Guideline Hourly Rates & Maximising Costs Recovery - The Key Issues

Introduction

Guideline Hourly Rates (‘GHRs’) are a cornerstone of civil costs in England and Wales. Following the significant 2021 update, the GHRs have seen further crucial inflationary uplifts in both January 2024 and, most recently, from January 2025. With the path set now for annual reviews, understanding the current rates, their practical application, and the courts' evolving expectations is more critical than ever.

This webinar will delve into the background of these successive updates, how the latest rates have been determined, and the key issues practitioners face, including judicial expectations on adherence and justifying appropriate rates in an environment of consistent GHR adjustments.

This webinar will also focus on how you should calculate your retainer rates for your client, whether in contentious or non-contentious matters, and provide strategies for justifying hourly rates between parties in light of the current GHR regime.

What You Will Learn

This webinar will cover the following:

• Navigating the Latest GHR Landscape - An overview of the Civil Justice Council’s ongoing work and methodology (including linkage to the Services Producer Price Index) and the resulting annual updates
• Application of Current and Past Rates - Understanding how the courts are applying the latest GHRs, the implications of successive annual uplifts, and how to address work conducted under previous GHR versions
• Setting and Justifying Retainer Rates - Practical guidance on how retainer hourly rates should be calculated in both contentious and non-contentious matters in 2025
• Defending Your Rates - Strategies for robustly justifying your hourly rates when challenged, particularly in the context of the courts' expectation of adherence to the updated GHRs
• Recent Judicial Approaches - An examination of the latest judicial attitudes and any notable case discussions concerning the application of GHRs, departures from them, and the impact of the recent inflationary increases
• Future GHR Developments - A brief look at potential future considerations by the Civil Justice Council, such as specific rates for counsel or complex commercial work
• Top Tips for Hourly Rate Management and Profitability - Practical advice for effective hourly rate management to ensure profitability in the current costs climate

This pre-recorded webinar will be available to view from Thursday 20th November 2025

Alternatively, you can gain access to this webinar and 1,800+ others via the MBL Webinar Subscription. Please email webinarsubscription@mblseminars.com for more details.