Form N260 Statement of Costs: Deadlines, Rates, and Certificate

To complete Form N260, the Statement of Costs used for summary assessment in the courts of England and Wales, you list every fee earner with their grade and hourly rate, record time by work category, itemize disbursements, apply VAT correctly, and sign the certificate — then file and serve it on the other side before the deadline. The judge uses the form to fix your costs at the hearing itself, so accuracy and timing decide whether you get paid what you claim.

When You Use Form N260

Form N260 is required for summary assessment, which happens in two situations: at the end of a fast-track trial, and at the end of any other hearing that lasted no more than one day, such as an interim application for an injunction, a strike-out, or summary judgment.¹ Practice Direction 44 paragraph 9.5(3) requires the statement to follow Form N260 as closely as possible.² If your hearing does not fit either category, the costs will go to detailed assessment instead and a different process applies.

Which Version to Use

There are three variants. N260 is the standard template. N260A and N260B are electronic Excel spreadsheet versions, with N260A used for interim application costs and N260B used for trial costs. N260B breaks work down by phase, which matters for budgeted multi-track cases because the judge can compare your actual spending against the last approved costs management order.³

Since 14 April 2026, courts within the Rolls Building — the Chancery Division, Technology and Construction Court, Commercial Court, and London Circuit Commercial Court — require parties to file and serve the electronic Excel version of N260A or N260B in addition to any PDF or paper copy.⁴ The spreadsheet format lets the judge adjust figures on screen and see totals recalculate. Templates for all three variants are available on GOV.UK.

Filing and Serving Deadlines

Practice Direction 44 paragraph 9.5(4) sets two rules:²

For fast-track trials, file at court and serve on the opposing party not less than 2 days before the trial date.
For all other hearings, file and serve not less than 24 hours before the hearing starts.

You must do both — file at the court office and serve on the other side — within the same window. If you miss the deadline without a reasonable excuse, paragraph 9.6 of Practice Direction 44 tells the court to factor that failure into its costs decision. Sanctions range from a reduction in the costs you would otherwise have been awarded to no costs order at all.¹ A late N260 can also push the case into detailed assessment, which is slower and more expensive.

Filling In the Form

Fee Earners and Hourly Rates

List every person who worked on the case. For each, record their name, professional grade, and the hourly rate claimed. The four grades on the form are:⁵

Grade A: solicitors and legal executives with over eight years’ post-qualification experience, including at least eight years of litigation experience.
Grade B: solicitors and legal executives with over four years’ post-qualification experience, including at least four years of litigation experience.
Grade C: other solicitors, legal executives, and fee earners of equivalent experience.
Grade D: trainee solicitors, paralegals, and other fee earners.

Rates should reflect the Guideline Hourly Rates published by the judiciary and updated annually. The 2026 rates took effect on 1 January 2026 and represent a 2.28% increase over 2025.⁶ Claiming above the guideline rate is not automatically fatal, but you need a real justification: specialist expertise, unusual complexity, or extra work generated by the opponent’s conduct. Claiming well above guideline with no explanation is one of the fastest ways to lose money at assessment.

Time by Work Category

The form separates time into the main types of solicitor work:

Attendances on the client: meetings, phone calls, and conferences with the client about the case.
Attendances on the opponent: correspondence and calls with the other side’s lawyers, including settlement discussions.
Attendance on others: communications with the court, witnesses, experts, or any third party.
Work on documents: drafting, reviewing, and amending pleadings, witness statements, skeleton arguments, and evidence bundles.
Attendance at the hearing: time the fee earner spent at court on the day.

Record time for each fee earner in each category, then calculate the cost by multiplying hours by rate. Solicitors typically record time in six-minute units, and the N260 should reflect that precision. Round figures invite scepticism. A short narrative alongside a large time entry is not required by the form but helps the judge assess reasonableness quickly.

