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Legal Electronic Data Exchange Standard
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<h2 id="electronic-billing-formats">Electronic billing formats</h2> <p>The electronic billing data exchange format types provide a standard data format for electronically transmitted invoices, typically from a <a href="/facts/Law_firm/NQ2T1qI0">law firm</a> to a <a href="/facts/Corporation/hykSVoWJ">corporate</a> client. The LEDES e-billing format currently has the following variations:<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:1" href="#fn:1"><sup>1</sup></a> </p> <ul><li>LEDES 1998, the first "LEDES" format, created in 1998, but no longer in use. The format does not appear on www.LEDES.org.</li> <li>LEDES 1998B, a pipe-delimited plain text file. The standard was adopted in 1998, and it is the more commonly used LEDES format in the US. It lacks flexibility, having a rigid structure, and does not support taxes on legal fees. Another disadvantage of LEDES 1998B is that invoice-level data is repeated on every line item even though it is only needed once, as it does not vary per line. Many clients attempt to impose nonstandard customizations, thus defeating the purpose of having a standard. Nonetheless, US-based law firms prefer it for its simplicity and familiarity.</li> <li>LEDES XML 2000, adopted in 2000, is an older <a href="/facts/XML/clNgUfWk">XML</a> format that uses a DTD. In LEDES 2000, although the structure is well defined, the specification defines "extend" segments, allowing the insertion of client-specific fields without breaking the format or violating the standard.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:2" href="#fn:2"><sup>2</sup></a> The format is no longer supported by the LEDES Oversight Committee and information on the format will be removed from www.LEDES.org on February 1, 2024.</li> <li>LEDES 1998BI (international), a pipe-delimited plain text file, proposed in 2004 by the Legal IT Innovators Group (LITIG) and ratified by the LEDES Oversight Committee in 2006. Based on the LEDES 1998B standard, it includes all of the fields in the LEDES 1998B format, plus additional ones. This format was designed to accommodate legal bills generated outside of the United States and allows for one tax per line item.</li> <li>LEDES XML 2.0, an XML format that uses XSD. It was ratified in 2006 and addresses international needs in XML format. Unlike earlier LEDES formats, XML 2.0 represents the nature of the financial transaction between the parties. It supports multiple taxes on line-items and provides AFA Support. It contains 15 segments and 156 data elements.</li> <li>LEDES XML 2.1, ratified in 2008. It contains all of the data points in XML 2.0, plus additional segments and data elements to provide: enhanced tax functionality with support for Withholding and Credit Notes; and invoice-level global extensibility. It contains 16 segments and 194 data elements.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3"><sup>3</sup></a></li> <li>LEDES XML 2.2, ratified in 2020. It contains all of the data points in XML 2.1, plus additional segments and data elements to support tiered taxes. It contains 18 segments and 206 data elements.</li></ul> <h2 id="other-data-exchange-formats">Other data exchange formats</h2> <p>The other LEDES data exchange formats are as follows: </p> <ul><li>LEDES Budget was ratified in 2006. This XML format facilitates the exchange of budget data between law firms and clients.</li> <li>LEDES Timekeeper Attribute was ratified in 2007 and revised in 2014. This XML format used to transmit timekeeper and rate data to from law firms to clients.</li> <li>IPMM Invention Disclosure Standard was ratified in 2015. This is a set of <a href="/facts/XML_Schema_(W3C)/X6Uly3dm">XML schemas</a> that can validate an XML document containing <a href="/facts/Invention_disclosure/maP9QTD3">invention disclosure</a> data.