Litigation budgeting and litigation billing live in two different worlds. Maybe it is time to bring the two together.

A typical budget plans for the major efforts along with an anticipated cost for each. For example, using round numbers, a budget might include a line item for 10 anticipated depositions at an expected cost of $5,000 each for defending and $15,000 each for taking.

The bills themselves, on the other hand, seem, at best, vaguely connected with the budgeted items. Years ago the American Bar Association came up with codes to push a breakdown of fees billed into litigation codes and activities. For example, an entry might be for “Drafting first interrogatories” with a litigation code of L310 (written discovery) and A103 (draft/revise). Combined with the extreme but now common practice of breaking time into six-minute intervals, clients using this system receive lengthy bills that are highly segmented and time-consuming to review.