Time slips are the entries attorneys and their staff use to record billable work: who performed the task, the date, the client and matter, how long it took, and a short narrative of what was done. In attorney billing, time slips feed every client invoice and every court-filed request for fees, so the quality of the entry controls whether the firm actually gets paid for the hour. Vague or missing detail costs money, because judges and clients treat a thin description the same way they treat no description at all.
What Belongs on Every Entry
Each slip needs the same core fields: the name of the person doing the work, the date, the client and matter number, the duration, and a narrative describing the task. The matter number routes the charge to the correct account, which matters when a firm handles several matters for the same client. Larger clients sometimes add a project or billing code so spending can be tracked by litigation phase or department.
Rates depend on who did the work. Attorneys bill at their own hourly rate, and paralegals and law clerks bill at lower rates set by local market norms. The Supreme Court held in Missouri v. Jenkins that paralegal time is compensable at market rates rather than at cost.1Justia Law. Missouri v. Jenkins, 491 U.S. 274 (1989) Purely clerical work is a different story. Photocopying, scheduling, filing, and talking to court clerks are considered overhead already built into the hourly rate, so billing an attorney’s hour for organizing a file folder is a fast way to have the entry struck no matter who performed it.
The Six-Minute Increment
Most professionals record time in tenths of an hour, meaning the minimum billing unit is six minutes. A task that lasts one to six minutes is 0.1 hours; seven to twelve minutes is 0.2; and so on up through the full hour.2United States District Court Northern District of California. Billing Increment Chart – Minutes to Tenths of an Hour The system catches short items like a phone call or a brief email without forcing a round-up to a quarter-hour.
The precision cuts both ways. A two-minute call written down as 0.1 slightly overstates the work, but that is the accepted floor. Problems start when a four-minute task is routinely logged as 0.2 or 0.3, because the same habit repeated across hundreds of entries inflates an invoice well beyond the work it reflects.
Writing a Narrative That Will Hold Up
The narrative is the part of the slip that matters most whenever anyone looks twice at the bill. “File review” or “research” tells the reader nothing about whether the task was necessary or how long it should have taken. “Reviewed deposition transcript of plaintiff’s treating physician regarding causation opinions” gives a billing partner, client, or judge enough to evaluate the entry on its face.
A workable narrative answers three things: the specific task performed, the documents or issues involved, and how the work advanced the matter. It should be precise enough to justify the time and short enough to read fast. Federal courts have denied fee requests where entries were so vague the judge could not tell whether the hours were reasonable, with reductions in some cases well above a third of the total request.
There is a real tension in writing with detail. Specific entries defend the bill, but they can also expose strategy if the slips later have to be filed as evidence. Federal Rule of Evidence 502 governs waiver of privilege in federal proceedings, and courts can enter protective orders allowing disclosure of billing records without a broader privilege waiver.3Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Evidence Rule 502 – Attorney-Client Privilege and Work Product Limitations on Waiver The practical compromise is to be specific about the task without spelling out mental impressions. “Researched statute of limitations defense for motion to dismiss” is fine. “Researched whether we can exploit the weak causation evidence to force early settlement” is a problem.
Billing Practices That Draw Trouble
ABA Model Rule 1.5 bars an attorney from charging an unreasonable fee and lists factors for evaluating reasonableness, including the time and labor required, the difficulty of the issues, the skill involved, the attorney’s experience, and the customary fee for comparable work.4American Bar Association. Rule 1.5 Fees Nearly every state has adopted a version of the rule, so it functions as the national baseline. Several patterns consistently violate it or related guidance:
- Block billing. Lumping several tasks into a single time entry so no one can tell how long each one took. No rule bans it outright, but courts treat it as a red flag and often respond with a percentage reduction of the lumped block.
- Padding. Rounding time upward past the six-minute increment or inflating the length of a task. A pattern of 0.5-hour entries for routine emails suggests padding, not effort.
- Double billing. Charging two clients for the same hour. ABA Formal Opinion 93-379 concluded that when work benefits multiple clients at once, the total has to be split rather than billed in full to each.
