In 2004 a UK-based group called LITIG (Legal IT Innovators Group) proposed an ebilling standard for the United Kingdom’s legal service industry based on the LEDES 1998B format. After several meetings and consultation with LITIG, the LOC approved a beta international version of the LEDES 1998B format in 2005. The beta format was revised in 2006 to include additional fields necessary for global ebilling to proceed. The update was ratified by the LOC as a (non-beta) standard in 2006 and appears on this website in its modified form.
LEDES 98BI is an ASCII, pipe delimited format that includes 51 fields.
It is not intended that the LEDES 1998B-International format will be modified in the future; any global submission issues will be considered through modification of the LEDES XML Ebilling Ver. 2.1 format only.
The format documentation was revised in August, 2014 to the extent that timekeeper classifications are referenced in the document.
In January, 2020 the format was updated to extend the tax rate field.
LEDES98BI V5 Format Rev 1-2020 w Changes Marked from 98BI Rev 7-2014
LEDES98BI V5 Format Rev 1-2020
Sample File: LEDES98BI V5 Sample File 1-2020
Need help getting started? The LEDES Oversight Committee's YouTube Channel has an instructional video on how to create a LEDES 98BI file here.