Peak Outsourcing
We equip you with outsourcing solutions distinctly designed for your business and your customers’ needs.
Medical records are often the most important evidence in an injury case. They show what happened to the client, how the injury was diagnosed and treated, and how it affected daily life. They also tend to arrive as hundreds or thousands of pages from many different providers, in no particular order.
Medical record review for attorneys turns that volume into something a legal team can use. This guide explains what a typical record set contains, how chronologies and summaries differ, how attorneys use reviewed records at each stage of a case, and which issues reviewers are trained to look for.
Medical record review is the process of reading, organizing and summarizing a claimant’s medical records so that attorneys can understand the medical facts of a case. It is common in personal injury, medical malpractice, mass tort and product liability matters, where the injury and its treatment are central to liability and damages.
A legal review differs from a clinical chart review. The goal is not to treat the patient. The goal is to give the legal team an accurate, sourced account of the medical history that they can rely on when they evaluate the case, prepare for depositions and negotiate.
Most injury cases involve records from several sources. A complete set often includes:
Because these records come from different systems, they rarely line up neatly. Duplicate pages, missing dates and handwritten notes are common. Gaps in the set can also signal that a provider was never contacted. The article on the pros and cons of outsourced record retrieval covers how firms approach collecting these records in the first place.
The two most common review deliverables serve different purposes, and many firms use both.
A medical chronology lists each relevant encounter in date order. Each entry typically notes the date, the provider, the complaint, findings, diagnosis, treatment and follow-up plan, along with a reference to the source page. A well-built chronology lets an attorney trace any statement back to the original record in seconds, which is especially useful in depositions and expert preparation.
A narrative summary explains the medical history in plain language. It describes the injury, the course of treatment and the client’s current condition in a few pages. Attorneys often read the summary first to decide whether to accept a case or how to frame a demand.
Many reviews also include an index of the full record set, with bookmarks or hyperlinks that connect each chronology entry to its source page. This makes a large file far easier to navigate during litigation.
Organized medical records support nearly every stage of an injury case:
Careful review often surfaces details that can strengthen or weaken a case. Reviewers commonly flag:
Identifying these issues early gives the legal team time to request missing records, address weaknesses and adjust case strategy. Decisions about what the findings mean legally remain with the attorneys handling the case.
Medical records contain protected health information, so firms should handle them with care at every step. Common practices include:
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services publishes guidance on HIPAA privacy and security requirements, and each firm should decide with its own counsel how those rules apply to its practice. For more on this topic, see how outsourcing legal support services enhances data security.
It depends on the firm. Some reviews are handled by in-house paralegals or nurse consultants, while others are completed by outside teams that include reviewers with medical training.
No. A chronology organizes and summarizes what the records say. An expert report offers a professional opinion, such as on causation or the standard of care, and is prepared by a qualified expert retained for the case.
It depends on the number of pages, the number of providers and the type of deliverable. A short summary of a single provider’s records takes far less time than a full chronology of a multi-year treatment history.
Not always. Smaller cases may only need a summary, while complex or high-value cases often benefit from a detailed, source-linked chronology.
Peak Outsourcing supports law firms with medical document review for personal injury, medical malpractice, mass tort and product liability cases. Reviews are performed by medical professionals, including nurses, physicians and specialists, and deliverables include chronologies, narrative summaries and indexed, bookmarked records transferred through HIPAA-compliant processes.
Contact Peak Outsourcing today to learn how we can support your legal team. Call 1-833-602-7123 or visit our online contact page to schedule your consultation.
Your company may benefit from outsourcing certain functionality that you currently perform in-house. The resulting benefits can transform the way you do business and provide a greater focus on your core business functions.
Submit a contact form or call Peak Outsourcing today at
