I hate consultants. As the saying goes, “Consultants borrow your watch to tell you the time — and then charge to return the watch.”

I believe they are responsible for all the rules that benefit large corporations, while putting so many burdens on small companies like ours.

Here is an example:

Back in 1995, large corporations (mainly insurance companies) were complaining about spending too much money processing paper invoices submitted by law firms. They wanted to automate the data-entry process to cut costs.

They also wanted to scrutinize the invoices line-by-line to control the escalating legal costs. They were throwing around words like, “efficiency,” “automation,” “cost containment” and “standard.”

Guess what? Those are the kind of words consultants feed on. Price Waterhouse (a den of consultants) was hired to spearhead the project to come up with a standard to exchange legal data electronically.

The Legal Electronic Data Exchange Standard (LEDES) was adopted by all the parties involved. Law firms hated it (they still do). Time-and-billing software vendors for the legal industry scrambled to come up with updates to handle this new requirement. And poor old secretaries in small law offices were typing funny-looking characters using Notepad to create LEDES files by hand.

No more one-line invoices like, “Services rendered by me: $50,000.”

Over time, law firms have learned to live with it. It’s become the status quo.

Now it’s the court reporting firms’ turn. You get to go through lots of motions to save big corporations money if you want to keep your clients who rely on e-billing.

However, you don’t need to suffer as many law firms did, if you are using RB8. I worked with our programmers for over a year on LEDES for RB8. With the latest update, you can easily generate LEDES 98B files and email them to whomever is holding your money as hostage.

Once you have set up the codes in your Service Items Master List and mass-updated your billing rate tables, it’s as easy to generate a LEDES 98B-compliant invoice as any other invoice in your RB8. And by giving your clients invoices that they can directly upload into their e-billing system, you enhance your chances of getting paid quickly.

This e-billing option is included free in RB 8.53, released March 12, 2010. And we’ve published an e-Billing User Guide on our website in the Team RB members-only area, so you can start using this new feature immediately.

I’ll probably never warm up to consultants, but I love programmers.

Avoid a lawsuit by following this advice

When it comes to handling word indexes, does your agency fall under one of the following categories?

1. You provide word indexes (usually with condensed transcripts) to clients free of charge.
2. You provide word indexes (usually with condensed transcripts) for a flat fee (e.g., $25).
3. You provide word indexes (as part of standard transcripts) at the same per page rate as you charge for the transcripts themselves.

If you answered “#3,” then you could be vulnerable to lawsuits unless your rate sheet fully discloses your billing policies concerning word indexes.

Lawsuits have already been filed

This is already happening to other firms. Several class action lawsuits are pending in federal courts that contend that court reporting firms are padding their bills by charging full per-page prices for word indexes without full disclosure.

Here are my observations as to why it will be difficult to justify the practice of charging full price without disclosing that up-front:

• The word index is not a part of the record prepared by a court reporter.
• The word index is generated by a computer program, not by a court reporter.
• The court reporter usually is not paid for the word index.
• The total page count is different from what the reporter turned in.
• The client usually isn’t aware of the practice.

Protect yourself

I recommend that you go for peace of mind with full disclosure even though it might hurt your bottom line. Include word indexes for free with condensed transcripts, and use that as your marketing edge. You’ll be more attractive to clients and less attractive to lawsuits.