The Solicitors’ Guideline Hourly Rates (GHR) have been formally updated with effect from January 2026, marking the latest annual revision to the figures used by courts when assessing legal costs in England and Wales.

The updated rates apply across all regions and fee earner grades and will be relevant to solicitors, costs professionals, and litigants involved in both summary assessment and detailed assessment proceedings. While the figures themselves remain guidelines rather than fixed limits, they continue to play a central role in costs recovery and judicial assessment proceedings.

What are the guideline hourly rates?

The solicitors guideline hourly rates are issued by the Senior Courts Costs Office and are intended to provide a consistent starting point for courts when assessing whether the hourly rates claimed by solicitors are reasonable.

They are most commonly applied at summary assessment, but they are also relied upon during detailed assessment and increasingly inform costs budgeting decisions earlier in proceedings. Although they are not binding, parties seeking to recover rates above the guidelines must justify why work undertaken merits a higher level of remuneration.

January 2026 update – What has changed?

The January 2026 update represents a further annual uplift following the increases applied to the 2025 rates. This uplift from the 2025 figures reflects inflationary pressures within the professional services sector and ensures the guidelines remain aligned with market conditions.

Rather than being updated sporadically, the guideline hourly rates are now reviewed annually under a structured methodology introduced following a wider review by the Civil Justice Council. That review concluded that regular, evidence-based updates were necessary to maintain confidence in the guidelines and avoid them becoming outdated.

How the rates are calculated

The process to update guideline hourly rates is now linked to the Service Producer Price Inflation (SPPI) index. SPPI measures inflation specific to professional services, making it a more accurate benchmark than general consumer inflation when assessing legal fees.

Using SPPI data, an uplift was applied to the 2025 rates, and a further adjustment has now taken effect from January 2026. This mechanism is designed to ensure that increases are transparent and grounded in economic data rather than discretionary changes.

Oversight of the process sits with the Master of the Rolls, who is also Head of Civil Justice. The current Master of the Rolls, Sir Geoffrey Vos, has responsibility for ensuring that the guideline figures strike an appropriate balance between fairness to paying parties and the realities faced by legal practitioners.

Fee earner grades remain unchanged

While the monetary figures have increased, the structure of the guidelines remains the same. The rates continue to be divided by both geography and the experience level of fee earners, recognising that different levels of seniority attract different charging rates.

The four established grades remain:

• Grades A – Solicitors and legal executives with over eight years’ post-qualification experience
• Grade B – Solicitors and legal executives with over four years’ experience
• Grade C – Other solicitors, legal executives, or equivalent fee earners
• Grade D – Trainee solicitors, paralegals, and junior staff

Courts will continue to consider not only the rate claimed, but also whether the appropriate grade of fee earner was used for the task in question.

Why the update matters

The updated guideline hourly rates are likely to influence a wide range of costs decisions over the coming year. For receiving parties, the new figures provide a revised benchmark when preparing bills of costs and negotiating settlement. For paying parties, they offer a clearer basis for assessing exposure and challenging excessive claims.

Importantly, while courts may allow departures from the guidelines in appropriate cases – such as where there is exceptional complexity or specialist expertise – the guideline rates remain the reference point against which any enhancement is measured.

As a result, understanding the hourly rates 2026 is essential for anyone involved in civil litigation, whether at the budgeting stage, during negotiations, or at assessment.

How ARC Costs can assist

ARC Costs often handle negotiations during detailed assessment proceedings, and deal with disputes between parties in relation to the hourly rates being charged as part of any costs recovery.

Please note that the current SCCO Guideline Hourly Rates 2026 remain guidelines only. A number of factors can be taken into account to allow for a higher rate to be claimed in costs, such the expertise of a solicitor and the complexity of the case.

The issues of the hourly rates claimed in costs can be dealt with through Points of Dispute and Replies, with oral submissions sometimes being required at summary assessment and detailed assessment where a decision on the reasonableness of the rates claimed will be made by the costs judge.

As independent experts, we can also represent Paying Parties in opposing deviation from the SCCO guidelines rates, so as to minimise a client’s exposure to excessive or unreasonable legal costs.

To discuss your costs query further, please contact us on 01204 397302 or email on of the team at info@arccosts.co.uk. Alternatively, you may complete our online enquiry form and we will contact you to discuss you query further.

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