Category: Ebilling Standards

XML Ebilling Format Updates

Earlier this year, the LEDES Oversight Committee proposed revisions to the LEDES XML 2.0x, 2.1x and 2.2 ebilling standards. The public comment period for these changes closed on July 25, 2022 and there were no objections to the proposed changes.

While preparing the final paperwork to ratify these changes, additional discussion occurred on deficiencies that need correction in the XML formats. The documents presented here reflect these additional requested changes.

A new public comment period has opened and will close on December 9, 2022.

Significant to these changes are a number of requests by global ebillers to address insufficiencies in the current formats and processes. In particular, a change has been proposed that will require vendors to change the data element used for rate validation and require updating client electronic validation routines. While we have tried to minimize the number of changes required, this fundamentally changes how rate checking operates and represents a big effort on the part of vendors to enact.

Additionally, The LEDES Oversight Committee has scheduled 3 webinars on the proposed changes for which registration is required:

To attend the law firm-oriented webinar, scheduled on Wednesday, 7 December 2022 at 10:00 a.m. Eastern, register here.
To attend the law department-oriented webinar, scheduled on Wednesday, 7 December 2022 at 11:30 a.m. Eastern, register here.
To attend the vendor-oriented webinar, scheduled 7 December 2022 at 1:00 p.m. Eastern, register here.

To review the proposed changes or provide your opinion on the changes, click here.  

New LEDES Standards

The LEDES Oversight Committee has ratified new standards for legal ebilling and I had the honor of leading the development effort. There were some basic changes:

  • Increased the size of the invoice number and to increase the number of decimal columns for the tax rate (LEDES 99BI, XML 2.0, XML 2.1)
  • Added a data element for the CTC tax authority invoice reference number and to clarify other fields where we have noted confusion (XML 2.0, XML 2.1)
  • Moved the math statement to a separate tab and clarified math references (XML 2.1)
  • Created functionality to support tiered taxes (new format XML 2.2)

The new formats are available on LEDES.org.