The Uniform Task-Based Management System (UTBMS) is a set of codes designed to standardize categorization and facilitate the analysis of legal work and expenses. UTBMS was produced through a collaborative effort among the American Bar Association Section of Litigation, the American Corporate Counsel Association, and a group of major corporate clients and law firms coordinated and supported by Price Waterhouse LLP (now PricewaterhouseCoopers). UTBMS codes are now maintained and developed by the Legal Electronic Data Exchange Standard (LEDES) Oversight Committee.
Background
UTBMS coding is reflected in legal bills sent from a law firm to its corporate clients.[1] Law firms will usually use coding on time and expenses only for those clients who explicitly request it. Most clients who use UTBMS also require electronic billing, usually with an invoice in a LEDES e-billing format.
Fees, which are attorney and legal assistant time charges, are coded with task and activity codes. There are five sets of task codes: Litigation, Intellectual Property, Counseling, Project and Bankruptcy. The set used for a given matter (i.e., case or transaction) depends upon the nature of that matter. Tasks may be summarized into phases. Tasks are often reported without reporting the phase, as this can be deduced from the task. The phase/task hierarchy is uniform in the Litigation, Intellectual Property and Bankruptcy task code sets. In the Project set, only the second phase contains multiple tasks. The Counseling set has only a single level. (In such situations, a code may be considered both a phase and a task, and it may be necessary to program the time and billing software this way.) There is a single set of activity codes, which is used in conjunction with each of the four task code sets. There is also a single set of expense codes, which are independent of phase, task and activity codes.
The codes themselves are composed of a letter (the first letter of the task code set), followed by a three-digit number. Tasks sharing the same letter and first digit belong to the same phase.
From time-to-time, the LEDES Oversight Committee (LOC), the administrative body that oversees these codes, adds and changes codes. In 2007, a set of Intellectual Property codes (for patents and trademarks) were finalized and ratified.[2] In 2011, a set of "eDiscovery" codes were ratified.[3][4] In 2015, the LOC ratified a set of Governance, Risk and Compliance codes based on the Open Compliance & Ethics Group (OCEG) GRC Capability Model.
X133 Private Investigators, Investigative Reports and Investigation Fees
X134 Arbitrators/Mediators
X135 Local Counsel
X136 Appraiser/Appraisal Fees
X137 Experts, Consultants, Other Vendors and Professionals
X138 Litigation Support Vendors
X139 Translation
X140 Special Purpose Location/Office Rental
X141 Special Purpose Moving and Storage Fees
X142 Settlement Costs
X143 Bank Fees
X200 Drawings
X201 Patent and Trademark Records
X202 Patent and Trademark Searching and Monitoring
X203 Patent and Trademark Prosecution Application Official Fees, Excluding Prosecution Post-Issuance and Opposition Fees
X204 Patent and Trademark Prosecution Post-Issuance (Patent Maintenance and Trademark Renewal) Fees, Excluding Prosecution Application and Opposition Fees
X205 Official Fees, Patent and Trademark Opposition Fees, Excluding Prosecution (Application or Post-Issuance) Fees
X206 IP Annuity Payments
X207 IP Holdbacks
X300 Discovery/eDiscovery Collection-Forensic
X301 Discovery/eDiscovery Collection-Third Party
X302 Discovery/eDiscovery Culling & Filtering
X303 Bates Stamping/ Control Numbers
X304 Discovery/eDiscovery Review and Analysis
X305 Discovery/eDiscovery Privilege Review Culling and Log Creation
X306 Discovery/eDiscovery Document Production Creation and Preparation
X309 Discovery/eDiscovery Evidence/Exhibit Creation and Preparation
JE10 Issue and Serve Proceedings and Preparation of Statement(s) of Case
JE20 Review of Other Party(s)' Statements of Case
JE30 Requests for Further Information
JE40 Amendment of Statements of Case
JF00 Disclosure
JF10 Preparation of the disclosure report and the disclosure proposal
JF20 Obtaining and reviewing documents
JF30 Preparing and serving disclosure lists
JF40 Inspection and review of the other side's disclosure for work undertaken after exchange of disclosure lists.
JG00 Witness statements
JG10 Taking, preparing and finalising witness statement(s)
JG20 Reviewing Other Party(s)' witness statement(s)
JH00 Expert reports
JH10 Own expert evidence
JH20 Other Party(s)' expert evidence
JH30 Joint expert evidence
JI00 Case and Costs Management Hearings
JI10 Case Management Conference
JI20 Pre Trial Review
JI30 Costs Management Conference
JJ00 Interim Applications and Hearings (Interlocutory Applications)
JJ10 Applications relating to originating process or Statement of Case or for default or summary judgment
JJ20 Applications for an injunction or committal
JJ30 Applications for disclosure or Further Information
JJ40 Applications concerning evidence
JJ50 Applications relating to Costs alone
JJ60 Permission applications
JJ70 Other applications
JK00 Trial preparation
JK10 Preparation of trial bundles
JK20 General work regarding preparation for trial
JL00 Trial
JL10 Advocacy
JL20 Support of advocates
JL30 Judgment and post-trial activity
JM00 Costs Assessment
JM10 Preparing costs claim
JM20 Points of dispute, Replies and Negotiations
JM30 Hearings
JM40 Post Assessment Work (excluding Hearings)
References
^Uniform Task-Based Management System, American Bar Association, retrieved 27 Feb 2016, The Uniform Task-Based Management System enables lawyers to budget and bill by litigation task, aiding client and counsel in understanding, managing and conducting litigations.
^UTBMS eDiscovery Code Set, EDRM, retrieved 27 Feb 2016, The LEDES Oversight Committee (LOC) Uniform Task Based Management System (UTBMS) eDiscovery Code Set, ratified in 2011, is based on the EDRM Metrics Code set.
