In January 2021, the Civil Justice Council (CJC) published its consultation on Guideline Hourly Rates (GHR). The raison d’etre for GHR is to give the inexperienced judge a benchmark for assessing the reasonableness of hourly rates claimed by lawyers in civil and commercial claims, without the GHR being a substitute for the proper exercise of judicial discretion.
As lawyers calculate their fees by applying hourly rates to time claimed, the GHR heavily influence the amount of legal costs recoverable by law firms in England and Wales in successful claims brought against the NHS, local and central government (ie, ultimately the taxpayer), insurers, compensators, and private litigants.
For instance, the proposed new GHR would increase the NHS’s annual spend on legal costs by tens of millions of pounds; over a ten-year period, NHS spend would increase by hundreds of millions of pounds.
Last but not least, there is a new elephant in the room–consumer protection. Post LASPO, a claimant’s own law firm can
