2008 Guideline Hourly Rates

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BAND ONE

Aldershot, Farnham, Bournemouth (including Poole)
Birmingham Inner
Bristol
Cambridge City, Harlow
Canterbury, Maidstone, Medway & Tunbridge Wells
Cardiff (Inner)
Chelmsford South, Essex & East Suffolk
Chester
Fareham, Winchester
Hampshire, Dorset, Wiltshire, Isle of Wight
Kingston, Guildford, Reigate, Epsom
Leeds Inner (within 2km radius of the City Art Gallery)
Lewes
Liverpool, Birkenhead
Manchester Central
Newcastle – City Centre (within a two-mile radius of St Nicholas Cathedral)
Norwich City
Nottingham City
Oxford, Thames Valley
Southampton, Portsmouth
Swindon, Basingstoke
Watford

BAND TWO

Bath, Cheltenham and Gloucester, Taunton, Yeovil
Bury
Chelmsford North, Cambridge County, Peterborough,
Bury St E, Norfolk, Lowestoft
Cheshire & North Wales
Coventry, Rugby, Nuneaton, Stratford and 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 and South Yorkshire
Southport
St Helens
Stockport, Altrincham, Salford
Swansea, Newport, Cardiff (Outer)
Wigan
Wolverhampton, Walsall, Dudley & Stourbridge
York, Harrogate

BAND THREE

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,
Rawtenstall & Nelson
Scarborough & Ripon
Stafford, Stoke, Tamworth
Teesside
Worcester, Hereford, Evesham and Redditch
Shrewsbury, Telford,
Ludlow, Oswestry
South & West Wales

LONDON BANDS

City of London: EC1, EC2, EC3, EC4

Central London: W1, WC1, WC2, SW1

Outer London: (All other London post codes: W, NW, N, E, SE, SW and Bromley, Croydon, Dartford, Gravesend and Uxbridge)

There are four grades of fee-earner:

• A Solicitors with more than eight years’ post-qualification experience, including at least eight years’ litigation experience.
• B Solicitors and legal executives with more than four years’ post-qualification experience, including at least four 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.

Note: ‘legal executive’ means a Fellow of the Institute of Legal Executives.

** An hourly rate in excess of the guideline figures 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 as well as any international element would justify a significantly higher rate to reflect higher average costs.