diff --git a/solr/CHANGES.txt b/solr/CHANGES.txt
index 69f764bb4e4..896b1435c30 100644
--- a/solr/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/solr/CHANGES.txt
@@ -556,6 +556,8 @@ Other Changes
 * SOLR-8566: various initialCapacity tweaks (Fix Versions: trunk 5.5)
   (Christine Poerschke)
 
+* SOLR-8565: add & use CommonParams.(ROWS|START)_DEFAULT constants (Christine Poerschke)
+
 ==================  5.4.1 ==================
 
 Bug Fixes
diff --git a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/handler/MoreLikeThisHandler.java b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/handler/MoreLikeThisHandler.java
index 5c9d930acda..9040a26887f 100644
--- a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/handler/MoreLikeThisHandler.java
+++ b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/handler/MoreLikeThisHandler.java
@@ -166,8 +166,8 @@ public class MoreLikeThisHandler extends RequestHandlerBase
             }
           }
 
-          int start = params.getInt(CommonParams.START, 0);
-          int rows = params.getInt(CommonParams.ROWS, 10);
+          int start = params.getInt(CommonParams.START, CommonParams.START_DEFAULT);
+          int rows = params.getInt(CommonParams.ROWS, CommonParams.ROWS_DEFAULT);
 
           // Find documents MoreLikeThis - either with a reader or a query
           // --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
diff --git a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/search/QParser.java b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/search/QParser.java
index 0df1c84b17d..85bd2f05e1d 100644
--- a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/search/QParser.java
+++ b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/search/QParser.java
@@ -241,8 +241,8 @@ public abstract class QParser {
       }
     }
 
-    int start = startS != null ? Integer.parseInt(startS) : 0;
-    int rows = rowsS != null ? Integer.parseInt(rowsS) : 10;
+    int start = startS != null ? Integer.parseInt(startS) : CommonParams.START_DEFAULT;
+    int rows = rowsS != null ? Integer.parseInt(rowsS) : CommonParams.ROWS_DEFAULT;
 
     SortSpec sort = SortSpecParsing.parseSortSpec(sortStr, req);
 
diff --git a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/search/ReRankQParserPlugin.java b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/search/ReRankQParserPlugin.java
index 8c8cd29f525..046d28b7d36 100644
--- a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/search/ReRankQParserPlugin.java
+++ b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/search/ReRankQParserPlugin.java
@@ -90,8 +90,8 @@ public class ReRankQParserPlugin extends QParserPlugin {
 
       double reRankWeight = localParams.getDouble("reRankWeight",2.0d);
 
-      int start = params.getInt(CommonParams.START,0);
-      int rows = params.getInt(CommonParams.ROWS,10);
+      int start = params.getInt(CommonParams.START,CommonParams.START_DEFAULT);
+      int rows = params.getInt(CommonParams.ROWS,CommonParams.ROWS_DEFAULT);
       int length = start+rows;
       return new ReRankQuery(reRankQuery, reRankDocs, reRankWeight, length);
     }
diff --git a/solr/solrj/src/java/org/apache/solr/common/params/CommonParams.java b/solr/solrj/src/java/org/apache/solr/common/params/CommonParams.java
index 38db7ce123d..b3a563fceba 100644
--- a/solr/solrj/src/java/org/apache/solr/common/params/CommonParams.java
+++ b/solr/solrj/src/java/org/apache/solr/common/params/CommonParams.java
@@ -62,9 +62,11 @@ public interface CommonParams {
   
   /** zero based offset of matching documents to retrieve */
   public static final String START ="start";
+  public static final int START_DEFAULT = 0;
   
   /** number of documents to return starting at "start" */
   public static final String ROWS ="rows";
+  public static final int ROWS_DEFAULT = 10;
 
   // SOLR-4228 start
   /** handler value for SolrPing */
diff --git a/solr/solrj/src/java/org/apache/solr/common/params/TermsParams.java b/solr/solrj/src/java/org/apache/solr/common/params/TermsParams.java
index 9558efc3a8d..ffb196f7937 100644
--- a/solr/solrj/src/java/org/apache/solr/common/params/TermsParams.java
+++ b/solr/solrj/src/java/org/apache/solr/common/params/TermsParams.java
@@ -63,7 +63,7 @@ public interface TermsParams {
   public static final String TERMS_LOWER_INCLUSIVE = TERMS_PREFIX + "lower.incl";
 
   /**
-   * Optional.  The number of results to return.  If not specified, looks for {@link org.apache.solr.common.params.CommonParams#ROWS}.  If that's not specified, uses 10.
+   * Optional.  The number of results to return.  If not specified, looks for {@link org.apache.solr.common.params.CommonParams#ROWS}.  If that's not specified, uses {@link org.apache.solr.common.params.CommonParams#ROWS_DEFAULT}.
    */
   public static final String TERMS_LIMIT = TERMS_PREFIX + "limit";
 
diff --git a/solr/solrj/src/test/org/apache/solr/common/params/CommonParamsTest.java b/solr/solrj/src/test/org/apache/solr/common/params/CommonParamsTest.java
new file mode 100755
index 00000000000..70c389488cd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/solr/solrj/src/test/org/apache/solr/common/params/CommonParamsTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
+ * contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
+ * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
+ * The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
+ * (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
+ * the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package org.apache.solr.common.params;
+
+import org.apache.lucene.util.LuceneTestCase;
+
+/**
+ * Unit test for {@link CommonParams}
+ *
+ * This class tests backwards compatibility of CommonParams parameter constants.
+ * If someone accidentally changes those constants then this test will flag that up.
+ */
+public class CommonParamsTest extends LuceneTestCase
+{
+  public void testStart() { assertEquals(CommonParams.START, "start"); }
+  public void testStartDefault() { assertEquals(CommonParams.START_DEFAULT, 0); }
+
+  public void testRows() { assertEquals(CommonParams.ROWS, "rows"); }
+  public void testRowsDefault() { assertEquals(CommonParams.ROWS_DEFAULT, 10); }
+}