While your law firm may exist primarily to help clients in need, it also functions as a business that must turn a profit. Its ability to make money is critical to keeping its legal staff paid and paying for the firm's operational expenses. Making money requires you as the firm's owner to know for what services to bill clients. You can identify expenditures and pursue collection on obligations by hiring a legal billing consultant.
Identifying Billable Services
Because you are trained as a lawyer rather than as a business person, you might overlook services for which you can bill clients. Your primary focus is on representing clients in their cases. It may never occur to you that some of the more intricate services that you provide can be billed for payment.
The legal billing consulting service that you hire for your firm can pinpoint expenses that you do not have to incur and pay for on your own. For example, your firm may have no reason to pay for copying legal documents or courier services to and from other law offices or the courthouse. These services can be billed to the client to cover for you.
Likewise, you can bill clients for the time that you spend answering their phone calls or answering their emails. The effort that you put into communicating with them is similar to the work that you put into representing them in court. You can bill them your hourly rate for the time that you spend speaking with them remotely, as well as in-person.
Pursuing Collections of Billable Services
Sending out invoices to clients is only part of making a profit for your law firm. You must also receive payment from clients. The legal billing consultant can pursue the collection of bills that clients owe to your law firm. He or she can continue to contact clients and even set up payment arrangements with them to ensure that they pay what they owe. You could recoup most or all of the money that you billed out in services from your law firm's clients.
These legal billing consulting services are critical to keeping your law firm profitable and successful. You will know what services to bill your clients. You also can cover expenses that you otherwise would incur for tasks like couriering or copying of documents. The legal billing consultant that you hire can pursue collecting bills.
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