New GHRs rejected

Lord Dyson, Master of the Rolls, has rejected recommendations for new guideline hourly rates (GHRs) due to a lack of supporting evidence.

The recommendations are the result of 12 months’ consultation with the profession by the Civil Justice Council’s costs committee. The rates provide a guideline to judges of market rates for legal work.

However, Lord Dyson did accept the committee’s recommendations that the fees of costs lawyers and CILEx members and fellows should be upgraded to similar levels to those of solicitors.

Lord Dyson said: “A relatively small non-randomised survey cannot be a secure basis for determining what it costs solicitors to run their practices. This shortcoming in the evidence is fundamental.”

He acknowledged that the committee could not compel the profession to respond to its survey and so got a poor response, and that the Jackson reforms make the future difficult to predict as the reforms may drive the GHRs down further.

Consequently, there will be no change to the existing rates. Lord Dyson has sent the committee back to the drawing board but recommended they ask the Law Society and the government to provide resources for proper research to be carried out.

NLJ consultant editor David Greene, a partner at Edwin Coe and a member of the costs committee, says: “The conclusions of the Master of the Rolls are a sensible approach to what would have been some dramatic changes.

“The profession may well have been surprised that rates last reviewed over four years ago were being reduced. The time has not however been wasted. Many lessons have been learned and hopefully we can move on to a proper evidence based survey.”