Time Recording for Litigators - Under the Spotlight

Introduction

Although recording time has been the method of choice in legal services charging for hundreds of years, it is rare for any such business not to encounter problems in capturing, realising and justifying all the time being spent.

This is especially true for litigators where time recording comes under the scrutiny of a paying party in litigation and ultimately the court at a summary or detailed assessment. This has become all the more critical with the establishment of costs budgeting and the electronic bill of costs.

The role of daily time recording targets as a measure of performance and the issue of realisation rates are the subject of discussion during this practical and hands-on seminar.

This virtual classroom session will examine why time recording is vital in achieving financial success, justifying work done on an assessment and using technology to its fullest, to capture time and make the preparation of costs budgets and bills of costs as streamlined as possible. The role of management information and especially how to record the detail of what is being done, will also be covered.

What You Will Learn

This live and interactive session will cover the following:

• The pros and cons of time recording
• The relationship between time and profit
• Why you have time leakage and how to avoid it
• Time recording targets and fee earner performance
• What the CPR tells us about recording our work and what we can charge for
• The role of ‘White Labelling’ in litigation
• Time recording best practice and tactics
• Recording and tracking time for success with costs budgeting
• How to maximise recovery at a Costs Assessment
• Understanding the ‘costs-plus’ approach to hourly rates and exceeding the guideline rates
• Using time recording as a management tool
• What should be in your engagement documents
• Using technology to get the most out of hourly rate billing and profitability
• Why you have write-offs and how the avoid them
• How to assist your Costs Lawyer in preparing your Costs Budget and Bill of Costs

Recording of live sessions: Soon after the Learn Live session has taken place you will be able to go back and access the recording - should you wish to revisit the material discussed.