Legal billing glossary
Legal billing — defined
Plain-language definitions of legal billing concepts that matter for firms evaluating how voice-first capture fits their practice.
Terms
All definitions
Contemporaneous time capture
The practice of recording time entries at or close to when the work is performed — not reconstructed from memory later. The foundation of accurate legal billing.
Legal time entry
A billable record of legal work performed for a client — including client/matter reference, a description of the work, the time value, and billing rate. The core unit of legal billing.
Billing narrative
The written description in a time entry — what work was done, for whom, and in what context. Narrative quality affects client satisfaction, billing acceptance, and write-down risk.
Write-down risk
The risk that a billed amount will be reduced or eliminated — proactively or in response to client objection — because an entry is vague, duplicative, or difficult to justify.