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4"><sup>4</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:5" href="#fn:5"><sup>5</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:6" href="#fn:6"><sup>6</sup></a></li></ul> <h2 id="utbms">UTBMS</h2> <p class="note">Main article: <a href="/facts/Uniform_Task-Based_Management_System/8zlCRI6P">Uniform Task-Based Management System</a></p> <p>The Uniform Task-Based Management System is a widely used system for coding legal work.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:7" href="#fn:7"><sup>7</sup></a> </p><p>In April 2006, the UTBMS Update Initiative voted to merge into the LEDES Oversight Committee. Shortly thereafter, the LEDES Oversight Committee established www.UTBMS.com as the global reference for all known UTBMS standards, regardless of the organization that established the standard. </p> <h2 id="ledes-error-codes---version-2">LEDES Error Codes - Version 2</h2> <p>In 2020, the LEDES Oversight Committee (LOC) ratified Version 1 of the LEDES Error Codes, which aimed to establish a standardized framework for identifying errors in electronic billing (e-billing) submissions. In September 2024, Version 1 was fully updated and replaced by Version 2, which was ratified by the LEDES Board. This new version continues the mission of standardizing the identification of errors in e-billing submissions across different systems and clients. </p><p>Why LEDES Error Codes? </p><p>The introduction of LEDES Error Codes addresses a longstanding issue expressed by many law firm members. Prior to the standardization, law firms and corporate legal departments spent significant time tracking down errors caused by non-standardized and often unintelligible error messages in e-billing submissions. These error messages gave little indication of what needed to be fixed, resulting in wasted hours and inefficient workflows. </p><p>The standardized Error Codes are designed to make e-billing error identification more consistent and easier to understand, which will help reduce the time law firms, corporate legal departments, and software vendors spend on correcting billing errors. The hope is that the implementation of these standardized error codes across the industry will streamline the billing process and reduce the administrative burden on legal teams, ultimately enhancing the efficiency of legal billing practices. </p> <h2 id="2024-ledes-oversight-committee-board-of-directors">2024 LEDES Oversight Committee Board of Directors</h2> <p>The 2024 Board of Directors of the LEDES Oversight Committee (LOC) plays a critical role in overseeing the development and implementation of LEDES standards, including the new version of the LEDES Error Codes. The following individuals serve on the 2024 LOC Board: </p><p>President: <a href="https://globallegalebilling.com/about-gle/#:~:text=Global%20Legal%20Ebilling%20founder%20Jane,Jane's%20specialty%20is%20global%20ebilling.">Jane A. Bennitt, Global Legal Ebilling, LLC</a> Vice President: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/cathicollins/">Cathrine J. Collins, Legal Systems Automation, LLC</a> Treasurer/Membership: <a href="https://www.coblentzlaw.com/people/jim-hannigan/">Jim Hannigan, Coblentz Patch Duffy & Bass LLP</a> Standards: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-n-94719413/">David Nelson, Pathfinder eConsulting Limited</a> Secretary: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/nadia-strobbia-b1212416/?original_referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Egoogle%2Ecom%2F&originalSubdomain=it">Nadia Strobbia, Elite</a> Regional Groups: <a href="https://andrewdey.com/">Andrew Dey, Andrew Dey Limited</a> Marketing: <a href="https://www.inemesitedet.com/about">Inemesit Edet, Smart eBill Team</a> </p> <h2 id="see-also">See also</h2> <ul><li><a href="/facts/Electronic_data_interchange/ydnn0fTW">Electronic data interchange</a> (EDI)</li> <li><a href="/facts/Expense_and_cost_recovery_system_(ECRS)/LbWW0w8k">Expense and cost recovery system (ECRS)</a></li> <li><a href="/facts/Extract,_transform,_load/WRaRgJL5">Extract, transform, load (ETL)</a></li></ul> <h2 id="notes">Notes</h2> <h2 id="external-links">External links</h2> <ul><li><a href="http://www.ledes.org/">LEDES website</a></li> <li><a href="https://utbms.com/">UTBMS website</a></li></ul> <h2 id="references">References</h2> <ol> <li