Fees

When does a solicitor’s retainer become a contentious business agreement? The Court of Appeal’s decision in Broadfield Law UK LLP v Barnes shows that listing hourly rates alone will not do, leaving firms and clients uncertain about their rights over bills

Tiered fees of up to £1,500 for Legal Ombudsman (LeO) cases could leave firms with little option but to pay out, lawyers have warned

Ministers have launched a consultation on a potential 10% rise in Crown Court advocacy defence fees

Dominic Regan laments a relic of a bygone age of billing & dips into the shark-infested waters of claims management companies

The civil justice landscape could be heading for a shake-up, with reform of the Solicitors Act 1974 gathering pace

John Gould examines whether the current regime for solicitor-client fee disputes has outlived its purpose

The Civil Justice Council’s review of Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974 could mark the end of what one commentator calls an ‘outdated’ and overly technical regime governing solicitor-client fee disputes

Individual solicitors will see their combined practising certificate fee and compensation fund contribution hiked by more than a third, under Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) plans

A government commitment to increase legal aid fees for criminal barristers has still not been implemented five months after being announced in December 2025

The long-predicted death of the billable hour may finally be here—and this time, it’s armed with a scythe. In a sweeping critique of time-based billing, Ian McDougall, president of the LexisNexis Rule of Law Foundation, argues in this week's NLJ that artificial intelligence has made hourly charging ‘intellectually, commercially and ethically indefensible’