A systematic workflow can streamline and automate repeatable business tasks, minimizing room for errors and increasing overall efficiency. Consider the process of assembling a vehicle. Imagine there was no workflow in place and all of the parts needed for a vehicle were piled into a room and the assembly team was simply told to have at it. Certainly, fewer vehicles would be completed and the timelines for delivery would be dramatically increased. The same can be said for the records retrieval process.

Whether your case requires retrieval of private medical records, social media records or public records, the retrieval process can be time-consuming and labor-intensive. When a subpoena is required to retrieve information, the process can seem overwhelming.

Even if one were to set aside compliance, security and privacy regulations, record retrieval is a time-consuming and tedious task. Litigation and claims professionals already are often overworked and stretched just focusing on their responsibilities required to adjudicate claims effectively without adding the time and tedium of requesting records. In requesting records the saying “Time is Money” has never been more meaningful.

Record retrieval is an important and time sensitive process. It is critical that you have the utmost confidence that your record retrieval partner is functioning in a neutral environment with privacy and integrity as a priority. You want to ensure that the company performing data collection doesn’t have hidden agendas that could be prejudicial or detrimental to service, quality, your case or to the claimant. . When researching potential options for a records retrieval partner, here are four hidden agendas to be aware of:

It’s impossible to avoid the world of social media today and it’s impact on legal proceedings is significant. In fact, over 90% of litigators consider it a best practice to use web and social media content as evidence or research for a case. According to Pew Research Center, the median American uses three social media platforms. Facebook and Youtube dominate the charts, with nearly three-quarters of U.S. adults using Youtube and roughly two-thirds of U.S. adults reported as being Facebook users Other platforms including Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Linkedin and Pinterest follow closely behind. While these are the platforms making headlines, there are many others that may not garner the same quantity of users but should not be dismissed when collecting records that could help confirm or dispute case facts.