Why Can A Z Patent Write off Billable Hours, Reduce Billing Rates, And Impose Caps on Attorney Fees?
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A Z Patent has a different philosophy in its billing practice. A majority of the law firms use billable hours to determine legal fees. This outmoded billing practice encourages attorneys to "milk" hours by using unproductive tools. Moreover, attorneys are rewarded for each mistake they make. They often try futile procedural devices that obviously will not help their
clients. In current billing standards, there is little justice for low-income families, the homeless, and small and distressed businesses. When a person cannot afford legal services, there is no justice for them (limited assistance legal services are glossly inadequate).
A Z Patent is an example in the industry in driving down attorney fees, and strives to be the star in promoting the principle of equal justice under the law. It will slash legal fees as far as its technology permits. The firm seeks and uses only productive tools and effective procedural devices in practice. To deliver its promise, it has developed PatentMill (v1.1), DocStudio (v1.3), non-conventional statistical utility, and a rich collection of non-conventional database processing algorithms. This
line of technology is envisioned in total departure from the principle of the software industry to achieve the highest productivity theoretically possible. The firm is able to offer services for low fixed fees. In cases where legal fees are not fixed, it can give a 50%time discount or a 50% billing rate discount. It also liberally defers payments and even forgives attorney fees in proper
situations.
If A Z Patent used the same service model, it would not survive in competition. Under the normal service paradigm, an attorney work 12 hours but may bill only 7 hours. This is because some hours attorneys use are not billable.The firm is able to eliminate as much administrative time as possible. Also, the firm uses Internet as a principle business tool, which helps it reduce overhead cost substantially.It pays little attention to image as other law firms do. Instead, it values the image as innovation leader in envisioning new professional tools.
Suppose that a patent attorney has prepared a patent application with 60 claims. Before filing the application, the inventor requests
and the attorney agrees that a particular limitation (e.g., a feature) is removed from all claims. In order to make the change, it is necessary to remove two patent claims (No. 3 and No. 15) and to modify a number of claims. The attorney will have to spend at least 2 ADDITIONAL hours to make all necessary changes. If an attorney does the work, it is billable even though most of the work is of administrative nature. A Z Patent can separate administrative component from truly legal component, and delegate the former to a fast computer. Thus, it is able to pass savings to its clients.
For more information, please contact the firm
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