Are your client’s expecting more for less?
Can you continue to fund an in house pagination service?
Ever considered outsourcing your medical records pagination to expert pagination companies?
Many law firms have been outsourcing their medical records pagination services and they’ve had great success and increased their profit costs!
Now you’r interested!
By working in this new way, law firms are able to free up time for fee earners, to do what fee earners are expert at. Running your client’s legal case and not wasting endless hours fretting over something they have little, if any knowledge, sorting through your client’s medical records.
That said, there’s no doubt that the legal profession can still be cautious about outsourcing, and it’s for three main reasons…
- Outsourcing is typically associated with compromising quality
- It won’t save enough money
- The legal sector is too niche and requires specialist skills that an outsourced firm cannot provide
We’ve addressed these common concerns head-on (most of which our now-clients had before entrusting and instructing Professional Paginating Services to bring order to chaos and paginate their client’s medical records):
Myth #1 Outsourcing compromises quality
This is a common and valid concern, but one that can be dispelled with a little understanding.
When you’re used to things working in a certain way, change and trusting someone to do the job for you leaves you thinking…
“They’ll never care as much as I do”
BUT, that’s not always the case.
You can’t assume that your outsourcing company will be driven by the same standards and mission that drive your law firm. Like all companies the bottom line is about making a profit and any outsourcing company will be primarily driven to make a profit from the services it’s providing to you.
The flip side, as you know, is that profit is a great motivator and you can usually trust that the outsourcing company has considerable experience in the service it’s offering you. It wants to do the job well because it wants to stay in business. The job might be performed to higher standards than if you kept it in-house.
And when you outsource more mundane tasks, it can free up your fee earners’ time to allow them to deal with more critical key functions of your business.
However, successfully working with a third party to run a critical function of a clinical negligence case depends on trust and aligned standards.
You can ensure a high quality of work if your firm understands that the two businesses need to work together, but with clearly defined and articulated responsibilities—and there should be unwavering transparency between the provider and the law firm.
Here at Professional Paginating Services we will ensure the pagination of your client’s medical records are undertaken by experienced and suitable qualified professionals and the finished product will exceed your expectations. We care because you care.
Myth #2 It won’t save enough money
Outsourcing pagination of your client’s medical records to Professional Paginating Services will not only save you money, we will increase your profit costs!
Our fees for sorting, collating, paginating and indexing your client’s medical records are recoverable as a disbursement or as an agent.
In the case of Smith Graham v Lord Chancellor. Smith Graham considered the fees of an inquiry agent (retired police Officer) which were claimed at an enhanced fee earner’s hourly rate rather than at the invoiced amount as a disbursement. LJ Hallett determined that if the work done was appropriate for a fee earner to carry out, then this would be chargeable at an hourly rate. Our time can be billed as a grade D fee earner (Paragraph 4.16 of the Costs Practice Direction provides that agency fees are dealt with on the principle that such charges form part of the principal solicitor’s charges).
The benefits to you of outsourcing pagination of medical records and billing as a disbursement are that the fee will be recoverable regardless of the outcome (subject to your client having ATE insurance or alternative funding arrangements).
What results you can expect to see in return.
- Cuts in unnecessary spending, which means…better profit margins
- Improved efficiency in support functions, which means…freeing up time for fee earners
- Better incentivised support staff, which means…increased output and improved quality of work
- More support for fee earners, which means… business growth and more opportunities to win new clients
- Decreased staff turnover, which means… saving costs on procurement and training
Myth #3 The legal sector works differently and outsourcing providers won’t ‘get it’
True: The legal sector has quirks only those who have experienced it could understand.
False: No outsourcing company can understand how law firms work.
Companies who provide support services to the legal sector have specialist skills and experience in what is required to provide cost-effective, efficient and high-quality support to fee earners, so they can focus on their chargeable activities.
Professional Paginating services have been there and done that. We have direct experience and training of working within clinical negligence litigation and as NHS and private patient clinical healthcare providers. We have been on both sides of the fence and understand the requirements of the clinical negligence solicitor and the duties of the healthcare providers in clinical negligence litigation.
All myth’s busted!
You can instruct Professional Paginating Services with the confidence that your client’s medical records are in competent and safe hands and you will not be disappointed with our service.
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