Survey data shows wider variety of UTBMS litigation codes used than one might think on a typical invoice

The matter cost-control firm Legalbill surveyed some 16,000 lawyers who use its matter management software at one or more of his law department clients. More than 600 responded. One question described a typical invoice and asked the lawyers: “On average how many different UTBMS litigation codes will you use?” Roughly speaking, the distribution of responses fell evenly in the four buckets of 1-4 codes, 5-8 codes, 9-12, and more than 12.

This survey has developed very interesting empirical data about UTBMS codes. Legalbill’s Managing Partner, Stephen French, is still processing the results, but he was kind enough to let me see some of the early data. Reach out to Steve if you are interested.

On this one particular finding, I was surprised. I would have thought that fewer codes were necessary for a given case during a normal month, since how many different tasks of a law suit take place in that narrow window? Nor was the average size of the invoice very large, which might have accounted for the wide distribution of task codes used. The distribution and amount of codes used tells me that law firms pay attention to their time records and draw on the full range of UTBMS codes even for a typical, relatively modest invoice.