A Study on Lawsuit Cost Allocation by the Application of Activity Based-Costing in Law Firm

• Main Authors: Hui-ling Tsai, 蔡慧玲
• Other Authors: Wen-Dwo Yang
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2006
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/s8j673

碩士 === 國立臺灣科技大學 === 管理研究所 === 94 === Professional law service is a critical industry with extended requirement in the social-economic activities of democratic countries. However, due to the unique functions of the law firm, most of the researches of management focus on the activities of enterprises rather than general counsel. Therefore, by the case study, this research discusses the institution of indirect cost distribution on lawsuit contracts, which distributes the indirect cost by Activity-Based Costing. By this system, the costs of major activities of the civil, criminal and administrative lawsuits in the law firms will be estimated, and then, calculates the average cost of each lawsuit further. The lawyers can refer to the results of this estimation to make prices when they contract to lawsuits. This study samples more than ten lawsuits from the case of law firm, and estimates the profit of each lawsuit by calculating the costs of major activities, so as to find the way to choose the fist-rate lawsuits for law firms. In general, most compatriots are unwilling to pay for the lawsuits according to the time that lawyers work for them. And the affirmed charge, which is adopted by most of the small and middle law firms, often makes the law firms loss in the results of the procrastination of dealing with the lawsuits that caused by the unpredictable schedule of session. Therefore, this research studies on the compromised charge mode that law firms can refer to. This research suggests that law firms can use the system of Activity-Based Costing on the major affairs, and estimate the costs by the software of counting working time. As the Activity-Based Costing system has been lead-in, the law firms should review and update the system regularly, in order to improve the functional procedures and process. Furthermore, the law firms can draft the strategies of choosing lawsuits, customers, and pricing by dint of this system.