A standard e-billing format which is expected to be adopted by law firms and clients across the board was launched by legal IT group Litig last week.

The new data standard, jointly designed by Birmingham's Wragge & Co and Barclays Bank's in-house legal function, will considerably reduce the cost of setting up e-billing facilities by removing the need to create different systems for each client.

The format was drawn up in consultation with 45 law firms and will be adopted by all Litig member firms, including City firms Eversheds, Manches, Masons, Lewis Silkin and Reynolds Porter Chamberlain, along with regional firms Bond Pearce and Beachcroft Wansbroughs, and Browne Jacobson in the East Midlands.

Designed in consultation with systems suppliers, the standard format can be used with most software packages.

It was adapted from a US model with input from the committee of US law firms, clients and IT suppliers which oversees the American version.

Derek Southall, head of strategic development at Wragge & Co, said: 'At Wragge & Co we are getting several requests for e-billing from major clients every month.

It is very important that this standard has been agreed now before too many different systems proliferate.'

He added: 'The best comparison is with a three-pin plug.

You could supply electricity with a range of different plugs, but there would be no advantage to it.

The IT industry and the legal profession have worked together to create an essential building block for the future.

If we had left it another two years to develop a common standard, it would have been too late.'

Andrew Dey, operations manager of Barclays Bank's legal function, said: 'In-house departments have started to recognise the benefits of receiving electronic data from law firms and are asking for the information in numerous different formats.'

Rachel Rothwell