Disbursements

Disbursements are out-of-pocket expenses paid to third parties on behalf of the client: court issue fees, counsel’s fees, expert report fees, travel, copying. Court filing fees alone can run from £35 for claims up to £300 to £10,000 for claims over £200,000.⁷ List each disbursement separately with its amount and a short description. Counsel’s fees go in this section with counsel’s name and the fee agreed, not inside the solicitor’s time.

If the case involves a Conditional Fee Agreement, do not include a success fee when the summary assessment is for an interim hearing. The Guide to the Summary Assessment of Costs states that the client is liable for base costs on winning the application, but the success fee only crystallises at the end of the case.¹

VAT

VAT treatment depends on the client’s VAT status. A VAT-registered client recovers VAT on legal fees through their own VAT returns, so the N260 should not include it. A client who is not VAT-registered bears the VAT as a real cost and it must go on the form. For a partially exempt client, include only the portion of VAT they cannot recover from HMRC.⁸ Getting this wrong in either direction is costly: claiming recoverable VAT inflates the figure and invites challenge, while omitting irrecoverable VAT leaves money on the table.

The Signed Certificate

The certificate at the foot of the form must be signed by a solicitor or partner. It confirms two things: that the costs claimed do not exceed what the client is actually liable to pay for the work covered, and that counsel’s fees and other disbursements have been incurred in the amounts stated.⁵ The signature is a professional representation to the court, and overstating figures on a signed certificate carries regulatory consequences beyond the individual case.

2026 Guideline Hourly Rates

The 2026 rates by grade and location band are set out below. They are guidelines rather than caps, but in a summary assessment most judges treat them as the starting point and expect justification for any departure.⁶

Grade A: London 1 £579; London 2 £422; London 3 £319; National 1 £295; National 2 £288.
Grade B: London 1 £393; London 2 £327; London 3 £262; National 1 £247; National 2 £247.
Grade C: London 1 £305; London 2 £276; London 3 £209; National 1 £201; National 2 £200.
Grade D: London 1 £210; London 2 £157; London 3 £146; National 1 £142; National 2 £142.

Claiming London rates for a case with no London connection is a familiar trap. The Guide to the Summary Assessment of Costs states that in such cases the court will only allow the rates that would have applied where the work should have been done.¹

How the Judge Will Read Your N260

The judge fixes the amount at the hearing, working through the form while hearing brief argument from both sides. On the standard basis, CPR 44.3(2) allows only costs that are proportionate and reasonably incurred, with doubt resolved against the party claiming. Under CPR 44.3(5), costs are proportionate if they bear a reasonable relationship to:⁹

The sums in issue in the proceedings.
The value of any non-monetary relief at stake.
The complexity of the litigation.
Any additional work generated by the paying party’s conduct.
Wider factors such as reputation or public importance.
Any vulnerability of a party or witness that required additional work or expense.

What Commonly Gets Cut

Certain entries attract reductions almost every time, and knowing them before you finalize the form saves argument at the hearing.¹ Large claims for “perusing papers” usually signal a new fee earner reading into the case, and reading-in time is not normally recoverable from the opponent. Sending two solicitors to a hearing when one would have done will be cut; the second is treated as training. Time spent by the solicitor developing legal arguments that duplicate counsel’s work is disallowed or allowed only at counsel’s lower rate. And London rates on a non-London case, as noted, will not survive.

1
Judiciary. Guide to the Summary Assessment of Costs
2
Justice UK. Practice Direction 44 – General Rules About Costs
3
West Lakes Legal Costs. Guide to Summary Assessment of Costs: Which Statement of Costs to Use N260, N260A or N260B?
4
Courts and Tribunals Judiciary. Practice Note from the Chancellor of the High Court: Summary Assessments
5
Family Law. N260 Statement of Costs
6
Courts and Tribunals Judiciary. Guideline Hourly Rates 2026
7
GOV.UK. Make a Court Claim for Money: Court Fees
8
LexisNexis. When Can You Add VAT on a Statement of Costs (N260) Lodged at Court?
9
Justice UK. Part 44 – General Rules About Costs