- March 31, 2022
- Gulfstream Legal
Charles Beresky is a senior account manager at Gulfstream Legal Group, where he has focused on helping legal professionals find and manage the information they need to support their cases. We recently sat down with Charles to talk about his background, how he landed at Gulfstream, and what he has learned about improving the records retrieval process over the last 23 years.
Tell us about your background, Charles.
I worked for a law firm for four years while attending Lamar University in Beaumont, TX. After graduating college with a BBA in Marketing I was recruited by Ridgeways (Now Gulfstream Legal Group) and have been with them ever since. This was my first job out of college!
How does your background and experience impact Gulfstream’s records retrieval projects/clients?
Because I worked in the law firm in college, I understand the importance of Gulfstream’s role in helping clients meet their deadlines while reducing cost. Having built strong relationships with clients over the years, I have developed a good reputation in the legal community.
How many records requests have you assisted clients with at Gulfstream?
In excess of 100,000 requests!
What are your tips to paralegals to make the records retrieval process faster and/or easier?
I have three simple tips:
- Always keep all your communications on a request in a single email string. This will help both of us keep better track of prior communications.
- Respond to questions pertaining to your records requests within a timely manner – within 24 hours is best. This minimizes delays in completing the request.
- Provide complete case information and any applicable authorizations or SOAs when submitting a request.
Why do you think paralegals should choose Gulfstream Legal for help with their records retrieval?
That’s an important question, and I think paralegals often commoditize records retrieval services, but choosing the right partner can and will make a real difference to your case. With Gulfstream, paralegals gain a team where 80% of the team has over 10 years of tenure which translates into expertise within the record retrieval process. Communication is also vital to the success of our team – providing our clients with timely status updates on their requests helps them manage their deadlines. Lastly, because of the tenure of our staff we have developed longstanding relationships with our clients. We work together as a team to help them meet their objectives.
The key points to our record retrieval process that I think are important for paralegals:
- Reduction of custodial fees – Gulfstream acts as an advocate of the firm by knowing the legal guidelines associated with custodial fees and always requesting digital records if available.
- Non-Orders – 15-20% of requests from clients reference the wrong facility for the records. Through our internal database and research department we verify the facility in advance of sending out the request to save our client time and money on cancellation fees.
- Turnaround Time – Gulfstream averages 23 days or less from time of order. This eliminates excessive follow up and gets you the records quickly.
- Problem Records (Billing Records) – 30% of billing DWQ’s received are incorrect. Gulfstream thoroughly checks all calculations on billing records and has them corrected prior to production.
- OCR – All records are available on our free online repository in searchable pdf format at no additional charge.
- Delivery – There is NO COST for delivering your records
These are great tips, Charles, learned from your years of experience in the industry! Tell us a little about your family and what you do when you aren’t helping legal professionals save time and money.
I’ve been married these past eight years to my wife Catie Beresky, and we have a seven-year-old daughter and a 15-year-old son. In my free time I enjoy boating with my family, hunting and fishing.