File opening charge - Need two different codes - rates - depending on area of practice

QUESTION: We want to charge different file opening fees on files opened in different areas of law (charged as a disbursement here). So we already have a code 27 that is applied automatically when files are opened in most areas of law. We are increasing that charge to $75 which will apply to certain types of files (real estate, wills, etc.). However, on most files, we want to increase the charge to $150. How do we do that?

RESPONSE: We have understood that the firm uses disbursement code 27 to automatically apply a file opening charge. Moving forward the firm would like different rates per area of practice (i.e., Real Estate and Wills would at $75.00 while others at $150.00).

Although it is possible apply this process to specific areas of practice, all would be subject to the same disbursement code and its fixed fee. As a result, our recommendation would be to rate the automatically created disbursement code with the rate most used (150.00) and amend the caption of remaining areas of practice (i.e., Real Estate and Wills as Real Estate – 27 @ 75, and Wills – 27 @ 75 respectively) as a reminder to the person responsible for file opening, to complete a rate override to the auto-created unbilled disbursement as a first task after the  file is opened.