Legal software company 8am, formerly AffiniPay, published its SMB Law Billing and Payments Report on October 22, based on invoices from more than 60,000 mostly US firms that use MyCase and LawPay, LawSites reported. Comparing the first half of 2026 with a year earlier, 47.7% of firms billed only by the hour, up from 46.6%, while 10.3% billed only by flat fee. Flat fees made up 15% of all invoices, down from 16%. Traffic work was the clear exception: 87.7% of traffic invoices were flat fees, and 77.2% were paid in full within a month, ahead of estate planning at 68.1%.
I am not surprised the billable hour is holding on. The report itself concludes that the work, not preference, decides the billing model. Most legal matters are too open-ended to price up front, so firms keep billing the way their cases actually run.
The traffic numbers are the part I keep coming back to. When a legal problem is narrow and repeatable, lawyers price it like a product and clients pay fast. That is a market ready for technology, because a fixed scope is exactly what software can check, sort and route.
This is how we think about iQuash. A ticket, a fine or a notice is a contained document with clear rules. iQuash checks it for defects first, and connects the person with a licensed lawyer only when there is something worth contesting. That keeps the lawyer's time on cases that merit it, which fits a flat-fee practice well. For the AI founders I meet through ELP Ventures, my advice is similar: build where the legal work already has a price.