Hour Catch

How Hour Catch works

1. Read the day. The activity log is what the lawyer's own machine already records: Outlook mail and calendar, Teams calls, document edit sessions in iManage, research sessions and the phone log, each with active minutes.
2. Draft the entries. Claude groups the activity into one entry per task, assigns each to a matter, and writes the narrative to the client's rulebook. The rulebooks are the ones Guideline Guard extracted from each client's guidelines.
3. Audit before saving. Every draft entry goes through Guideline Guard's own audit prompt, the same one that reviews prebills, so time is born compliant instead of fixed at bill time.
4. Prove it in the page. Plain code checks that every activity is accounted for exactly once, that no entry bills more than its logged minutes rounded up to the tenth, and that every rule quote appears word for word in the client's guidelines.
5. The lawyer approves. Nothing reaches Aderant until the lawyer ticks it. The export carries only approved entries.

What it runs on

• Claude seats the firm already licenses, and the Outlook and iManage data already on the lawyer's machine.
• Aderant's time import. The export columns here are a starting map; the field names and code lists should be confirmed with the Aderant administrator.
• Passive capture of active minutes is what makes the hours exact. With Outlook alone, calls and meetings have real durations, and reading and drafting time is estimated and labeled as an estimate.

Ethics and client rules

• Bill only time actually worked. California Rule of Professional Conduct 1.5 bars unconscionable fees, and the State Bar's generative AI guidance says a lawyer may bill for time actually spent, not time AI saved. The minutes check enforces that line.
• Clients may restrict AI. Pellbrook's guideline 10.2 allows only enterprise AI tools with a no-training commitment and a completed security review; confirm that the firm's Claude plan qualifies before running this on a client's data.
• Public-agency invoices are public records. Harrow Valley's rulebook keeps legal advice out of narratives, and Claude writes to it.
• The lawyer reviews every entry before it is saved, as the State Bar guidance requires for any AI-assisted output.

Every client, person, matter and activity in the sample is invented.