- Billing overhead separately. Office costs, library access, malpractice insurance, and utilities are built into the hourly rate. Charging them as line items without advance disclosure violates the duty of fair dealing.
- Billing clerical tasks at professional rates. Filing, scheduling, and routine coordination with court staff are secretarial. Charging them at attorney or paralegal rates is improper no matter who did them.1Justia Law. Missouri v. Jenkins, 491 U.S. 274 (1989)
Discipline for billing misconduct ranges from a private reprimand to license suspension, scaled to severity and whether the attorney shows a pattern. Judges reviewing fee petitions look for the same practices and will reduce or deny the request when they find them.
How Time Slips Support a Fee Petition
When a prevailing party asks the court to award attorney fees, the time slips are the central evidence. Courts use the lodestar method: hours reasonably spent multiplied by a reasonable hourly rate. The Supreme Court set the framework in Hensley v. Eckerhart, calling that calculation “the most useful starting point for determining the amount of a reasonable fee.”5Justia Law. Hensley v. Eckerhart, 461 U.S. 424 (1983)
“Reasonably” does heavy work. Judges cut hours that look excessive, duplicative, or poorly documented. Vague entries get trimmed or dropped. Block-billed entries that bundle several tasks into one time figure prevent the court from assessing any one of them, and across-the-board percentage reductions are the common response. Rates are checked against what attorneys of similar experience charge in the local market for comparable work.
Federal courts require records kept contemporaneously, meaning at or near the time the work is done rather than reconstructed from memory weeks later. Petitions built on after-the-fact reconstructions draw skepticism and are often denied. The certifying attorney generally has to attest that the records were made contemporaneously with the work.
The 14-Day Deadline
Under the federal rules, a motion for attorney fees must be filed no later than 14 days after entry of judgment, unless a statute or court order sets a different deadline.6Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 54 – Judgment Costs Missing that window can waive the claim entirely. The tight timing is a reason to keep records current through the whole litigation rather than compile them after the verdict.
Bankruptcy Has Extra Teeth
Professionals employed in bankruptcy cases face a second layer of review. Under 11 U.S.C. ยง 330, the court can award reasonable compensation only for services necessary to administer the case or reasonably likely to benefit the estate, and will not allow compensation for unnecessary duplication or work that served no useful purpose.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 330 – Compensation of Officers The United States Trustee reviews every entry before it reaches the judge, so itemization is not optional.
The difference from ordinary fee shifting is what happens when the court cuts the request. If approved compensation turns out to be less than interim fees already paid, the court can order the professional to return the excess to the estate.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 330 – Compensation of Officers A professional in other contexts risks a reduced award. A bankruptcy professional risks writing a check back.
How Long to Keep the Records
Retention periods depend on the use. For tax purposes, the IRS generally requires records supporting income or deductions to be kept at least three years after the return is filed, or six years if more than 25 percent of gross income was omitted. Employment tax records must be kept at least four years.8Internal Revenue Service. Publication 583 Starting a Business and Keeping Records
Ethics rules often reach further. Under most states’ version of Rule 1.15, records tied to client funds and property have to be preserved for at least five years after the representation ends. Because time slips document the basis for fees charged against client funds, many jurisdictions treat them as falling within that requirement. Firms that expect fee disputes, malpractice claims, or future petitions should keep records well past any minimum.
When a Client Challenges the Bill
Clients who think a bill is unreasonable have options. State and local bar associations run fee arbitration programs where a neutral panel reviews the billing records and decides whether the charges were fair. In some jurisdictions, the attorney has to participate when the client requests it. The process is usually faster and cheaper than suing, and often ends within a few months.
If the fight ends up in court, the slips themselves become the evidence. The standards that govern fee petitions govern here too: entries must be specific, contemporaneous, and reasonable. An attorney defending a bill built on vague or block-billed entries starts at a disadvantage, because the burden shifts to justify time the records do not clearly explain. Firms that build disciplined billing habits rarely reach that fight, because clients who can see what they paid for are far less likely to challenge the invoice.