Below is a summary of responses from law-lib. Thanks to everyone for
helping me on this topic.
~ jill
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 received three replies to the following question:
"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. I can summarize for the list if there is
interest. I believe there was a listing on law-lib and will try and
find that to include in the summary."
1. We try to recoup the cost of the contract (volume based discount)
for both Lexis and Westlaw and try to recover other database costs
(PACER, Saegis, Dialog, etc.). We do not bill back for Loislaw, BNA, CCH
or other related databases.
2. I don't know if you're interested in the "other side" - but I do
know that "area bank x" will not pay outside counsel for Lexis/Westlaw
charges. If outside counsel sends us a bill with online research
charges, they get rejected. I'm sure the firms add it in to some other
fee, but that (along with some other line items like food for meetings,
etc.) will not fly here.
3. We do not bill back Westlaw or Lexis charges. We have a preferred
provider contract with one provider and access the other at market rate.
We do bill back charges for other resources as long as they are not
subscriptions.
Replies from my area group:
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
(this is a national library listserv)
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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