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Scott Benton: Hey everyone, Scott Benton here. I’m the host of the Classroom 2 Courtroom podcast where we help you easily transition from law school student into your professional career as an attorney and where we make the practice of law fun, more importantly. Now today, we’re going to take a look at transparency and integrity with billing entries.
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Scott Benton: Today, in order to help assist your overall use of the success cycle, as far as the log your time portion goes, that’s the third of the three portions, we’re going to look at transparency and integrity with billing entries. As Attorneys needd to adhere to ethical responsibilities when it comes to billing clients, we want to look at how transparency and maintaining a strong level of integrity in your billing practices are critical for maintaining trust between you and your client, as well as protecting the firm in the event of fee disputes So you want to understand minimum billable time.
As you may or may not yet know, there’s the concept of the minimum billable time, such as two tenths of an hour increments, which translates into 12 minute blocks. And that particular scenario means that for each billing entry, clients [00:02:00] are going to be billed at least two tenths of an hour for the legal services that you perform as their attorney.
So be aware that this is information you’re going to need to communicate clearly to your clients up front in order to avoid any confusion down the road about how time entries are written and how it’s charged to mitigate any confusion when they open up their invoices and when they’re looking over their billing entries. It goes without saying that you don’t want to overbill your client, and you don’t want to charge your client for tasks that were never completed, both of which, by the way, are ethical violations, among other things.
I know we don’t really need to discuss that here on this podcast, because none of you are going to overbill your clients, and none of you are going to charge for non performed legal services, because you’re going to be excellent attorneys that are just too good for that. I know it.
Okay, so then let’s just say that you know someone who overcharges and who charges for legal services that were never completed. The long term consequences of overbilling include damage to the relationship with [00:03:00] the client, and it compromises the reputation of the firm, among many other negative outcomes you really don’t want to attract.
So it goes without saying that it’s critical to describe time entries accurately and in sufficient detail so that they can be understood by your client. Proper descriptions clearly written help your clients truly see the value of the work that you’re performing on their case and it provides Transparency about what was done. As another benefit, it can help point the way to future work that’s It’s going to be done. So that in the best case scenario, you’re giving them a preview of what to expect the next month or the month after so that there are no surprises.
Transparency builds client trust. Writing time entries that are clear and that your client can understand so that they can see the value of the money that they’re spending on the legal services leads to transparency. Transparency leads to building trust, and building trust between you and your clients puts you both in the strongest [00:04:00] possible position where completing legal work is concerned.
Without trust, you’ll more likely have your client stop responding completely or returning your phone calls or emails. They’ll simply go out there and find someone else that they do trust. So the trust bond might as well be with you and it’s something you want to protect and you really don’t want to lose.
This is why you want to use clear and client friendly language and phrasing, and why you want to discuss the billing you’ve done with your client during regular updates you have with them about their case.
So when you talk to them, you want to talk about the billing.
Clarity and a foundation of trust is going to reduce the chance of your client receiving surprise bills. So if they’re going to get a bill, especially if it’s for a substantial amount of money, you really want to make sure that you tee them up for that. The last thing you want to do is to have your client getting this large bill on, let’s say, a Friday evening when they can’t call you until Monday morning.
They’re going to have three days to stress out [00:05:00] over the bill, and they’re going to experience a lot of confusion. And what’s worse is that they’re going to have to wait quite a while before they can talk to you. And chances are pretty good that on Monday morning, you’re not going to be available anyway, because Mondays are usually busy.
Due to the weekend break, there’s just a lot of work to come back to. So we can’t quite get to our clients right away. And again, they’re going to have to wait.
Creating transparency through the use of detailed itemized bills helps protect the firm in case of fee disputes. And remember, having clear documented time entries makes it a lot easier to justify the fees you charge your clients for the legal services that you performed, which is helpful to use during fee arbitration. Integrity in billing protects your practice. Now you want to make sure that you log into your states Bar website in order to go over the ethical guidelines, because by adhering to those ABA guidelines, you actually help maintain your firm’s ethical standards and you protect their reputation.[00:06:00]
Long term integrity leads to client loyalty and long term business growth, which not only sustains the law firm that you work for, but it’s also going to grow, which likely means both you and the firm eventually will benefit, especially if one day you make it all the way to partner. And I know you’re that good, and I know you’re going to make it all the way to partner. So even though learning about ethical billing and then consistently practicing it will take more effort and might even be a little time consuming, it ensures sustainability of the firm that you work for as well as your own career as an attorney and it builds trust with the clients who hire you.
In all regards, Billing with Transparency and Integrity is your main objective, is going to be the strongest possible position you can put yourself in when it comes to the logging your time section of the success cycle. So this is an area of law practice that you really want to dig down deeply into. Ethical billing isn’t just a requirement by the ABA or a guideline the firm you’re working for imposes on you that you need to follow. It’s much more [00:07:00] important than that.
It’s an asset that builds trust between you and your clients. Overall, it strengthens and maintains the relationships you have with your clients and it protects you and the firm. When you’ve got that, you’ve pretty much got everything you need.
I’m Scott Benton. I’m the host of the Classroom 2 Courtroom podcast. Thanks so much for checking out our show and listening to this episode about transparency and the integrity with your billing entries. If you like this podcast and you’d like to get more information about us, you can always go to our website at classroom2courtroom. com. That’s classroom, the number 2, courtroom.
com, where you can send us a message to keep in touch with us. You can even inquire about our seasonal associate programs that we have available for law school students You can apply to come and work with us And as always don’t forget to share like and subscribe to stay on top of all of our newest episodes And until next time we hope you’ll join us in making the world a better place One client at a time.
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