I posted the following to my area librarian group. It was suggested by
them to post to law-lib to see if there has been any updates on the
subject. I would be interested in how anyone else handles billing back
to the client and can resummarize for this list if there is interest.
"I'm hoping you'll share how you bill back or if you don't bill back
your online usage. I've read where some firms have built online charges
into attorney billable time, others just charge a flat fee for online
usage, and some bill back as much as possible to the client being sure
to apply any discounts."
CALLA Summary:
1. We bill back as much as possible, as long as there is a charge
associated with the search (such as Westlaw, Lexis, Pacer, Dialog) - and
we do apply some discount formula to fit our usage rates. For things
like BNA and CCH, we don't currently charge the clients. We are in the
beta testing for OneLog - which does track usage for these other
services, along with West/Lexis, but we're not charging the
clients/requiring the attorneys to enter c/ms when they run searches.
We're just using it this year to track usage - we may somehow set up a
bill back for searches on those systems that are currently "free" to
search, but we have no concrete plans for it. That might change next
year as budgets get tighter.
I will say that we do budget in "unbillable" west/Lexis searches into
our library budget.
2. While recovery is not a big issue here, we try to recover what we can
- especially with library resource costs increasing daily! I bill a
client our discounted cost of online research. How much of it is ever
collected, I never know. Am guessing many write the charges off, but
honestly have no idea. At the end of the year, all online research
expense is removed from the library "cost" column and put in the
"running a business" column....a very nice thing! :)
3. We bill back for Lexis & Westlaw at a per search rate that we
determine by usage. We meet once a quarter to look at the usage and to
see if we need to adjust the rate to break even or to meet the recovery
goal we have. This year we have been flirting with the idea of putting
it into billing rates or not recouping it at all but I think we are a
bit away from it.
Summary from Law-Lib -
http://listproc.ucdavis.edu/archives/law-lib/law-lib.log0102/0396.html
Articles:
Online legal research billing policies. URL:
http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-9094867_ITM
http://www.researchagent.com/2003_Research_Management_Survey_Results.pdf
Thanks for your help - j
cessante ratione legis, cessat et ipse lex
Jill L K Brooks
Legal Librarian
Robinson, Bradshaw & Hinson
101 N. Tryon St, Suite 1900
Charlotte, NC 28246
* jbrooks@rbh.com <mailto:jbrooks@rbh.com>
(Direct 704.377.8136
(Office 704.377.2536
6 704.339.3436
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