When Express Solicitors was founded in 2000 it only had two employees but has since expanded to 148 employees working with a variety of injured clients. One of the firm’s busiest departments is its Employers’ Liability department, dealing with around 1000 cases, and that number is increasing every month.
Due to its heavy caseloads, Richard Lowery, partner at Express Solicitors and head of the EL department was finding it difficult to deal with three separate companies providing medical reports, medical records pagination and costs recovery.
Richard said: “Working with three different service providers was of course doable, it’s what we were used to, but we did consider that there may be a simpler and more effective way forward. For a start it was more time consuming to be working with three different companies and speaking to three different contacts, all of whom didn’t speak to each other and didn’t know what the other was doing. In the legal sector time means money, which means if we could save time, we could save money.”
What Richard and his team required was one company and one point of contact to coordinate all the firm’s requirements. Working with Ontime Group, he knew that if there was ever a problem or he needed to check the progress of his clients’ medical records, he could simply pick up the phone and call one number for all his needs.
Ontime Group
Ontime Group was designed to help personal injury and clinical negligence lawyers in England and Wales optimise case outcomes for clients and maximise their fee income.
If offers medical and non-medical reports, pagination services, specialists costs and rehab services to small and medium sized law firms, with the aim of offering first class customer care to lawyers and their clients.
Unique to the industry, Ontime Group provides a seamless service, with all employees working closely under one roof. It means both lawyers and their clients talk to the same professionals every time they call, who will know all about the case and its specific needs.
Providing full reports through a nationwide panel of expert consultants and rehabilitation services, Ontime Group delivers specific and highly accurate medical information to lawyers. As well as scans and x-rays, it will gather evidence for a claim from GPs, clinics and hospitals across the UK to ensure the expert assessing the injuries has a full overview of a client’s health and pre-existing conditions. In addition, it offers non-medical reporting services such as those from engineers and tree specialists.
It also offers a cost-efficient pagination service that sees experienced nursing professionals sorting through the complex and often voluminous medical records of clients, thereby freeing up lawyers to focus their billable time on cases, strategy and law issues. The pagination team will process high value personal injury and clinical negligence claims onsite, working closely with the highly experienced management team to ensure quick turnaround, quality of work and controlled costs.
The final piece of the Ontime Group jigsaw is a costs service to give protection and peace of mind to lawyers, with services ranging from costs budgeting and negotiation to consultancy and advocacy. A team of highly skilled and experienced costs specialists, led by partner and litigation expert Sharon Denby, has been formed to meet the needs of even the most complex and demanding cases while offering speed, quality and attention to detail.
Bringing Many Benefits
Richard decided to use Ontime Group for his department’s service requirements, which ultimately took all of the hassle and stress away from and his team.
He continues: “Working with Ontime Group has benefitted the department in several different ways. The main benefit to us is that we’re saving so much time because Ontime Group carries out the time consuming tasks for us.
“We no longer have to chase missing medical records, argue with insurance companies over costs or try to discover why records haven’t been properly paginated. This means that our time is freed up to concentrate on the important task at hand, delivering successful claims and excellent client service.”