Interbill Blog

The issue of legal retainers in the United States has a long and complex history dating back to Colonial days with Peter Stuyvesant’s first call for fair practices in 1658. A quick review – and a dramatic read – proves that the issue of billing and payment between lawyer and client has been a timeless battle of polar agendas pitting power of wealth vs. social justice.
In the subsequent formation of American society and law, legal retainers settled into 3 main types:

1. A general retainer – the client pays for the attorney’s availability during the time specified.
2. A specific retaining fee – the client makes a down payment to attorney for services to be rendered. Funds are held in trust and disbursed to attorney upon performance of services. Unused funds are refunded to client.
3. A special retainer (also known as non-refundable) – the client pays a flat fee for a specific case or project. Widely outlawed for protection of the client.

The twentieth century evolution of society’s emphasis on individual rights has created a shift in the American way of practicing law. In the spirit of personal choice, today’s most common form of retainer is referred to as a “hybrid” form, combining aspects of the specific and the general retainers, tailored to meet the individual legal and billing needs of the client.
Attorneys and clients now seem to enjoy a growing diversity of retainer options, with a greater concern for educating clients on the legal process and the value of services they receive, and working with them on creative payment plans that are mutually beneficial. Securing “reasonable rates” for special needs and “bartering” with such currency a bitcoins are just two examples of re-shaping the legal retainer.
Perhaps the most significant development in the attorney/client relationship has JUST made its debut in Bangor, Maine on May 1st, 2013, National Law Day. Lawyers in Libraries, a new program developed by Justice for Action Groups (JAG), hosted its first public meeting of lawyers with local residents to “talk about the legal system with patrons, answer individual questions and give general legal advice.” Moving the conversation from the law office to the library, this direct, conversational approach to legal education of the community invited dialogue between local residents and attorneys. The lawyers provided information about “free resources, low-cost legal assistance and ways to work with an attorney to lower the cost of legal services.”
“According to Maine Supreme Judicial Court Justice Andrew Mead, who helped organize the statewide event, ’many people don’t seek legal advice because they are concerned they won’t be able to afford it or don’t know how to go about finding a lawyer.” This breakthrough event empowered each attendee with a clear, personal understanding of the law and the tools to make more effective legal decisions.

This program represents a huge step toward cultivating greater trust between attorney and client and easing the billing process. No matter what legal retainer agreement you have entered into with your clients, contact me at philpaisley@interbill.com and we can help you with the billing process, putting your client at ease and your payments in the bank.

 For years, there was a sense of legal billing getting lost in translation; clients, insurers and others who typically incorporated attorneys and legal services into their business models found themselves confused. The more detailed the invoices, the more overwhelming it became. By the time the 1990s arrived, The American Bar Association, along with other groups, set out to define a more uniform method of billing standards. Enter the Uniform Task Based Management System, or UTBMS. At its core, UTBMS is a series of codes that are defined and categorized for easier classification of the many legal services law firms use in their legal billing efforts. 

During its development, a more streamlined electronic method of invoicing came into play and according to the LEDES Oversight Committee, the entries should be “task-based and aggregated by type of work performed, resulting in the possibility that multiple time entries could result from the services performed in a single day on a matter.” 

Soon, it was realized that while the new coding system most certainly served its purpose, there was also a need for a more advanced billing format. From there, e-billing for the legal sector was created. The Legal Electronic Data Exchange Standard, or LEDES, worked seamlessly with the new coding efforts. 

Since then, the LEDES Oversight Committee was formed and its role is ensuring both sets of standards continue to emerge in a fluid and simultaneous method. For all things legal, this is the committee that ensures compliance and quality. 

As a result of these combined efforts, electronic invoicing has streamlined the efforts of attorneys and their support staff. Further, it’s much easier for those who receive the invoices to understand the charges and thereby reducing delays in payments. Without consistent and accurate legal billing, a law firm is setting itself up for a host of problems, including client complaints, audits and other serious repercussions. Accuracy is a must and because the systems were designed to provide details without them getting lost in overwhelming “legal speak”, LEDES and UTBMS collectively eliminate problems before they ever happen. 

Want to learn how we can ensure more consistent turnaround times for billing and payments? Contact Interbill today 800.733.9933 or info@interbill.com and we’ll show you how affordable your legal billing processes can really be.

Managing the business of a law practice for sole practitioners and small law offices is not rocket science nor does it take more than a few minutes a week.

The best place to start is with Income and the Billing and Collecting components.

