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Had 2 hours of billable work today 💀
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ID sucks. I think the industry is unsustainable the way it’s currently set up. Attorneys can’t do good work in these conditions.
A5 apply directly with the insurance companies
No the monthly goal will never be lowered. Your firm is likely raising your monthly goal because they have had to lower the hourly rates in order to be competitive among other firms for the carriers you work for. This is exhibit A for why ID sucks so much. It is a race to the bottom.
I took a $10k pay cut and went to my state’s AG office in the consumer protection division. Less litigation, but more freedom on my files. Plus a sense of doing for the greater good rather than protecting insurance companies’ interests. There’s still an element of timekeeping, but the requirement is only 130 a month and there are very little restrictions on what is “billable.”
Unfortunately this mean churning out a sub-par work product. A lot of ID shops simply require high volume low quality work. Make a call on every one of your cases. That’s 8 hours right there.
You are right. Instead of critically reviewing documents and drafting some forms of substance, I need to resort to making calls and come up with excuses to email.
There are ways to capture pretty much all the time, even if it’s an insurance company or a large self insured who basically acts as sophisticated of consumer as an insurer - example, a major hospital system with a ton of lawsuits against it.
It takes time to figure out how to do it right and most of the good firms who do ID in some form (which nowadays includes even some of the largest and solidly reputable firms since carriers are expanding into new product lines more and more as the years go by) will be patient as you ramp up. Pick up on the billing tips from senior lawyers and ask people how to bill for certain things. I can usually rattle off a way to capture pretty much anything someone does on a file. It’s a skill in and of itself.
Don’t worry about time cuts, etc. bill all the time and if they make arbitrary cuts, just bill harder
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What's the monthly goal? Is it just for you or everyone else? When I did ID, my firm wanted 50 hours a week for everyone
The monthly goal seems to be different for people but the firm average is 2150.
Good example - you can fold a lot of time into status reporting. Report concisely and frequently and it’s easy to capture a lot of the time you don’t know what to do with. Group your emails by topic and counsel involved in the discussions and enter time for all of it. Doesn’t have to be .1 for each email but can be pretty close. Also specify page numbers if reviewing a large volume and break it up into smaller entries. Same with pleadings or motions. Review of documents to assess arguments and factual support for x motion. Review/analysis of case law to assess potential dispositive motions. Don’t say things like “research” that will get flagged. Add the term strategy or strategize to entries about communications with other parties ans counsel and experts. Bill for review of medical literature and assessing potential expert qualifications/online biographical information and CVs. There’s almost always something time can be rolled into, and rightfully so. You did the work. Bill it all. Don’t cut them a break on anything unless you’re getting a really good rate. If it’s a carrier I’m billing it all and by the book with specificity. I’d it’s a private client paying me 400 plus an hour, I typically don’t
What’s the new goal they set?
My min is 150. I hit 200. But barely.
You could definitely separate the emails or just make sure you bill extra in your “correspondence with company” I also break up larger tasks into smaller billable chunks because it’s less likely to get denied for .7 drafted facts section and 1.3 drafted argument rather than 2.0 drafted memo. And I always put page numbers when doing doc review especially when it’s medical records that are hundreds of thousands of pages so the company sees how many pages you’re reviewing which is why it took x amount of time