Guideline Hourly Rates & Maximising Costs Recovery - A Best Practice Guide

Introduction

Every hourly rate you set, agree and recover is money won or written off. The goalposts now move every January. Guideline Hourly Rates (‘GHRs’) are the cornerstone of civil costs in England and Wales but they are no longer the static figures that stood untouched between 2010 and 2021.

Following the landmark 2021 overhaul, the rates have been uplifted for inflation every year since, 6.66% in January 2024, 3.65% in January 2025 and a further 2.28% from January 2026, each rise linked to the Services Producer Price Index. Whether your work is litigation, family, commercial, property or private client, the rate you choose and your ability to defend it is the single biggest driver of what you actually recover, both from your own client and from a paying party.

This is also a pivotal moment to get ahead of what is coming. The Master of the Rolls has confirmed that a Civil Justice Council working group is now examining guideline rates for counsel’s fees and a brand-new top band for complex, high-value commercial work, with an interim report expected during 2026 and a detailed five-yearly review of the rates themselves on the horizon. Against that backdrop, the courts’ expectations on adherence have hardened and the line between summary and detailed assessment has rarely mattered more.

This webinar cuts through it all: how the latest rates were arrived at, how to calculate and justify your retainer rates in both contentious and non-contentious work, how to defend your rates robustly when challenged and what every practitioner should be doing now to protect profitability before the next wave of change lands.

What You Will Learn

This webinar will cover the following:

• The 2026 landscape and the new annual regime
• Where the guidelines actually bite - summary v detailed assessment
• Setting and justifying your retainer rates
• Defending your rates when challenged
• The latest judicial approaches - across all practice areas
• What’s coming next - counsel’s fees and a new top band
• Top tips for rate management, recovery and profitability

This pre-recorded webinar will be available to view from Monday 1st February 2027

Alternatively, you can gain access to this webinar and 2,400+ others via the MBL Webinar Subscription. Please email webinarsubscription@mblseminars.com for more details.