Part I Income – Billing and Collecting

There are only three figures that are essential to remember and put in context:

1. How much did you bill (last month)?
2. How much are you owed?
3. How much have you collected?

If these three figures are in range then your financial situation is fine. Enjoy yourself. If they are not, then there are ranges you will remember so you can grade the totals B, C, D or F. If other than B you probably need to do a bit of work.

How much did your bill?

The amount you bill establishes the basis of your collection expectations. Most sole practitioners, with a transactional practice who have been in practice over 10 years, bill between $15,000 and $30,000 a month. They record, on average, 5 billable hours a day and charge a $200 premium for court appearances.

Average hourly rates for billable time

Billing rates vary from $175 an hour in rural areas to $350 an hour in urban areas. Again these rates are for non-litigator transactional attorneys who are sole practitioners or practice in small law offices. Rates for attorneys in larger law offices with a known name or for litigators can be double these rates.

Most attorneys are surprised to learn that most transactional law attorneys (family or business) bill close to the same hourly rate unless they work for insurance companies. Insurance companies put constant downward pressure on hourly rates.

Average amount of billable time and amount billed

If, then, you bill on average 5 hours a day 20 days a month at either a rural hourly rate or a urban hourly rate, you do not have a problem with too little billable work and your monthly billings should be somewhere around $15,000 for a rural practice and $30,000 for an urban practice.

If your practice is in a rural area and you are billing $10,000 a month give yourself a “C” and concentrate on how to book more billable work.

If your practice is in a urban area and your billings are $20,000 a month the same applies, you need more billable work.

Finding out how much you bill every month if you have software should be as easy as hitting a button. If your billing is manual, someone will have to add up all your bills for the month. We are talking a sole practitioner or small law office so the task is probable going to take less than 10 minutes.

I am always surprised by the number of attorneys who do not know what they have billed the current month or YTD. These are easy figures to remember and very helpful if you are trying to do any financial planning.

After Billing – Account Receivables
Who Owes you How Much and for How Long

The second most important figure, not in priority but in order, is the total of what is owed to bookkeepers accountants and people like me call these your accounts receivable – meaning the clients (accounts) from which you should expect to be paid (receivable) money because you billed them.

If you know the total of your billing for the month, let say $20,000 this figure will immediately alert you to the financial health of your collections. If this figure is $40,000 after you billed then you are owed on average two months of billing at anyone time. If the figure is $60, then you are owed on average two months of billing. In the law practice business anything over two months is very concerning because the rate you collect can be a sign of the efficiency of your billing practice and it can also be a sign that you are going to have some trouble collecting overdue amounts. Bills that are past due are harder to collect than bills that are current.

Collections

The amount of money you collect or earn and are paid by your clients is the end game of billing. The idea is to run an efficient law practice from which you are paid $1 dollar for every dollar of services rendered. It is possible but that is the subject of yet another article.

It doesn’t take much information to know whether the business part of your law practice is financially sustainable.

Cash flow is always the most important figure. You can’t run anything without money so that is always the place to start.

Information display

The information I think is important can be easily displayed as follows for amount billed, owed and collected. It is easy to put a system in place that presents you with this information as often as you want, which I think should be daily. You should know these figures like your name.

03/31/13: billed: Fees: $17,800 Costs: $2,560 Total: $38,160
03/31/13: owed: Fees: $33,800 Costs: $5,720 Total: $39,520
04/10/13: collected: Fees: $ 5,500 Costs: $ 860 Total: $ 6,360
04/10/13: owed: Fees: $28,300 Costs: $4,920 Total: $33,200

04/10/13: past due total: $11,700 current: $21,460

Year To Date Billed and Collected:

Two more lines of billing and collected information completes the picture unless you have unbilled amounts that are not being billed for one reason or the other.

04/10/13: YTD billed: Fees: $53,400 Costs: $7,500 Total: $60,900
YTD collected: Fees: $48,700 Costs: $3,300 Total: $52,000

End

The next generation of attorney business software will convert professional legal services into payments with greater effectiveness and speed while replacing many business tasks.

Business software companies have learned that the single purchase software business model is not a business survival model.  As a result, business software companies have  been moving to new recurring income models through licensing and subscription payment plans.

Recurring income models allow business software developers to innovate with new software ideas, new software executions and new operating methods where software updates will be automatic and companies can afford a renewed focus on software research, software marketing and customer service.

