Appropriate Legal Billing Increments

Trust Accounting

When it comes to billing clients, what type of increments does your law firm use? The standard increments used by most lawyers are:

  • 1/10th of an hour or 6 minutes
  • 1/6th of an hour or 10 minutes
  • 1/4th of an hour or 15 minutes

The traditional legal billing increments are a product of convenience more than anything else. Lawyers decide which increments they intend to bill in and then round up to the nearest billing increment of their choice.

All legal billing increments can present problems to both the law firm and the client. If your firm is billing in 6 minute increments it can promote inefficiency from both the firm and the client. Billing this way could force your attorneys and clients to race to beat the clock at every 6 minute increment.

Unfortunately if your firm turns to larger increments it could affect the way your firm is viewed by clients and fellow attorneys. The larger increments suggest that your firm may be billing clients for more time than you are actually spending to address client matters. No law firm wants to hear the ugly whispers that they aren’t earning the fees they receive from clients.

Talk about being caught in between a rock and a hard place! Smaller legal billing increments result in an inefficient relationship with your clients, larger legal billing increments could cause serious damage to your firm’s reputation, so what is a lawyer to do?

Eliminate Legal Billing Increments With Practice Management Software

The answer to your legal billing increment issues is to simply do away with legal billing increments all together. Employ practice management software that can track your time wherever, whenever you are working in the cloud.

CosmoLex practice management software contains a legal time tracking module that allows your firm to track billable activity on the go, allowing you to enter the most accurate account of time spent on your client’s matters.

Try CosmoLex Practice Management Software For Free

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