As law firms try to cut costs, one possible area for savings is records retrieval.

Some firms are outsourcing this work, especially in complex personal injury, product liability or medical malpractice litigation, as an alternative to using in-house staff.

Michael Best & Friedrich (http://www.michaelbest.com/) attorney John C. Scheller said he prefers to handle document retrieval internally, but has used outside vendors for cases that demand a high volume of records in a short period of time.

Outsourcing can be useful “when there is a huge case with issues maybe we haven’t seen before or there is a quick turnaround time,” he said.

Companies such as MediConnect Global, an international records retrieval company, say they can offer cost savings to firms who outsource.

Public relations coordinator Jane Brog said that most firms pay legal staff between $15 and $25 per hour and it takes more than two hours to retrieve a single medical record.

She said MediConnect can save firms money, charging $29.99 for the retrieval of a patient medical record digitally, and can turn around the information in less than two weeks.

Brog conceded that ideally, firms want to keep as much work in-house as possible, especially during a recession. But she said that many are outsourcing projects because legal staffs have shrunk or are being asked to take on more responsibility.

“We’ve found staff at firms are incredibly capable, but they are inundated with work, especially in this economy,” she said. “[And] the process can really bottleneck if there isn’t time.”

Time is a factor

Scheller recently had a product liability case in which he hired an outside vendor to scan and index a large number of documents in a short period of time.

While the documents were received in a timely manner, it was not cheaper than doing it in-house, he noted.

“Frankly, in this case it was more expensive, [but] the client understood the time constraints and the need to use an outside vendor,” Scheller said.

Attorney Barbara J. Zabawa of Whyte Hirschboeck Dudek SC (http://www.whdlaw.com/) in Madison said that outsourcing may be a particularly attractive option for small firms.

“I can definitely see the advantage if someone doesn’t have the staff, because it can be time consuming,” said Zabawa, who chairs the Health Law Section Board of the State Bar of Wisconsin.

Milwaukee litigator Patrick J. Knight agreed that record retrieval can be “problematic” for firms with limited support staff. McKnight is a partner at Gimbel, Reilly, Guerin & Brown (http://www.grgblaw.com/) who does both criminal and civil work, including white collar health care.

“I think there will be a market going forward for it,” he said. “You are not paying health insurance and benefits [if you outsource], and in this climate, the number of employees it takes to handle a task has a huge impact on the bottom line of a firm.”