These new business software products are taking software beyond the replacement of duplicative administrative functions and simple computations (the task of business software since the 1970’s) to software actions that will increase user income, reduce user labor costs and make sure tasks are done.

Examples of new attorney business software innovations include: automating the reconciliation of your business checking account with the bank as often as you like; analyzing when to pay bills (initiating payments through your bank); automatically debit client checking and credit accounts to pay for pre-agreed upon incremental retainers; automatically reminder-billing clients; automatically setting-up payment plans your clients can afford to pay; bank account, client, cash flow balances and income projections notifications by email or smart phone / tablet / computer access.

For attorney billing, this new generation of software will be a money maker. It will help to automatically bill overdue statements, create payment plans and make incremental retainer billing a practical reality. Collection problems will be reduced and incremental retainer payments will become the norm.

The next generation of attorney business software will also data-mine and project revenues. It will analyze contingency cases and help attorneys make assessments about likely rewards, costs and time spent and “time to award.” This software will learn from past data how to project law office revenue with increasing accuracy based upon sophisticated data-mining and projection algorithms.

Stay tuned, Interbill releases its first in a series of next generation attorney business software in September 2013.

End

Many attorney billing systems are based on the assumption that more billing detail is better.  The assumption is that clients feel better about paying a bill from an attorney when that attorney bills for every nickle of time and activity.  Bills based upon this (erroneous) understanding look something like this:

Date AAL Attempted phone call.                                                        .03         $ 7.50

Date AAL Attempted phone call.                                                        .03         $ 7.50

Date AAL Call from opposing counsel to discuss deposition.                 .05         $12.50

Date AAL Call to opposing counsel to schedule deposition.                   .05         $12.50

If you think your client appreciates this kind of detail I have news for you, your client looks at this kind of detail as “nickel and diming”.  

Your client like every other client is looking for value not activity.   Detail out of context does not create value.  You have to get paid for your services, not necessarily your time.    The object is to communciate your services in the context of the value you are creating for your client – how you spent your time is meaningless to your client unless you can contextualize that time. 

How you moved the client closer to his or her goal does make sense.  The description of that movement communicates value.

The way to do that is to divide up a case into meaningful components that accomplish a goal and summarize your activity within that goal.

For example if the attempted phone calls and scheduled depositions are all about a contested will being defending by your client, the executor, state that goal on the bill and arrange the activities within that goal. For example:

In defense of the Will of Alfred Sloan – Discovery phase – Deposition of Bettencourt and Sollers. In an attempt to setup and lay the ground work for the deposition several attempted phone calls and conversions with opposing council date, date, date date.

Total Time 20 minutes $40.00

Creating context in the form of goals and sub-goals is very important for creating billing value. Every legal action has a goal and every legal goal has sub-goals.  When you take on a case you should state your goal and your sub-goals.  As you keep track of your services, you should classify each activity into a sub-goal.  Most legal work divides up into some pretty standard goals and sub-goals.   Litigation usually divides up into Litigation Objective, Discovery, Pre-trial, Trial and Post-Trial.   Zoning divides up into Zoning Objective, Research, Presentation and Implementation.  Estates divide up into Creation of Objectives, Inteviews, Research, Document Preparation.  Family Law into Client Objective, Interviews, Discovery, Pre-Trial, Trial, Documentation, Dissolution. 

Communicating value through your billing will not only be well received by your clients but it will enhance their perception of your worth to them.  Don’t be surprised if it also creates more referrals for your services. 

End

Getting paid on time is one of the biggest problems for attorneys in private practice. More and more attorney are waking up to the fact that working for 50 clients only 15 of which pay, is financially unsustainable, unfair to clients who do pay and increases the cost of legal services.

Billing Steps to assure getting paid on time:

1. Clearly state your payment expectations in your Attorney Client Representation Agreement.

2. Offer payment plans to assure affordability and payment.

3. Consider requiring an incremental retainer.

4. Bill like clockwork at the beginning of each month for the prior month.

5. Make sure each bill looks like a bill: work done, the amount owed and a payment due date.

6.  For monthly retainers make sure the bills shows the minimum retainer with the total amount due.

7. Send a payment due reminder the day after payment is past due.

8. List your receivables. Know how much you are suppose to collect.

Notes on Incremental Retainers

I believe that every small law office has the power to insist on incremental retainers any time payment is not guaranteed.

Incremental retainers are retainers paid as money is required or in fixed monthly installments. Most individuals and small businesses prefer paying a fixed monthly amount.

