The Legal Electronic Data Exchange Standard defines file formats for electronic legal invoices. LEDES 1998B is the most widely used, with extended formats supporting additional fields for budgets and matter data.
Each line item includes date, timekeeper, task and activity codes, hours, rate, and narrative.
Alternative Names:
LEDES, Legal Electronic Data Exchange Standard
Why it Matters?
LEDES submission is a practical requirement for insurance defense and corporate panel work, since e-billing systems cannot process invoices in other formats. The structured data also enables the analytics clients use to evaluate firms, meaning a firm's task coding directly feeds the benchmarking that drives panel decisions. Inconsistent coding produces data that makes the firm look worse than its performance warrants.
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Frequently asked questions
What does a LEDES file contain?
Why does coding accuracy matter beyond payment?
