer 2
Blackburn 2
Blackpool 2
Blackwood 2
Bodmin 2
Bolton 2
Bootle 2
Boston 2
Bournemouth 1
Bradford 2
Bridlington 2
Brighton 1
Bristol 1
Burnley 2
Bury 2
Bury St Edmunds 1
Caenarfon 2
Cambridge City 1
Cambridgeshire 2
Cannock 2
Canterbury 1
Cardiff (Inner) 1
Cardiff (Outer) 2
Carlisle 2
Carmarthen 2
Chelmsford 1
Cheltenham 2
Chester 2
Chesterfield 2
Chorley 2
Colchester 1
Cornwall 2
Coventry 2
Crawley 1
Crewe 2
Cumbria 2
Cwmbran 2
Darlington 2
Derbyshire 2
Devon 2
Dewsbury 2
Doncaster 2
Dorset 1
Dudley 2
Durham 2
Epsom 1
Essex 1
Evesham 2
Exeter 2
Fareham 1
Farnham 1
Fleetwood 2
Folkestone 1
Gateshead 2
Gloucester 2
Great Yarmouth 2
Grimsby 2
Guildford 1
Halifax 2
Hampshire 1
Harlow 1
Harrogate 2
Hastings 1
Hatfield 2
Havant 1
Haverfordwest 2
Hereford 2
Hertford 2
High Wycombe 1
Hitchin 2
Horsham 1
Hove 1
Huddersfield 2
Hull 2
Huntingdon 2
Ipswich 1
Isle of Wight 1
Isles of Scilly 2
Keighley 2
Kidderminster 2
Kings Lynn 2
Lancaster 2
Leamington Spa 2
Leeds (Inner) - within 2km of City Art Gallery 1
Leeds (Outer) 2
Leicester 2
Leigh 2
Lewes 1
Leyland 2
Lincoln 2
Liverpool 1
Llandrindod Wells 2
Llandudno 2
Llanelli 2
Loughborough 2
Lowestoft 1
Ludlow 2
Luton 2
Maidenhead 1
Maidstone 1
Manchester (Central) 1
Manchester (Outer) 2
Mansfield 2
Medway 1
Merthyr Tydfil 2
Milton Keynes 1
Mold 2
Nelson 2
Newcastle - City Centre (within 2m of St Nicholas Cathedral) 1
Newcastle (other than City Centre) 2
Newcastle under Lyme 2
Newport 2
Newton Abbot 2
Newton Aycliffe 2
Norfolk 2
North Shields 2
Northallerton 2
Northampton 2
Norwich City 1
Nottingham City 1
Nottinghamshire 2
Nuneaton 2
Oldham 2
Oswestry 2
Oxford 1
Peterborough 2
Peterlee 2
Plymouth 2
Pontefract 2
Pontypridd 2
Poole 1
Port Talbot 2
Portsmouth 1
Prestatyn 2
Preston 2
Rawenstall 2
Reading 1
Redditch 2
Reedley 2
Reigate 1
Ripon 2
Rochdale 2
Rugby 2
Salford 2
Salisbury 1
Scarborough 2
Sevenoaks 1
Sheffield 2
Shrewsbury 2
Skegness 2
Skipton 2
Slough 1
South Shields 2
South Yorkshire 2
Southampton 1
Southend 1
Southport 2
St Albans 2
St Helens 2
Stafford 2
Staines 1
Stevenage 2
Stockport 2
Stoke 2
Stourbridge 2
Stratford-upon-Avon 2
Suffolk 1
Sunderland 2
Swansea 2
Swindon 1
Tameside 2
Tamworth 2
Taunton 2
Teesside 2
Telford 2
Thanet 1
Torquay 2
Truro 2
Tunbridge Wells 1
Wakefield 2
Wales (North) 2
Wales (South) 2
Wales (West) 2
Walsall 2
Warrington 2
Warwick 2
Watford 1
Wellingborough 2
Welshpool 2
Weston-super-Mare 2
Weymouth 1
Wigan 2
Wiltshire 1
Winchester 1
Wolverhampton 2
Worcester 2
Worthing 1
Wrexham 2
Yarl’s Wood 2
Yeovil 2
York 2

Updates to this page

Published 19 April 2010
Last updated 4 January 2024 + show all updates
  1. Added the date that the new guideline rates came into effect, and added a link to the previous guideline rates.

  2. Updated the guideline hourly rates that come into affect from 1 January 2024.

  3. Updated the guideline hourly rates.

  4. First published.

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