It is important for clients to retain legal services with upfront payments. These payments do not need to be large, they can be whatever the client can afford, but they must be paid on time.

My optimism about retainers is often met by skepticism on the part of our attorney customers. Howver, when I point out that if a client cannot pay $1,500 in advance, that client is probably not going to be able to pay $1,500 after the fact – most of our customers do agree.

Operating on the clients money has been a standard private law practice requirement.  I believe it is important for clients to have “skin in the game”. Once a client has paid $1,500 he or she is more committed to he action or project and he or she is more likely to protect that deposit by continuing to make period deposits when requested.

But whether or not you require a deposit or payment after the work is done, billing and getting paid takes work and discipline. Just sending out a bill is not enough; all the steps I have listed above are important to getting paid.

Accommodating a clients income realities will not only help you establish a happy client who can pay, it will also bring you referrals.

You are never doing yourself or your client a favor by ignoring the fact that they are not paying.  When a client cannot pay, he or she will invent reasons they did not pay and those reasons will never reflect well on your professional services.

The number one factor in fostering a good attorney-client relationship is to make sure the client fully understands the expectations of the relationship. A well crafted fee agreement explaining the relevant terms and limits of the representation can go a long way in avoiding confusion and disputes. Here are the core components that make up a good fee agreement.

Client Identity:

The fee agreement should clearly identify the client responsible for paying the attorney’s fees, whether it be an individual, a couple, or as in the case of a small business, the business entity and its principals.

Scope of Representation:

Define the scope of the representation within the fee agreement, identifying what work will be and what work will not to be included in the representation. Also, the agreement should also detail the expected termination point for the representation. For example, should the client lose the case and need to appeal, the fee agreement should state whether representation will continue beyond trial.

Retainer and Hourly Rates:

The fee agreement should also be clear about whether the retainer is an “evergreen” retainer and if it is to be paid on a fixed, pre-negotiated or hourly rate. If you are billing the client hourly, the agreement should specify what the hourly rates are for the various clerks, paralegals, etc. who will be working on the client’s behalf. If the attorney and client are going to set up an alternative billing structure, the details should be articulated in the fee agreement.

Costs and Expenses:

The fee agreement should clearly detail what fees will be charged to the client, such as mailing costs, filing fees, travel fees, expert fees, etc.
Billing:
The agreement should specify when the client should expect their bill each month. It should clearly state when payment is expected from the client. The bills should be written plainly and not contain any confusing legalese.

Termination:

The fee agreement should explain on what basis the lawyer will discontinue the representation for unpaid services. For example, if the client has not received payment in 60 days, the attorney-client relationship will be terminated. Should the client decide to end the representation early, the agreement should clearly state what outstanding fees or costs the client is still responsible for.
For more information on representation agreements, retainers and billing, please email info@interbill.com.

The objective of attorney billing is to communicate the value of services and to get paid for those services.

The more professional your billing the more value your billing will add to your relationships with your clients. For example, when you miss spell a word on a statement that misspelling could degrade the perceived value of your services. When you bill one month on the 10th of the month and do not bill again for six weeks, that inconsistency may degrade the perceived value of your services. When you send out a bill that doesn’t look like a bill, that process may degrade the perceived value of your services.

The features of a professional billing system follow:

Accuracy:

Accuracy is obvious. Use spell-check and be careful with proper names. Use billing software so columns add up don’t try to do this using a spreadsheet or any other tool. There are plenty of software tools to accomplish this task.

Bill format:

Take a look at the features of any commercial billing. You may see that the commercial bill has a perforated section for returning the payment;  that payment due amounts are clearly printed and that there is a payment due date. Consider using all of these important billing features.  These billing features will help your bills look like bills.

On time:

Most clients expect monthly billing. You will find it easier and clearer to use a complete calendar month which means you bill from the first through the last day of the month. When a client has a question they can refer to the February bill and everyone will know what you are talking about. Billing at the same time of the month every month will improve your collections and your client relationships. Sure you have the need to bill a client off cycle once in awhile or when a case is closed, but for most of your clients most of the time other than calendar month billing will just look “ad hoc” and “unprofessional.”

Reminder bills:

Sending out reminder bills, alerts your clients to the fact that you know they have not paid.  Reminder bills sent regularly will train clients to pay on time.  I would not add late payment charges to that mix unless a client is really behind and you have discussed late payment charges with the.   A reminder bill is also a good format for asking clients if they need further payment schedule accomodation.  Getting paid something is always preferable to not getting paid and keeping the door closed on payment discusions.

