Litigation: Precedent H starts with time recording
Costs budgets in Precedent H, monitoring spend against the budget, and the electronic bill of costs for detailed assessment all depend on the same thing: time recorded against the right phase, task and activity. Whether that happens is decided by how time recording is set up, often years before the bill is needed.
One structure, three uses
- The budget: Precedent H sets out incurred and estimated costs by phase, from pre-action to trial.
- Monitoring: once a budget is approved, the firm needs to see spend against each phase as the case progresses, and act before a phase is exceeded.
- The bill: for detailed assessment, costs must be presented in an electronic bill, broken down by phase, task and activity. Precedent S is the model format.
If time is recorded as "working on file" or "perusal", none of these can be produced from the system. Someone reconstructs them later, at cost and with less accuracy.
The small decisions
- Codes at the point of recording: can fee earners choose phase, task and activity quickly, with sensible defaults, on desktop, in Outlook and on mobile?
- Mandatory or optional: on which matter types are codes required, and who checks?
- Budget versus actual: is there a live view by phase, with alerts, and can the budget be revised and the revision kept?
- Fixed recoverable costs: where fixed costs apply, can the system track them against the work actually done?
- Output: can the system produce Precedent H and the electronic bill directly, or export the data to a costs draftsman in a form they can use?
What to ask, and what to see
- Record time with phase, task and activity codes in under a minute, including on a phone.
- Show budget against actual by phase for a sample matter, with an alert.
- Produce Precedent H and an electronic bill of costs, or the export your costs draftsman needs.
Technical notes: small decisions, big consequences
Start with the overview: The details that decide the project
Accounts and finance
- Core accounting is still the gold standard
- One-way or two-way sync? Connecting your legal system to Xero
- Units or minutes? How time is recorded
- Your matter and nominal structure
- Making Tax Digital: the firm and its clients
Workflow, data and documents
- Workflow: deep, basic or none?
- Client onboarding and matter inception: portal, e-signature and ID checks working as one
- Custom data: what you rely on, and how you move it
- Precedents, merge codes and macros: your document bank in a new system
Your types of work
- Legal aid: your records, not just the Legal Aid Agency’s
- Litigation: Precedent H starts with time recording (you are here)
- Family: Form E and financial disclosure
- Private client: where does the tax software fit?
Security and access
- Roles or individuals? How user permissions are set up
- Why manage security twice? Linking application security to Microsoft Entra
- How granular is the security inside the system?
- Who can see what in reporting?
- Shared platform, your data: separation, restore and erasure
- When the supplier is the target: where your data lives, who can reach it, and your real risk
Microsoft 365
- How does it connect to Outlook?
- What did you just give it permission to do?
- What happens behind the scenes? Background integrations with Microsoft 365
- OneDrive is not a document management system
- Microsoft 365 is not a backup
Data and decisions
Official sources
Check the detail for yourself at the source. Rules and guidance change, so always use the current version.
- Civil Procedure Rules: The rules for civil litigation, including time limits and service.
- CPR Part 3: case and costs management: Costs budgeting and costs management (Precedent H).
Where does your firm stand?
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