General FAQs | How LegalBillReview.com Works
Clear answers to common questions about legal invoice review, pricing, implementation, and how LegalBillReview.com works.
This page answers common questions about legal invoice review, including how attorney-led review differs from software, how pricing and performance guarantees work, what types of billing errors are identified, implementation timelines, integrations with e-billing systems, and what organizations can expect when working with LegalBillReview.com.
Prefer a quick overview? This short video explains how LegalBillReview.com works and how we help organizations reduce Outside Counsel Spend.
What is legal invoice review?
Legal invoice review is the process of examining outside counsel invoices to verify that the hours billed, staffing levels, tasks performed, and billing narratives comply with a client’s Outside Counsel Guidelines and reflect fair value for the work completed. A proper review identifies non-compliant charges, billing errors, excessive time entries, vague or duplicative work, and any fees that do not align with the expectations agreed upon between the client and the law firm. Attorney-led invoice review goes beyond simple math checks by evaluating the progression of the legal work and the context of each matter to ensure accuracy, efficiency, and reasonableness.
How does attorney-led invoice review differ from software?
Software can flag basic issues such as math errors, rate inconsistencies, and keyword-based rule violations. However, it cannot evaluate the prudence, complexity, or efficiency of the work performed. Attorney-led review brings context: licensed attorneys read each time entry, assess whether the work was necessary, understand the strategy and objectives being pursued, notice patterns of inefficiency, compare the work to industry norms, and communicate findings directly with the law firm. This human analysis identifies and corrects billing practices software routinely misses and ensures that adjustments are defensible, accurate, and fair to both the client and the law firm.
How does the LegalBillReview.com performance guarantee work?
LegalBillReview.com always charges a fee for its service, but our performance guarantee ensures that clients never pay more overall than the original amount billed by their law firms. At the end of each review period, we compare the total verified cost savings we achieved with the fees charged for reviewing those bills. If the savings for that period do not exceed our fees, we issue a credit for the difference. This structure ensures clients are always financially protected and never spend more because they used our service.
What types of overcharges does LegalBillReview.com find?
We routinely detect a broad range of billing issues, including excessive hours, vague or incomplete time entries, duplicated work, over-staffing or mis-staffing, billing for law-firm internal training, administrative tasks billed at attorney rates, and “block billed” entries that lump multiple tasks into one charge. Because we conduct a thorough, attorney-led review — not just a software scan — we often find problems that software alone misses, saving clients meaningful amounts while preserving billing integrity.
How long does implementation take?
Implementation is fast and requires very little lift from your team. The only step that typically takes time is notifying your law firms, because we recommend giving them one full billing cycle to align with updated expectations. Once the firms are notified, go-live happens quickly.
Here’s the high-level process:
1. Initial Intake and Setup
We gather basic information about your billing practices, your lineup of law firms, and reporting preferences. Your Client Success Manager reviews this with you to confirm your preferred workflow.
2. Review or Establishment of Outside Counsel Guidelines
If you already have guidelines, we review them and recommend refinements where helpful. If not, we help establish a clear billing framework so expectations are consistent across all firms.
3. Kickoff and Workflow Alignment
We meet with your team to align on priorities, billing practices, and any matter-specific considerations. This ensures a smooth transition into review.
4. Law Firm Notification
We provide recommended communications to introduce LegalBillReview.com to your outside counsel and outline updated billing expectations. Because firms typically need one billing cycle to adopt these changes, the sooner this step begins, the sooner we can start reviewing invoices. Our Law Firm Relations team supports these conversations to ensure clarity and cooperation.
5. Go-Live
After the law firms are notified and the next billing cycle begins, LegalBillReview.com begins reviewing your legal bills immediately. There is no technical setup required and no disruption to your existing workflow.
Yes. LegalBillReview.com works seamlessly with all a major e-billing platforms such as Legal Tracker, Brightflag, CounselLink, Onit, SimpleLegal, TeamConnect, and many others, allowing clients to maintain their current workflows without disruption.
Do you work with my existing e-billing system?
How much savings can we expect?
Savings vary by organization and industry across all US-based, hourly outside counsel bills. Because LBR reviews each invoice line by line, we identify inefficiencies and non-compliant charges that aggregate into significant, measurable reductions without compromising the quality of the legal work. We back our savings with a performance guarantee.
Will this disrupt our relationship with our law firms?
No. Our role is to enforce billing expectations professionally, consistently, and constructively. We communicate directly with outside counsel to explain adjustments, understand their perspective, and reach agreement collaboratively. Most law firms appreciate the clarity and predictability of our process, and clients often report that our involvement reduces friction by removing billing disputes from the attorney–client relationship. Your legal team remains focused on the substantive work, while we handle the financial conversations.