Deans Legal Fee Calculator v1.00 - Project overview

2026, Mar 24    

While I Was studying law in university in my first year, while re-sparking my interest and desire to learn software development once and for all! creating applications, building foundational knowledge while building hands on projects around my studies. After a meeting with the careers department at university and talking about a legal tech event that is held anually I wanted to try create a small interest as a networking point to showcase other skills I had.

As someone who didnt have much understandning of general finances nevermind - accounting and legal finances this was intresting from research, reading and gaining new knowledge along the way - this itself I fount insightful - different rates and how billing for time is processed, types of disbursements and making sure this was an option within the calculator rather than disbursements being a fixed fee user had to input - this helping divide types of disbursements. While also making sure the project included any disclaimer following SRA and standard firm practices within legal sector in the UK, while the application could easily be tweaked and setup for private small firm use for basic billing invoicing sheets.

From a different perspective as a 1st year Law student not many others would hvae even given this type of skill or project such thought so to create or understand how it works the internals within firms are broken down this gives a bigger advantage in understanding as most have sights set on being barrister and solicitors and just sticking to curriculum and other types of experience - so this was defnitley a good way to also show case commercial awareness - However my interest of learning software development outweighed passion in subject of studying law so this is more of a testimony to failed interest in “practicing” law but sparking an interest in legal tech

In future this could be a potential project route so does not feel like my time studying law is not a complete loss and isnt wasted this could open doors in the future to other legal tech projects

The app lets the user calcualte invoice of costs within legal case - depending on type of case features such as disbursemnt and type makes it easier for user to add and calcualte overall cost for a client to invoice over through email as a pdf or print - the application lets the user add type of legal personell and add court costs and other costs when calcualting the app already Adds VAT at the end of the claucaltion in total summary while also implementing the 6 minute calculation which is split into 10 6 minute units - Total Cost = (Total Units × (Hourly Rate ÷ 10)) + VAT.

To break this down easier below is an example of how This calculation works within the calculator

If a solicitor’s hourly rate is £200 per hour: Calculate unit cost: per 6-minute unit. Apply to time: A 5-minute email is billed as 1 unit (£20 + VAT). Round Up: A 7-minute call is billed as 2 units (£40 + VAT).

To note

Minimum Unit: Even a 2-minute phone call is usually recorded as a full 6-minute unit. VAT: 20% VAT is typically added to these charges, changing a £200/hr rate to £240/hr for non-VAT registered clients. Purpose: This method is used for transparency and to ensure compensation for small, frequent tasks like reviewing short emails or taking quick calls. Non-Billable vs. Billable: 6-minute units only apply to client-facing work (billable time).

  • Disbursement calculation
  • VAT Implementation
  • Types of legal personel - this showing different rate for example a sneior earning more than a junior
  • calculation for 6 minute billing rule

What did I Learn building this project?

What i learned while creating this project:

  • CSS Styling
  • data input handling
  • exporting calculation

The Features I want to improve and Add in future to create Deans Legal Fee Calculator v1.10

  • VAT Toggle - small patch fix
  • Adding different types of legal personel - for example a senior adding a juniors rates within caseload - major update (v1.10)
  • chnage disbursements - add Stamp duty tax and more options on disubrsement section
  • more professional but minimal user interface maintaining functionality and ease of use

Conclusion

To conclude this post my aim is to curate a minmilist but effcient Legal fee calculator for small private basic use with the current features implemented in v1.00

However I plan to update more and add more features in small patches over my spare time while overall the next major update of Deans Legal fee calculator v1.10 and keep interest in legal tech and future projects within legal tech scope

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