Tailored to clients’ ability to pay:

Very few people expect that they will be using an attorney. Many clients are economically stressed and if not now at some time during your relationships with the client affordability may become an issue. Be sure to discuss affordability and offer payment plans. Be sure those are professionally billed and administered and you will be paid.

Consider incremental retainers:

Taking money in advance in the form of a retainer is common in the practice of law. The problem is that many clients cannot afford to pay a large retainer in advance and but they can pay something. If you are on top of it, you can bill incremental retainers to replenish the retainer, keeping the amounts low but keeping your cash flow in the black.

Thank you for reading this blog posting. Interbill follows the guidelines for complete billing and professional billing that will maximize your office cash flow for more information please email info@interbill.com.

The following is a reprint of an article by Phil Paisley in American Bar Association Websine Law Practice Today.  Published in October 2012.

http://www.americanbar.org/publications/law_practice_today_home/law_practice_today_archive/september12/getting-paid.html

In my experience obtaining clients and getting paid are the top challenges for attorneys in private practice. These problems are more critical for attorneys who practice as sole practitioners and in small law offices because it takes staff and systems to attract clients and get paid.

There can be a relationship between getting paid and attracting new clients.  Clients who feel you have accommodated to their needs with a tailored billing plan often will refer new clients to you.

Getting paid has not gotten any easier; it requires communication, accommodation, systemization and determination. It also requires you to be nice but professionally clear and firm about your payment expectations, and to implement billing methods that reinforce your payment agreement.

The economic collapse of 2008, the following recession and the painfully slow recovery has not helped; but getting paid was not that easy for sole practitioners and small law offices before 2008.

The financial collapse and the very slow recovery are due to the debt overhang. In short, too many people owe too much money and they have fewer assets of value such as homes from which to draw. In this environment you have to be realistic. You will not get paid in full by every client every month, but you can set up minimum monthly payments so you can get paid something by every client every month. Clients who pay are invested, and the more they pay the more they are invested in paying.

That said, clients have to feel like they are paying for something of value. Here, most transactional attorneys have a disadvantage called “no deliverable” at the time when you ask for payment. The best you can do is create a bill that communicates value for payment. To clients who usually are not present for 90 percent of the work you do for them, the bill is often your only documentation of value. 

Learning how to communicate value is tricky. “Attempted phone call $10” is not billing for value.  “Six attempted phone calls and one successful phone conference during which we discussed Barkers proposal and Connors counter proposal” is value.  Incorporating descriptive summaries of your accomplishments will communicate your value to your clients.

Accommodating to your clients’ payment abilities will improve your chances of getting paid. Once you learn how to create a bill that communicates value for requested payment there are six rules I have developed for maximizing your chances of getting paid on time and in full.

Payment agreement:�
I suggest that you meet with every new client and talk frankly about projected fees and costs and how the client may be able to pay. If you and the client can reach an agreement you both can accommodate, you will want to put this agreement in writing. If you use a Representation Agreement you can integrate the Representation Agreement and the Payment Agreement, but in that you might have to redo the latter, I prefer a separate agreement. Also, in a couple of paragraphs I will talk about referencing the agreement in your statements to the client.

Payment plans:�
The most popular payment plan is the minimum monthly payment, but if the client can afford to pay a retainer the next most popular plan is the Evergreen Retainer where the client pays a retainer and agrees to maintain a certain retainer balance which is billed automatically to the client when the retainer reaches a certain minimum balance. Example: The client pays upfront a $3000 retainer, and when the retainer balance reaches $1500 the client agrees to pay another $3000. To support this system, it is best to have the ability to bill the Evergreen Retainer by email the minute the client’s Retainer Balances reaches the minimum.

Billing cycle:�
I recommend calendar billing. If you or your staff need to discuss bills with clients, it is easier to talk about January, February or March instead of some date range that is not a month. Of course, not every bill like a closing bill should wait until the end of the month, but for ongoing matters monthly billing is the clearest and the most client-friendly way to communicate value and ask for payment. This does not mean you have to send out bills on the last day of the month. Everyone needs time to get the bills together.  A bill send on the 5th of the month can document at least all services performed for the previous month. Sometimes bills for costs take a while, but these are less important to be substantiated during the month in which they occur. Your professional services however tell a story or should tell a story and the story is best documented month by month. 

