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Solicitors Charging Rates in Civil Assessments in Wales

	Grade 1 or A £/hour	Grade 2 or B £/hour	Grade 3 or C £/hour	Grade 4 or D £/hour
From 1 January 2005
Cardiff inner	184	163	137	100
Outer Cardiff, Swansea & Newport	173	152	126	95
All other parts of South & West Wales	158	142	121	90
From 1 November 2004
Chester & North Wales	165-175	145-155	125-130	90-100
From 6 April 2003
Chester & North Wales	150-165	135-145	115-120	85-90
From 1 January 2003
Cardiff inner	175	155	130	95
Outer Cardiff, Swansea & Newport	165	145	120	90
South Wales	150	135	115	85
From 11 May 2001
Cardiff inner	155	145	120	85
Outer Cardiff & South Wales	135	125	115	80
Chester & North Wales	110-140	86-108	55-97.5	N/A
From 1 January 2001
Cardiff inner	145	145	120	85
Outer Cardiff & South Wales	125	125	115	80
From 1 January 2000
Swansea	125	115	80	N/A
From 26 April 1999
Cardiff inner	110-140	110-140	75-110	55-75
Swansea	120	108	75	N/A
Wales & Chester Circuit except inner Cardiff & Swansea	110-140	86-108	55-97.5	N/A

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Breakdown of Grades/Bands

There are four grades of fee earners now shown as bands A to D which may previously have been identified as either grade or scale 1 to 4.

Breakdown from 11 May 2001

Band A Solicitors with over 8 years post-qualification experience including litigation experience.
Band B Solicitors and legal executives with over 4 years post-qualification experience including at least 4 years litigation experience.
Band C Other solicitors, legal executives and fee earners of equivalent experience.
Band D Trainee solicitors, paralegals and fee earners of equivalent experience.

Breakdown up to 11 May 2001

Band A Partners and solicitors with over 4 years post-qualification experience.
Band B Solicitors with up to 4 years post-qualification experience and senior legal executives.
Band C Legal executives and senior paralegals.
Band D Trainee solicitors and junior paralegals.

"Legal Executive" means a Fellow of the Institute of Legal Executives.  Those who are not fellows of the institute are not entitled to call themselves legal executives and in principle are therefore not entitled to the same hourly rate as a legal executive.

Unqualified clerks who are fee earners of equivalent experience may be entitled to similar rates and in this regard it should be borne in mind that fellows of the institute of legal executives generally spend two years in a solicitor's office before passing their part 1 general examinations, spend a further two years before passing their part 2 specialist examinations and then complete a further two years in practice before being able to become fellows.  Fellows have therefore acquired considerable practical and academic experience.  Clerks without the equivalent experience of legal executives will be treated as being in the bottom grade of fee earner i.e. trainee solicitors and fee earners of equivalent experience.  Whether or not a fee earner has equivalent experience is ultimately a matter for the discretion of the court.

Many High Court cases justify fee earners at a senior level.  However the same may not be true of attendance at pre-trial hearing with counsel.  The task of siting behind counsel should be delegated to a more junior fee earner in all but the most important pre-trial hearings.  As with hourly rates the costs estimate supplied by the paying party may be of assistance.  What grade of fee earner did they use.

In some proceedings solicitors appear as advocates more frequently than they used to.  It must be borne in mind that, especially in substantial hearings, it may be more economical if the advocacy is conducted by counsel rather than a solicitor.  In all cases the court should consider whether the decision whether or not to instruct counsel has led to an increase in costs and whether that increase is justifiable.