Block Billing Is How Your Firm Hides the Real Bill
The most expensive line on a legal invoice is not the highest one. It is the one that combines multiple tasks under a single time stamp.
| Description | Hours | Total |
|---|
| Reviewed documents, drafted correspondence, conferred with co-counsel and revised brief | 8.4 | $7,720 |
That is block billing. You cannot tell whether the brief took two hours or six.
Block billing appears on more than 40% of invoices reviewed.
Why firms do it
Itemized billing assigns minutes to discrete activities. That creates an audit trail. It also exposes any task that took unreasonable time. Block billing buries everything in a single number.
The same billing software firms use can easily produce itemization. If you are block billed, it is because your firm chose to do so.
What to look for
Three indications you have been block billed:
- Multiple verbs in a single entry. "Reviewed, drafted, revised, conferred, prepared" stacked under one time stamp.
- Round-number hours. 8.0 against a vague description is rarely real time. It is what a timekeeper writes when reconstructing the day from memory.
- "Various" or "miscellaneous" descriptions. Not a description. The absence of one.
What to do
Ask the firm to itemize. Most engagement letters and bar requirements obligate the firm to provide reasonable detail on request. The firm will usually comply.
If asking does not work, upload your invoice to Overbilled. The analysis flags every entry that combines multiple tasks and every entry where time billed is inconsistent with the level of detail provided.
Related: Timekeeper Inflation Is Endemic