How Billing Works With a Contract Paralegal (Yes, You Can Bill the Time)

The ethics question usually comes first — we covered it in the first post of this series. The money question comes second, usually in three parts: Can I pass a contract paralegal's time through to the case? How does this work in a contingency practice? And does the math actually favor it over doing the work myself or hiring someone?

Fair questions, all with good answers. Let's take them in order. (Standing caveat: educational content, not legal advice — billing ethics have jurisdictional wrinkles, and your rules control. Verify anything here against them.)

Question 1: Is contract paralegal time billable like in-house paralegal time?

In general, yes — the authorities that have addressed nonlawyer assistant time treat it as compensable legal-support work without distinguishing employees from contractors. The U.S. Supreme Court recognized decades ago that paralegal time in fee awards is properly billed at market rates rather than cost, and bar guidance on contract services points the same direction: what matters isn't the worker's W-2 status, it's that the work is substantive, supervised, and reasonable.

The recurring conditions across jurisdictions are worth knowing as a checklist. Substantive work — paralegal time spent on legal work (chronologies, drafting, digesting) is billable; purely clerical time generally isn't, whoever performs it. Reasonableness — rate and hours both, like every fee. Honest characterization — billed as paralegal/legal-assistant time, disclosed per your jurisdiction's rules; if you mark up the cost, the markup rules for your state apply, and that's precisely the detail to verify locally rather than take from a blog post — including mine.

One thing that makes the conversation easy on my end: my invoices are built to be passed through. Time entries by task and date, in the format your billing (or your fee-petition exhibit) needs, with the supervision trail attached. Contract support that bills vaguely creates work for you; that's a vendor problem, not a model problem.

Question 2: How does this work on contingency?

Most of my attorneys run contingency practices, so this is really the operative question — and the answer reframes the whole thing. On contingency, paralegal support isn't a client-billing issue; it's a case-cost and economics issue, in two parts.

First, the mechanical part: depending on your fee agreement and jurisdiction, contract litigation-support costs may be treatable as case expenses, recoverable per your agreement's expense terms — or simply absorbed as overhead, like your in-house staff would be. Your fee agreement language decides this; worth a look before the first engagement (and worth drafting deliberately into future agreements).

Second, the economic part, which is where the real money is: on contingency, your hours are your inventory. Every hour you spend organizing records is an hour not spent on the work that grows recoveries — strategy, negotiation, the next signed case. The contingency attorney's question isn't "can I bill her time?" It's "what is my hour worth, and why am I spending it on $65 work?"

Question 3: The math

Three ways to get a chronology built; the numbers tell the story. (Figures illustrative — current rates on the pricing page.)

You do it. Ten hours of records work at an effective attorney rate of $250–400/hour is $2,500–4,000 of your inventory spent on paralegal-level work — plus the opportunity cost: that's a deposition, a mediation, two demand reviews, or the intake meeting that signs the next case.

In-house hire. A paralegal salary plus benefits, software, and management lands well north of $60K/year before the first hour of work — the right answer at sustained volume, and a later post in this series does that math honestly. The catch for small firms is the volume threshold: a hire makes sense when the work is steady; PI caseloads spike.

Contract, as needed. The same ten-hour chronology at my rates runs $650 (less on volume retainer — $55/hour past the threshold). No idle cost in slow months, no benefits load, no management overhead, scales up for trial season and down after.

The comparison isn't subtle, and it isn't really about my rate versus a salary. It's about what your own hour is for. The firms that use contract support well aren't saving money on paralegals — they're buying back attorney hours and spending them where they multiply.

What this looks like on an invoice

Practical close, because the details are the trust: engagements run on the tiered hourly structure published on my pricing page ($65/hour standard; $55/hour at volume), with add-on fees listed — no surprises, nothing discovered at invoice time. Each invoice itemizes by case, task, and time, formatted so it drops into your cost tracking or fee petition without translation. You'll never get a line that says "litigation support — 14 hours."

In a trust business, the documentation is the argument.The line this whole series keeps circling

Transparent on the website, transparent on the invoice. It's the same principle this whole series keeps circling: in a trust business, the documentation is the argument.

Questions attorneys ask

Educational content for legal professionals — not legal advice. Billing and fee rules vary by jurisdiction; verify against your own.