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I've worked with software engineers who didn't see the value in DCVSes like git but now that they use it they wouldn't dare go back to non-distributed systems.
by xenadu02 3y ago
I've worked with software engineers who didn't see the value in DCVSes like git but now that they use it they wouldn't dare go back to non-distributed systems. I would bet most lawyers fall into this camp. They have a process they know works and learning something new is a hassle... but if they used and got used to having history and diffing they wouldn't want to go back. I doubt it involves billable hour calculations for most of them.
Remember that software like WordPerfect which was very much not WYSIWYG had a long life with certain audiences like attorneys because they were used to it.
If it really is a billable hour problem the auto mechanic industry has already solved it: standard hours. Various services are documented at a given number of hours which is what you get billed by most shops even if it takes the mechanic half the time.
- xenadu02 3y agoCorrection: WordStar, a DOS word processor that used control sequences and was text mode.
- jameson71 3y agoA whole lot easier to take mechanics to court to standardize working hours than to try to take a bunch of lawyers to court
- TimPC 3y agoSure but if your bet is that you're going to drag all of law to a new billing model that's similar to what mechanics have done the fact that you might not be successful is a significant risk point in the profile of your product and substantially affects whether or not someone invests. It's not a trivial solution that's easy to implement as an external vendor. For instance, discovery is a lot more complex than doing a standard operation on a car and the variance in hours worked depends heavily on specific details of the case which lends itself very poorly to charging a standardized price for discovery.