The conservative savings total and hardware payback, for a small Nevada law firm.
Part 1 established the BLS wage benchmarks and the time estimates for the four mechanical tasks. This page runs the numbers: four scenario calculations, a conservative monthly total, hardware payback scenarios, where the freed time actually goes, and the data sources. If you landed here first, start with Part 1 for the wages and methodology.
The example firm
The example is built to be understated: a small Nevada family law and PI firm with modest volume, conservative task time estimates, and no attorney hour valuation for tasks a paralegal or legal assistant realistically handles. The firm looks like this:
- 10 active family law or PI matters opened per month
- Each new matter includes a client file dump averaging 80 documents (scanned records, photos, statements)
- 2 demand packages or disclosure compilations completed per month, each averaging 180 documents in the finished set
- 1 appellate appendix every 3 months (averaged to ~0.33/month)
The wage rates used here ($24.51/hr for legal assistant, $29.59/hr for paralegal, $28.85/hr for law clerk) come from BLS OEWS benchmarks for the Las Vegas metro area, explained in full in Part 1.
File intake triage
Open, read, name, and file each scanned document at matter intake
- Volume:
- 10 matters x 80 docs = 800 docs/month
- Estimated time per doc:
- 2.5 min (conservative; no OCR wait, straight triage)
- Total hours/month:
- 800 x 2.5 / 60 = 33 hours
- Role doing the work:
- Legal assistant (43-6012)
- Cost method:
- Direct labor cost offset (salary based)
Labor cost offset only (billable capacity is counted separately)
Exhibit & disclosure assembly
Assemble 2 demand packages or disclosure compilations per month, 180 docs each
- Volume:
- 2 packages/month, ~7 hrs each (conservative; larger packages take longer)
- Total hours/month:
- 14 hours
- Role doing the work:
- Paralegal (23-2011)
- Cost method:
- Either/or: direct labor cost saved (salary), OR billable capacity freed (billable rate).
OR: 14 hrs x $150/hr (firm billable rate) = $2,100/month capacity gain (not both)
Redaction pass
Redaction initial scan on 2 records packages per month, ~400 pages each
- Volume:
- 2 x 400 pages = 800 pages/month, ~45 min per 400-page pass
- Total hours/month:
- 1.5 hours
- Role doing the work:
- Paralegal (23-2011)
- Cost method:
- Direct labor cost offset (conservative; DilloLex flags misses, so attorney review time is not eliminated, only the initial scan pass)
Attorney review step still required; not counted here
Appellate appendix assembly
1 appendix per quarter (0.33/month average): 250-page appendix, two indices, NRAP 30 conforming format
- Estimated time per appendix:
- 10 hours (conservative floor; larger records take more)
- Average hours/month:
- 0.33 x 10 = 3.3 hours
- Role doing the work:
- Law clerk (23-1012 proxy)
- Cost method:
- Either/or: direct labor cost saved (salary), OR time freed for substantive legal work (harder to value precisely; omitted from the conservative figure)
Conservative view: direct labor cost only; no billable hour premium stacked on this
The conservative total
Adding Tasks A through D, all on the direct labor cost basis (no billable rate premium, no double counting):
| Task offset | Hours / month | Role | Cost / month (salary based) |
|---|---|---|---|
| A: Intake triage | 33 | Legal assistant | $810 |
| B: Exhibit / disclosure assembly | 14 | Paralegal | $414 |
| C: Redaction first pass | 1.5 | Paralegal | $44 |
| D: Appendix assembly | 3.3 | Law clerk | $95 |
| Total (conservative, salary basis only) | 51.8 hours / month | $1,363 / month ~$16,356 / year |
How payback works against the hardware cost
The DGX Spark hardware runs around $3,999 to $4,700 depending on the seller, as priced by third party sellers; confirm current pricing with the seller. The DilloLex software license is a one time, quote based fee that depends on your firm's volume and onboarding scope. We publish no fixed price because there is none, and inventing one would be dishonest. What we can show is the payback math in terms of offset staff hours, so you can evaluate it against your actual quote.
