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23 January 2026 / Stephen Gold
Issue: 8146 / Categories: Features , Procedure & practice , Civil way , Family , Landlord&tenant
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Civil way: 23 January 2026

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Costs rates UP; company fees UP; FPR Diary; Rental Rights—and Wrongs; catching up with CAT; don’t mention the (non) MOL.

LAWBITES

Happy New Guidelines Solicitors’ guideline rates for summary assessments have gone up by 2.28% from 1 January 2026. This is an inflationary increase by reference to service producer price inflation figures, and so nothing to do with the cost of a retail dover sole, and down from the 3.65% we saw one year ago (see ‘Civil way’, 175 NLJ 8100, p15). Retainers should be revised if this latest increase is to be enjoyed. A grade-A London fee earner feasting on very heavy commercial or corporate work now has an hourly guideline rate of £579. A grade-D trainee solicitor in Merthyr Tydfil (which I gather has not yet been reached by the American firms) is guided at £142.

How low can you go? The last Bank of England base rate drop has led to an inevitable reduction in the Court Funds Office’s special

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

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Sidley—James Inness

Sidley—James Inness

Partner joins capital markets team in London office

Haynes Boone—William Cecil

Haynes Boone—William Cecil

Firm announces appointment of partner as UK general counsel

Devonshires—Nicholas Barrows

Devonshires—Nicholas Barrows

Firm appoints first chief marketing officer to drive growth strategy

NEWS
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NLJ this week: CPR tweak closes third-party disclosure gap
A seemingly dry procedural update may prove potent. In his latest 'Civil way' column for NLJ this week, Stephen Gold explains that new CPR 31.12A—part of the 193rd update—fills a ‘lacuna’ exposed in McLaren Indy v Alpa Racing
NLJ this week: Court of Appeals wrestles with Mazur fallout
The long-running Mazur saga edged towards its finale as the Court of Appeal heard arguments on whether non-solicitors can ‘conduct litigation’. Writing in NLJ this week, Professor Dominic Regan of City Law School reports from a packed courtroom where 16 wigs watched Nick Bacon KC argue that Mr Justice Sheldon had failed to distinguish between ‘tasks and responsibilities’
NLJ this week: Appeal court reins in ‘wrong defendant’ switcheroo

The Court of Appeal has slammed the brakes on claimants trying to swap defendants after limitation has expired. In Adcamp LLP v Office Properties and BDB Pitmans v Lee [2026] EWCA Civ 50, it overturned High Court rulings that had allowed substitutions under s 35(6)(b) of the Limitation Act 1980, reports Sarah Crowther of DAC Beachcroft in this week's NLJ

NLJ this week: Driving test fraudsters steer towards jail
Cheating in driving tests is surging—and courts are responding firmly. Writing in NLJ this week, Neil Parpworth of De Montfort Law School charts a rise in impersonation and tech-assisted fraud, with 2,844 attempts recorded in a year
NLJ this week: Deepfakes demand data law muscle
As AI-generated ‘deepfake’ images proliferate, the law may already have the tools to respond. In NLJ this week, Jon Belcher of Excello Law argues that such images amount to personal data processing under UK GDPR
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