Magna Legal Services Acquires City Record Services, Strengthening Record Retrieval Capabilities in California
Magna Legal Services solidifies its position as a nationwide leader in record retrieval and litigation support with the acquisition of City Record Services
Magna Legal Services, LLC, a prominent player in the litigation support and consulting services industry, proudly announces the acquisition of City Record Services (CRS), headquartered in San Diego, CA. The acquisition was successfully concluded on October 18, 2023. This development underscores Magna’s commitment to enhancing its support for the rapidly expanding service line, Record Retrieval, particularly in California and the West Coast.
CRS, boasting over two decades of experience, has grown into one of the leading record retrieval firms, serving the legal community in San Diego and in all of California. The company has earned a solid reputation for fast and reliable collection of medical and other records for attorneys, adjusters, and self-insured municipalities and corporations, particularly in workers compensation defense.
CRS’s founders, Aaron and Marcene Drysdale, will continue to lead the CRS team in collaboration with Jonathan Ackerman, Executive Vice President and Co-Founder of the Record Retrieval division at Magna LS, overseeing the day-to-day operations. “We look forward to leveraging this collaboration to continue our mission of delivering exceptional record retrieval services to our valued clients and to pioneer new standards of excellence in the field,” Marcene Drysdale commented. Jonathan Ackerman added, “Magna and CRS clients are the big winners in this merger. Both firms were founded upon a culture that the client comes first. The increased bandwidth, expertise and innovation will quickly lead to an unrivaled client experience.”
With a workforce of 653 employees and over 4,000 court reporters, 2,000 interpreters and 100 litigation consultants in 24 locations across the U.S., the union of Magna LS and CRS positions them as one of the largest litigation support and consulting firms, both in terms of scale and the range of services offered. Clients of CRS will now have easy access to Magna’s full suite of services, including court reporting, document translation, interpreting, social media surveillance, visual communications, jury consulting, and medical record retrieval services.
“We are delighted to welcome the CRS team to the Magna family,” Magna Legal Services CEO, Mark Williams, said. “We look forward to taking the best practices of both of our organizations to create a better and stronger future together.”
Click below to review our Record Retrieval services or to request a record!
Medical Record Review — To Outsource or Not to Outsource?
In any legal proceeding involving healthcare, patient medical records are going to be pivotal. However, acquiring, organizing, and analyzing all the records can be extremely time-consuming.
This is why outsourcing medical record retrieval and reviews as a lawyer can be a beneficial and cost-efficient strategy. American businesses of all kinds are increasingly turning to specialist third-party contractors to increase the efficiency of a wide range of functions, and record review is one of them.
With an independent medical record review service, you’ll get all the medical information you need in one accessible, easy-to-navigate document. Handing this function over to a specialized provider will free up time for your in-house team to focus on building a winning case, rather than devoting dozens of hours to menial research.
Let’s take a closer look at what’s involved…
Record Services + Litigation Support
There are a number of situations in which lawyers need access to a comprehensive rundown of a patient’s medical history. If, for example, you’re representing the plaintiff in a medical negligence action, you’ll need to know about every significant health issue they’ve had.
Historically, attorneys or paralegals had to compile these documents themselves, liaising with healthcare providers, sifting through huge quantities of data, and picking out the most relevant details for inclusion in reports. Nowadays, more and more firms are opting to contract their record services to transform their records into the insightful and easy-to-understand information they need.
Nurse Review for Medical Records
A Nurse Review gives you a chronological breakdown of your client’s healthcare history with a focus on litigation support. Compiled by nurses with valid licenses and LNC credentials, the reports provide a summary of the medical records and highlight their most important details. They even provide an overall interpretation of the person’s combined medical history.
Magna works with nurses from a broad range of medical specialties. Whatever type of medical records you need reviewed, one of our experts will know exactly how to approach the job.
HyperNav Records Navigator
HyperNav Records Navigator is a useful tool that takes the pain out of accessing and referring to medical records. HyperNav organizes all patient records chronologically in a single PDF file, using hyperlinks and bookmarks to make the most important data easily accessible. The Summary Table and Index Table also allow you to scan the document quickly to locate the information you need.
Record Retrieval
Before you compile the perfect report, you’ll first need to actually obtain the documents, which can be more tedious than expected. In some cases, such as where a patient has received care from multiple facilities in different areas, this can be its own challenge.
Magna’s medical record retrieval service allows you to request documents from every zip code in the United States, as well as internationally. We have established relationships with over a million healthcare facilities across the country, allowing for the fastest turnaround time in the industry. Besides medical records, Magna’s experience also covers retrieval of social security records, pharmacy history, police records, and other types of documents.
Benefits of Outsourcing Medical Record Review
There are a number of factors that make record retrieval and review great candidates for outsourcing.
