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Client calls don’t wait for office hours, especially in litigation.
They come during drives to court, between hearings, while walking out of a courthouse, or minutes before a filing deadline.
First, that breaks your rhythm. It also creates billing problems.
John, a busy trial lawyer, knew this pattern too well. On a typical day, he handled 20–30 client calls, with most of them coming in while he was away from his desk. Many of those calls lasted 8 to 15 minutes and involved critical updates or case strategy.
However, he didn’t always remember what was said. His notes, when he had them, were incomplete.
His billing told a different story, too. Despite spending over two hours a day on client calls, a significant portion of that time never made it into his invoices.
Something had to change.
Table of Contents
6. Stop losing money — Get an iPlum number for litigants
Meet John, the litigator
John works on active trial cases across four counties at any given time. On average, he manages 25–35 open matters, each with its own filings, deadlines, and client expectations.
He prepares motions, coordinates with co-counsel, manages witness schedules, and appears in court several days a week. At the same time, he fields 100+ client calls every week, many tied to time-sensitive questions or last-minute developments.
John doesn’t have a full-time assistant. He runs his calendar, returns calls, and updates case files himself. As a result, every phone conversation carries weight. A 10-minute call, for instance, can change a strategy, trigger a filing, or reset a deadline.
John spends most of his day moving around. While his clients don’t mind, they expect him to respond quickly and act decisively.
As John put it,
“If I can’t remember what I said or what the client needed, that’s a problem. I don’t have the luxury to guess.”
The challenge
John didn’t have a reliable way to track what happened during mobile calls.
As stated, John handled 20–30 client conversations daily on average, with many taken between court appearances or while in transit. At least 3–5 of those calls ended without any written record. He’d hang up, move to the next task, and try to reconstruct the details later.
He kept a notebook in his car and occasionally dictated reminders into his phone. But that system only worked if he had a quiet moment immediately after the call. However, that happened less than half the time.
The billing impact added up quickly. John estimated that he missed billing 60–90 minutes per week from short, undocumented calls. Over the course of a month, that translated into 4 to 6 unbilled hours he couldn’t fully justify.
Client behavior compounded the problem. Some clients called multiple times per week, with conversations shaping strategy and filings. Yet John had no dependable record to reference later.
Over time, two issues became apparent—lost billable time and weak documentation.
He needed to fix both.
“I wasn’t losing hours in chunks. I was losing ten minutes here, fifteen there. By the end of the month, that’s real money and real case history I couldn’t afford to miss.” — John.
The solution
John decided to try iPlum’s phone system for law firms.
Within one business day, he routed 100% of client calls through his dedicated iPlum business line. From that point on, every call created a full log with the date, time, duration, and caller ID, automatically.
He also enabled automatic call recording for all client conversations. As a result, every call now had a verifiable record, removing the need to rely on memory or handwritten notes between hearings.
He also enabled iPlum’s auto-transcription feature, which turns recorded calls into searchable text.
Now, each recorded call converts into searchable text within minutes. And, after longer conversations, John only spends 2 to 3 minutes reviewing the transcript and pulling exact details into his case notes, instead of rewriting summaries from memory.
He also started using iPlum’s call log export to track billable time. Once a week, he reviewed a complete, time-stamped list of calls in under 15 minutes, matched each entry to a case, and entered the time into his billing system in one sitting.
He says,
“Now I don’t have to piece things together. The transcripts give me a clean trail, and the billing lines up without the guesswork.”
The results
With iPlum, the numbers speak for themselves.
In the first 30 days, John recovered 6+ billable hours that previously slipped through. Those hours came from short client calls that now had precise timestamps, durations, and transcripts attached.
At his standard billing rate, that translated into $2,000+ in recovered revenue in a single month.
Billing accuracy improved as well. John now records and reviews 100% of client calls made through his business line. Every entry ties back to a specific case, date, and duration.
As a result, mobile call billing gaps dropped to zero.
Documentation improved at the same time.
Instead of writing partial notes hours later, John now pulls exact language from transcripts and adds it to case files the same day. Call follow-ups became cleaner, and factual recall during hearings improved noticeably.
The impact showed up in small, daily wins.
Weekly billing reviews now take under 15 minutes. Case notes require minutes instead of memory. Client summaries became more accurate, reducing back-and-forth clarification calls.
Most importantly, John didn’t work longer hours. He simply stopped losing time that was already spent.
“The calls didn’t change. I just stopped letting them disappear. Now I know exactly what was said, and I bill for every minute of it.” John notes.
Below is a table detailing the improvements
Why it worked
John could have invested in a second phone. He didn’t need to.
He needed one system that could log 100% of client calls, attach precise timestamps, and turn conversations into usable records. iPlum met that requirement without adding devices, new hardware, or extra lines.
Automatic call recording removed uncertainty immediately.
Every client call produced a verifiable record, eliminating 3 to 5 undocumented calls per day. Meanwhile, transcription converted those recordings into searchable text within minutes, reducing note-writing time to 2–3 minutes per call.
Billing accuracy improved because nothing depended on memory.
Call logs tied each conversation to a duration and date, which turned weekly billing review into a sub-15-minute task. Over a month, that shift alone accounted for 6+ recovered billable hours.
Importantly, John didn’t change how he worked. He still took calls between hearings, in traffic, and outside courtrooms. The difference was simple—zero lost calls, zero missing minutes, and zero second-guessing.
Stop losing money — Get an iPlum number for litigants
The thing is, client calls won’t stop coming in between meetings, in traffic, or on courthouse steps. After all, that’s what you should expect as a litigator.
What you can control, however, is how those conversations get tracked, logged, and billed.
iPlum gives you a dedicated business line on your existing phone. It allows you to record every call, transcribe every word, and account for every minute.
And, you don’t need new hardware or a line.
So, if you’re tired of missing billable time and chasing incomplete notes, it’s time to get things right.
Start using iPlum and turn every client call into a documented, billable record.
