Legal billing enhancement method and apparatus

Abstract

A method of creating a finalized invoice by creating a preliminary invoice showing activities accomplished, submitting the preliminary invoice to an automated rules engine, searching the preliminary invoice for keywords that define possible violations of a company's litigation billing guidelines, highlighting any invoice task that contains identified keywords that would define a possible violation of a company's litigation billing guidelines, querying a user to accept changes based upon identified keywords, and modifying the preliminary invoice into the finalized invoice after accepting the changes. Using the searchable database to create reports that provide average rates charged by law firms on specific types of legal matters in all geographic areas, reports to evaluate which tasks are not being fully compensated by a specific company or legal auditing system, reports to evaluate the average cost to defend specific types of cases in specific jurisdictions.

1 - 17 . (canceled) 
     
     
         18 . A method for checking and creating a finalized invoice before billing a client, the method comprising:
 submitting a preliminary invoice to an automated rules engine running on a computer processor before a final invoice is sent to a client, the preliminary invoice including one or more entries associated with one of a task or an expense;   automatically searching the preliminary invoice for a related fee activity associated with each specific expense billed in the preliminary invoice in a computer-implemented process, wherein when the automated search of the preliminary invoice fails to find a related fee activity associated with a specific expense billed, the method further comprising automatically prompting the user to add the related fee activity not found in a computer-implemented process;   automatically modifying the preliminary invoice when a related fee activity not found in the preceding step is added by the user in a computer-implemented process, the preliminary invoice including a modified entry that includes the related fee activity added by the user; and   automatically generating a final invoice in a computer-implemented process based on the modified entries for sending to a client for payment.   
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 18 , further comprising:
 generating the preliminary invoice in a computer-implemented process before submitting the preliminary invoice to the automated rules engine, wherein the preliminary invoice is submitted electronically to the rules engine.   
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein the automated rules engine is on one of a mainframe computer or a personal computer. 
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein when a specific expense billed in the preliminary invoice is found on a specific date, the step of automatically searching the preliminary invoice for a related fee activity associated with each specific expense billed in the preliminary invoice includes searching the same specific date for a related fee activity associated with the specific expense billed that is found. 
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein the specific expense billed is a travel cost. 
     
     
         23 . The method of  claim 18 , further comprising a step of a user adding the related fee activity not found in a computer-implemented process. 
     
     
         24 . A method for checking and creating a finalized invoice before billing a client, the method comprising:
 submitting a preliminary invoice to an automated rules engine running on a computer processor before a final invoice is sent to a client, the preliminary invoice including one or more entries associated with one of a task or an expense;   automatically searching the preliminary invoice for one of a missing expense associated with a task listed in the preliminary invoice or a missing task associated with an expense listed in the preliminary invoice in a computer-implemented process;   automatically querying a user to add one of the missing associated expense for the task or the missing associated task for the expense when the search of the preliminary invoice fails to locate the associated expense or associated task listed in the invoice in a computer-implemented process;   automatically modifying the preliminary invoice based on a user input received in response to the query in a computer-implemented process, the preliminary invoice including a modified entry that includes the missing associated expense or the missing associated task; and   automatically generating a final invoice in a computer-implemented process based on the modified entries for sending to a client for payment.   
     
     
         25 . The method of  claim 24 , further comprising:
 generating the preliminary invoice in a computer-implemented process before submitting the preliminary invoice to the automated rules engine, wherein the preliminary invoice is submitted electronically to the rules engine.   
     
     
         26 . The method of  claim 24 , wherein the automated rules engine is on one of a mainframe computer or a personal computer. 
     
     
         27 . The method of  claim 24 , wherein the task includes time for an attorney to travel. 
     
     
         28 . The method of  claim 27 , wherein the expense includes the cost for a ticket for the travel. 
     
     
         29 . The method of  claim 24 , further comprising printing the final invoice. 
     
     
         30 . A method for checking and creating a finalized invoice before billing a client, the method comprising:
 submitting a preliminary invoice to an automated rules engine running on a computer processor before a final invoice is sent to a client, the preliminary invoice including one or more entries associated with one of a task or an expense;   automatically searching the preliminary invoice for one of a missing expense associated with a task listed in the preliminary invoice or a missing task associated with an expense listed in the preliminary invoice in a computer-implemented process;   automatically querying a user to add one of the missing expense associated with the task or the missing task associated with the expense when the search of the preliminary invoice fails to locate the associated missing expense or associated missing task listed in the invoice in a computer-implemented process;   automatically modifying the preliminary invoice based on a user input received in response to the query in a computer-implemented process, the preliminary invoice including a modified entry that includes the associated expense or the associated task;   automatically searching the preliminary invoice for a related fee activity associated with each specific expense billed in the preliminary invoice in a computer-implemented process, wherein when the automated search of the preliminary invoice fails to find a related fee activity associated with a specific expense billed, the method further comprising automatically prompting the user to add the related fee activity not found in a computer-implemented process;   automatically modifying the preliminary invoice when a related fee activity not found in the preceding step is added by the user in a computer-implemented process, the preliminary invoice including a modified entry that includes the related fee activity added by the user; and   automatically generating a final invoice in a computer-implemented process based on the modified entries for sending to a client for payment.   
     
     
         31 . The method of  claim 30 , further comprising:
 generating the preliminary invoice in a computer-implemented process before submitting the preliminary invoice to the automated rules engine, wherein the preliminary invoice is submitted electronically to the rules engine.   
     
     
         32 . The method of  claim 30 , wherein the automated rules engine is on one of a mainframe computer or a personal computer. 
     
     
         33 . The method of  claim 30 , wherein when a specific expense billed in the preliminary invoice is found on a specific date, the step of automatically searching the preliminary invoice for a related fee activity associated with each specific expense billed in the preliminary invoice includes searching the same specific date for a related fee activity associated with the specific expense billed that is found. 
     
     
         34 . The method of  claim 30 , wherein the specific expense billed is a travel cost. 
     
     
         35 . The method of  claim 30 , further comprising a step of a user adding the related fee activity not found in a computer-implemented process.