Safer Fees & Bills: AI, Costs Agreements and Recovering What You Are Owed

Free CPD on what AI is changing in your billing, your costs agreements and your professional obligations, and how to make sure you are paid for the work you do. It is presented by costs expert Joe Rose and Jennie Pakula, who spent almost 30 years in legal services regulation.

About the series

Costs agreements, time recording, billing and the bill a client questions are where most costs problems begin. AI now runs through all of them: it changes how long the work takes, what you record, what you tell your client and what an assessor is likely to allow.

Joe takes the costs and billing side and Jennie takes ethics and conduct, so the two halves fit together without overlapping. Session 1 sets out the issues firms are dealing with now. Session 2 moves into the room, where you work through one matter from start to finish.

Session 1, online: what is covered

• Joe Rose: where AI use shows up in your time recording, and what an assessor is likely to disallow.
• Joe Rose: what happens to hourly billing when the work takes a quarter of the time, and where alternative fee arrangements help or create new problems.
• Jennie Pakula: a practical conduct framework for using AI in your practice, what to tell clients about AI in their matter and when, and where the regulator's attention is heading.

Session 2, the workshop: how the afternoon runs

• 3.45pm: registration.
• 4.00pm: costs assessments, recovery and the bill that gets questioned, with Joe Rose.
• 4.45pm: AI, ethics and staying out of trouble, with Jennie Pakula.
• 5.15pm: one matter, start to finish. The room follows a single fact scenario from the costs agreement and the AI question, through the bill and the complaint, to assessment and recovery.
• 6.00pm: drinks and canapés with the speakers.

Costs assessment works differently in New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria, so Joe tailors the assessment and recovery material and the worked scenario to the rules in each city.

What you leave the workshop with

• A clear picture of what a costs assessment involves in your state, and what an assessor looks for in a file.
• Costs agreements that hold up, including what to disclose about AI use and disbursements.
• A way to respond when a client questions a bill, before it becomes a complaint or a costs dispute.
• A sense of when recovery is worth pursuing, including defendant costs and costs orders.
• A practical ethics and conduct framework for AI use in your firm.

Who it is for

Litigation practices of any size and in any area of law, whether your work is commercial, building and construction, family, personal injury, estates, employment or insurance. It suits principals, partners and the senior associates who draft costs agreements and issue bills, as well as the practice and finance managers who run the billing cycle.

Your speakers

Register

Free for members and guests. Register below for the workshop in your city. Session 1 has its own registration on Zoom: use the Register on Zoom button above, and Zoom will email you your joining link.