The quarterly publication of the International Legal Technology Association
Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/57001
Global E-Billing and the LEDES Oversight Committee by Jane A. Bennitt of Global Legal Ebilling, LLC Legal Billing in the U.S. The international focus of the LEDES Oversight Committee is the first descriptor in our mission statement: The LEDES (Legal Electronic Data Exchange Standard) Oversight Committee ("LOC") is an international, voluntary, not-for-profit organization comprised of legal industry representatives. Among its objectives is the creation and maintenance of open standards and formats to be used by the legal industry for the electronic exchange of information between computer systems while relying on minimal manual intervention. The organization will undertake measures to ensure that any standards developed meet the wider industry's changing needs, and will promote the usage, understanding and best practices related to such standards in a vendor and/or system-neutral fashion. While concerned with the exchange of other types of information between law firms and their clients, the LEDES Oversight Committee is best known for our legal e-billing standards. Worldwide Billing Differences There are differences between legal billing within the U.S. and elsewhere in the world. Most notably: Legal services taxed in only a handful of states Legal services almost universally taxed; depending on the country, there could be multiple taxes applied to invoice line items Paid via ACH or check Typically litigation matters Typically hourly billing Tenth-of-an-hour increments are standard Paid via wire transfer Typically transactional matters Typically non-hourly billing Time may be recorded in minutes Similarly, there are differences in legal e-billing within the U.S. and elsewhere in the world. Most notably, outside the U.S. legal e-billing is considered to be a subset of e-invoicing, an entire discipline unto itself, which supports global e-commerce. Ever purchase something online? Legal Billing Outside U.S. 96 Peer to Peer