What is the length of a telephone conversation?

British Columbia, Canada


The following excerpt is from Fiddes Van Der Flier Law Corp v. Lamoureux, 2005 BCSC 981 (CanLII):

To enter into a discussion of the exact length of telephone conversations is to approach a forensic audit. Not only is it rarely possible to investigate the (literally) minutiae of the matter in such detail (who can remember every minute and phone call recorded?) but it confuses, to a degree, cost with value. It is the devilment that time keeping brings to the solicitor/client relationship, just as Southin J. observed, in Ladner Downs v. Crowley [3]: It is this new practice of making what are alleged to be contracts for remuneration at an hourly rate to be paid periodically which is now causing so much trouble. Nevertheless, it is possible (and, in fact, routinely the case) that parties can complete a telephone call in six minutes. A telephone call for most counsel, in my view, is a disruption and distraction (or, to put it as the converse, a focussing on the client’s matter) of, probably, 10 to 12 minutes. Counsel must focus (or re-focus) on the issue, often find and refer to a file, discuss an issue (even if simple) and typically record the result (with a note to file or instructions to staff). In my view, it is usually 10 or 12 minutes before counsel is back to whatever he or she was doing before the call. I therefore do not regard .2 hour as an unreasonable time entry for most telephone calls.

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