Specialization
Outsourcing medical record reviews doesn’t just make life easier for you. It also puts the task into the hands of someone better equipped to do it.
Magna’s Nurse Review service is carried out by medical professionals with years of training. They have experience when it comes to identifying health issues and perceiving their relevance in a broader context. They understand medical jargon, can easily navigate record documents, and know exactly where to look if there’s a crucial piece of information missing.
Time Efficiency
Dealing with medical records isn’t just grunt work – it’s a skill. You could develop it yourself or train members of your team to do so, but that takes time. Since time is something attorneys rarely have in abundance, it makes sense to hand the job over to someone who has existing expertise in it.
Having a dedicated expert carry out your medical record reviews will allow for you to build your case quicker and more efficiently, especially in cases with extensive or complex medical history.
Cost Savings
You might be tempted to “save money” on record retrieval and review by having your in-house staff do it, even if it takes time and compromises on quality. However, you’re still paying your team for their work, which they could be directing toward other goals.
By outsourcing, you’ll recoup more than what you spend in the long run. This isn’t a modern concept; it’s based on the economic theory of specialization, which has been around for over two centuries!
Cost transparency is also a factor here. If you contract a service, you’ll see exactly what it costs up-front and can plan around that expense. It is far less straightforward to work out what medical record reviews will cost you if you train your in-house team to provide them.
Record Retrieval & Discovery Support with Magna
We take care of our clients, and you’ll feel the difference! We’re here for you 24/7, 365 days a year.
To request a record with Magna, click below or contact Magna directly at 866.624.6221 or MagnaRecords@MagnaLS.com
Car accidents happen far more often than we would like them to, and retrieving all the necessary records to help someone’s case is a must. This is why following the right steps and knowing what to look for when retrieving client’s medical records due to car accidents is extremely important.
Retrieving Records for Car Accidents
There are always important rules and guidelines to follow when retrieving medical records. When retrieving records due to a car accident there are a few extra steps to follow in order to get all of the information you need to build your case
Here are 5 main tips to follow and things to look for when retrieving records due to car accidents:
Efficiency:
Car accidents are no joke, and neither are the injuries that may come along with them. Retrieving records in a fast and efficient way is a MUST during this process. Getting the records that are needed quickly will help build a client’s case in a timely manner with all the correct information that is necessary.
Correct Confirmation:
In order to save some time and money during this process it is important to know where the records should be requested from. By doing this, it ensures that the records are being requested from the right office, as well as requesting those records from the right person. At times it can be tricky to determine how to properly serve the request due to high volume, and this leads to the records not being obtained as quickly. This is just one example on why using a record retrieval vendor can be a HUGE advantage because they help figure out all you need to know.
Emergency Room Visits:
Something that is VERY important to keep in mind when retrieving medical records due to a car accident is that the ER bill and the hospital bill are separate bills. If a client went to the ER that you must get the records from the ER. It is commonly seen that the ER billing is forgotten when collecting records for a client’s case. The ER bill is extremely important because in the end it can help tremendously when it comes to the claim so that the client can get ALL of their bills paid for due to the accident.
Know What You Need – Different Types of Records:
To get all the records that are necessary make sure records are gathered from ALL doctor visits. It is important to have a client’s records from an Urgent Care, Emergency Rooms, Primary Care Physician, as well as any tests that were done during these visits. If a client had to get an X-ray, CT scan, or an MRI done then those tests will be sent out to get a more detailed report, and this is a necessary bill that is needed for the case. If the client needed Physical Therapy, Chiropractic Care, or any other health care specialist visits that is also important to have records of. Claims records that are from prior accidents are needed, as well as prescription records to help show any medications that were provided.
Driving Records:
Driving records can sometimes help or hurt the case, but they are still important to have on file. These files will help to see any previous driving records for both parties, such as seeing what their driving record looks like or if they have been hurt before in any previous motor vehicle accidents. Although, a poor driving record can’t always be used as evidence that the driver was driving carelessly at the time, but in some cases it can help bring more light to the surface and help the case.
Record retrieval for insurance companies has some unique and specialized processes. RecordTrak’s online and invoicing systems accommodate these needs. Whether associated with multi-party record access, third party or e-billing, we’ve been there, done that. We work with you to customize the on-boarding protocols for your counsel so you’re in control.
For more information, email Magna Legal Services directly at Info@MagnaLS.com, or contact Peter Hecht or your local account manager at 866.624.6221.
The Internet is a storehouse of records, and some of these can be found merely by using a search engine. Attorneys that have been successful in locating assets, for example, may feel that record retrieval should stay in-house, and that record collection services are an unnecessary additional expense. However, experienced lawyers realize that in-house record retrieval does not always save money, and by outsourcing record retrieval, law firms can let their administrative and legal staff focus on case analysis and case strategy instead of haphazardly trying to retrieve records.