id="fn:1"><p>Wirtz, Scott (1 Sep 2006), "Electronic Legal Invoice Delivery", Metropolitan Corporate Counsel, Mountainside, NJ: Metropolitan Corporate Counsel, p. 22, retrieved 26 Feb 2016 <a href="http://www.metrocorpcounsel.com/articles/7198/electronic-legal-invoice-delivery" target="_blank">http://www.metrocorpcounsel.com/articles/7198/electronic-legal-invoice-delivery</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:2"><p>Hodge, Jeff (March 2005), "LEDES on Steroids: 2K Is Coming!", Finance: Accounting in the Electronic Age, Austin, TX: International Legal Technology Association, pp. 15–16, retrieved 27 Feb 2016 <a href="http://connect.iltanet.org/HigherLogic/System/DownloadDocumentFile.ashx?DocumentFileKey=98c3a4c0-bad0-462d-b619-1e5932afa698&forceDialog=0&ssopc=1" target="_blank">http://connect.iltanet.org/HigherLogic/System/DownloadDocumentFile.ashx?DocumentFileKey=98c3a4c0-bad0-462d-b619-1e5932afa698&forceDialog=0&ssopc=1</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:3"><p>Bennitt, Jane A. (March 2012), "Global E-Billing and the LEDES Oversight Committee", Peer to Peer, Austin, TX: International Legal Technology Association, pp. 96–98, retrieved 27 Feb 2016 <a href="http://connect.iltanet.org/HigherLogic/System/DownloadDocumentFile.ashx?DocumentFileKey=280da4fb-7783-413e-8e55-a8dfb86df172&forceDialog=0&ssopc=1" target="_blank">http://connect.iltanet.org/HigherLogic/System/DownloadDocumentFile.ashx?DocumentFileKey=280da4fb-7783-413e-8e55-a8dfb86df172&forceDialog=0&ssopc=1</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:4"><p>Plonsker, Larry, ed. (December 2014), "Invention Disclosures—A Standard Is Needed" (PDF), LES Global News, vol. XLIX, no. 4, Wellington, FL: Licensing Executives Society International, pp. 7–8, ISSN 0270-174X, retrieved 26 Feb 2016 <a href="https://www.lesi.org/docs/default-source/les-news/lesglobalnews_12_14.pdf?sfvrsn=2#page=7&zoom=auto,-202,417" target="_blank">https://www.lesi.org/docs/default-source/les-news/lesglobalnews_12_14.pdf?sfvrsn=2#page=7&zoom=auto,-202,417</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:5"><p>Sikand, Sunjeev (17 Apr 2015), "Merits Of An XML-Based Invention Disclosure Standard", Law360, New York, NY: Portfolio Media, retrieved 28 Mar 2016, In 2014, the Legal Electronic Data Exchange Standard (LEDES) Intellectual Property Matter Management (IPMM) subcommittee proposed an extensible markup language (XML) invention disclosure standard. An XML-based invention disclosure standard can fulfill a critical need that conventional invention disclosure forms fail to address, namely validation of invention data and automated data analysis. An invention disclosure that conforms to the IPMM standard will receive initial data quality checks and be readable by any conforming application and structured for further handling and analysis. <a href="http://www.law360.com/articles/640012/merits-of-an-xml-based-invention-disclosure-standard" target="_blank">http://www.law360.com/articles/640012/merits-of-an-xml-based-invention-disclosure-standard</a> <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:6"><p>Hunziker, Robin (2017). "Invention Disclosure Standard". The SciTech Lawyer. 13 (2). Chicago: The American Bar Association: 24–25. ISSN 1550-2090. OCLC 663373112. Retrieved 18 Apr 2017. <a href="http://www.americanbar.org/publications/scitech_lawyer/2017/winter/invention_disclosure_standard.html" target="_blank">http://www.americanbar.org/publications/scitech_lawyer/2017/winter/invention_disclosure_standard.html</a> <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:7"><p>"The Legal Electronic Data Exchange Standard (LEDES) Finalizes Code Sets for Intellectual Property Expenses". Business Wire. Berkshire Hathaway. October 23, 2007. Retrieved 26 Feb 2016. <a href="http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20071023005247/en/Legal-Electronic-Data-Exchange-Standard-LEDES-Finalizes" target="_blank">http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20071023005247/en/Legal-Electronic-Data-Exchange-Standard-LEDES-Finalizes</a> <a href="#fnref:7" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> </ol>