Some firms also send out a cumulative statement at the end of a matter showing all fees, costs, payments, trusts and retainers and the ending balance. This is an excellent idea. For court approved fees history statements are often required.

Billing discipline:�
It is important to bill like clockwork. If you usually bill between the 5th and the 7th for the prior month, keep that up and do not let bills go out days later.  A late billing for one month can affect your cash flow for months following.  Businesses with good cash flow are very serious about billing on the same business day every month.  Take heed.

Statement format:
Your bills to your clients should look like bills, not correspondence. They should clearly display an amount due and a “Payment Due Date”.  A bill that says, “Pay upon Receipt” will not help you to be paid in a timely manner. Your bills must have a payment due date so you and your client know when the client’s payment should reach your office.

Another element of the statement format I referred to earlier is the reference to the Payment Agreement. You want to make sure every statement for which there is an applicable special payment agreement that the agreement is annotated on the statement. I recommend the reference be placed before the list of fees and costs charges. The statement should clearly, summarize the agreement, such as “Per Your Payment Agreement, you will pay a minimum of $300 a month if you cannot pay the balance in full”.   Or, “Per Your Payment Agreement, you will replenish your retainer with a $1,500 retainer payment when our retainer balance is less than $2,000.”

Reminder Bills:�
You must be prepared to notify your client at once by email and mail when you have not received payment by the payment due date. This can be a very friendly reminder but it should be professional and the wording should relate to the amount overdue.  If you received partial payment (not the minimum) the reminder should thank the client for the partial payment, request full payment and offer another payment plan. Do not get in the habit of taking partial payments that are not included in your payment agreement.

SOME FOOTNOTES:

Emailing bills:�
Emailing bills is done as a matter of course today, but do not expect the same level of payment as mailed bills. People do not yet handle emailed bills with the same discipline as they handle mailed bills. Emailed bills often get bypassed and disappear in the clutter of the email inbox. Unless clients print them out they do not tend to be very effective. Emailed bills work much better with business clients than non-business clients. If you really want to email bills, try it, but the minute a client misses a payment notify the client you think mailed bills will work better. Emailed bills work much better if you have a link to a payment site, but not all clients are prepared to pay legal bills by debit or credit card.

Payment amounts:�
If you have a minimum payment plan set up with your client, be sure to bill the full amount and the minimum payment amount, just as credit cards companies provide bills that allow customers to make a minimum payment or pay in full.   Unlike credit card companies, you cannot charge interest on the unpaid balance. You can charge a late charge but the late charge only can be computed on the amount the client had agreed to pay you or the minimum payment amount.  A late charge is a charge for not paying on time;  it is not a finance charge. If you are going to charge a late payment charge I suggest a flat amount not a percent so there is no confusion that you might be charging interest on an unpaid balance. I have witnessed legal complaints over late payment charges.

In my experience, however, late payment charges are not the best way to encourage clients feel good about paying you, and although our company offers them I do not recommend them.

Bill format and paper suggestions:
Be sure to post the payment due amount on the right hand top of the bill and the bottom. To make the bill look more like a bill I suggest using perforated billing paper which is available at most office supply stores of any size.

http://www.americanbar.org/publications/law_practice_today_home/law_practice_today_archive/september12/getting-paid.html

Emailed statements work best when clients can click a payment link in the email that accompanies the statement and pay electronically online. Interbill is developing an online electronic payment system for this purpose.

Unless you have that emailed payment link and online payment technology available to you, emailed statements require a higher level of client awareness, organization and technical capability (usually including a working printer) than required by mailed statements.

I am opposed to anything that can create impediments to getting paid. That said, our attorney customers who have business clients have the best luck getting paid using emailed statements.

Our non-business attorney customers report more payment problems with emailed statements. A greater number of non-business clients fail to receive emailed statements. When they receive the emailed statements, they often have no way of remembering to pay the emailed statement unless they print the statement and put it in a stack with other bills to be paid. Additionally, some emailed statements do go into the spam folder.

For all of our attorney customers (business and non-business law) I suggest that both a mailed and an emailed statement be sent to a client for the first three billing months. Thereafter, the law office can evaluate the client’s ability to handle emailed statements.

This approach is time consuming and the idea behind emailed statements is convenience, time savings and perhaps a positive environmental impact (although it turns out most clients print the emailed statement).

There are a couple other problems with emailing statements. There is no way to provide a return envelope with your address so you have to rely on your client properly addressing the payment envelope. There is also no way to provide a payment coupon so you are sure the payment is posted to the correct client.