SUMMARYThe paper presents analytical solutions for the evolution of excess pore pressures in the vicinity of a shear band in a rate‐dependent, strain‐softening permeable soil, with the aim to explore, both qualitatively and quantitatively, the potential variation of failure shear stress in the shear band. The solutions encompass both dissipation of a pre‐existing pore pressure regime within the main soil domain, and the effects of generation of additional pore pressure within the shear band itself. The simplified analytical solutions were checked by numerical inversion of exact solutions in Laplace transform space, confirming their high accuracy. The solutions show that it is possible for the failure shear stress to rise initially because of short‐term dissipation of the pre‐existing excess pore pressure at a faster rate than generation of new excess pore pressure within the shear band. This apparent strain hardening in a strain‐softening soil can be misleading in that it can temporarily slow down the sliding mass and create a false sense of stabilization of the slope. It can also result in additional temporary shear resistance for sliding foundations or pipelines on the seabed. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.