| Scenario | Assumption | Hardware cost | Monthly offset (salary basis) |
Hardware cost payback in months (salary basis only) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative (salary basis) | 10 matters/month, tasks A through D as described | $4,700 (high end) | $1,363 | ~3.5 months |
| Billable capacity basis (Task B) | Same volume; Task B valued at $150/hr billable instead of salary | $4,700 | ~$3,049 | ~1.5 months |
| Smaller firm | 5 matters/month (half the volume); salary basis only | $4,700 | ~$681 | ~7 months |
These figures cover hardware only. The software license is separate and not included because it is not a published number. Evaluate total cost of ownership (hardware plus software quote) against your own volume and task time estimates using the salary figures in Part 1. The payback period will be longer once the software license is in the denominator; the analysis is still checkable once you have a real quote in hand.
Where the savings go
What happens to the recovered hours is a management question rather than an automation question. Three honest possibilities:
- Existing staff take on more matters without overtime. If a paralegal currently spends 14 hours a month on disclosure assembly, freeing that time either lets them handle more files at the same hours or lets them go home on time. Neither shows up as a direct revenue number, but both are real gains: one increases throughput, one reduces burnout and turnover risk.
- Fewer overtime hours paid. Late night Bates stamping sessions are a real cost; if those go away, the hourly savings are immediate and easy to count.
- Attorney judgment replaces staff output volume. If an attorney is currently reviewing work that takes a paralegal 14 hours to produce, and that 14 hours drops to 3 hours of machine work plus review, the attorney's time on the matter drops too. That time freed is worth $250 per hour, but only if it converts to something billable or into a better work product that improves outcomes.
The conservative model counts only the direct labor saving. The strategic case for automation includes throughput and outcome effects, but those depend on your practice, and no one outside your firm can tell you what they will be.
Data sources
The wage figures in the scenario calculations above come from BLS OEWS, explained in full in Part 1 of this guide. The primary sources, accessed and cross checked, are reproduced here for reference:
- Attorneys (SOC 23-1011), NV statewide, May 2023 OEWS: LAWCLERK.legal ("The State of the Nevada Legal Job Market," citing BLS OEWS May 2023, $163,760 LV mean / $159,840 NV mean); BLS OEWS May 2023 NV statewide page (https://www.bls.gov/oes/2023/may/oes_nv.htm, page exists but access blocked during research).
- Law clerks (SOC 23-1012), NV statewide, May 2024 survey: O*NET OnLine, Nevada wages, SOC 23-1012.00 (https://www.onetonline.org/link/localwages/23-1012.00?st=NV, "BLS 2025 wage data," updated 2025); Zippia Nevada statewide average $65,015 (2026, weighted BLS+FLC+OPM blend, used as corroboration). Las Vegas metro suppressed for this occupation (small workforce count); NV statewide used per benchmark rule.
- Paralegals (SOC 23-2011), LV metro, May 2024 OEWS: paralegaledu.org ("2024 Bureau of Labor Statistics salary figures," LV mean $61,550, median $62,390; https://www.paralegaledu.org/nevada/nevada-salary/); SalaryNode, BLS OEWS 2024, LV mean $61,550 (https://salarynode.com/salary/paralegals-and-legal-assistants/las-vegas-henderson-north-las-vegas-nv).
- Legal assistants / legal secretaries (SOC 43-6012), LV metro, May 2025 survey: O*NET OnLine, Nevada wages, SOC 43-6012.00 (https://www.onetonline.org/link/localwages/43-6012.00?st=NV, "BLS 2025 wage data," updated May 19, 2026); LV metro median $50,980 reported. Indeed Las Vegas legal secretary salaries (22 postings, updated May 29, 2026, $23.04/hr average) used as corroboration only; BLS O*NET figure is primary.