What would you charge?

Crout

I just received a court order to provide an ex-employee's entire file in order to pursue a Worker's Comp claim against another company. I wanted to get a consensus as to what the Forum folks would charge the attorneys per copy. Thanks a bunch.

HRinFL

We've never charged, but we typically send the documents to our attorney and have them decide what documents to provide. Once we all agree on what to provide, our attorney sends the documents. I think they charge $.25 per page.

pork1

CROUT: Based on a court order to provide employee files, we do not charge anything. I would not want to be in contempt of the court. However, I would go through the personnel file and pull out the documents that may have gotten placed in the file that had nothing to do with the W/C claim. The attorney for the other party is looking for anything on which they can pen a reason for your company to wish to settle the W/C claim for the maximum extent by law. If your retained attorney will go through the file without a time charge, then let them do as the other posted. I would not even give our attorney the chance to turn over the hour clock and watch the sand pebbles fall freely. The basic hiring actions, promotions, and pay increases associated with written evaluations, and transfers are the documents requested.

PORK

Crout

The WC claim has to do with a different company, and as far as weeding out documents, they said they want the entire file, soup to nuts, so that's what I thought I'd send. I just wanted to find out what a reasonable charge would be because it's a rather lengthy file. Thanks for the response.

pork1

CROUT: I should have put clearer words in my last post, but I except the below words as important, however, often I find duplicate copies and NCR copies in the personnel file that would not need to be recopyed and sent to the attorney.

I wish that I and my staff of 1 other had the time to stay on top of all the documents that come in. Reality tells me that one does not need to shoot one's on foot by looking where one is aiming; a final careful look at the file to make sure you are sending what should be sent and not anything else is a wise thing to do.

Charging, based on your last post does not seem to be a great challenge. Some have perfect record keeping and the high speed copiers of today will allow for less than 10 minutes of time, just pull the stack of papers out and without further effort "let it rip"!

May you and all of have a Blessed day.

PORK

Kiwi

We charge 20 cents per page.

Parabeaglex2

Is it pursuant to a subpoena duces tecum? If so, it probably states that they will pay "reasonable costs of copying." In cases where we have had to produce documents, we charge $1 per page and the hourly wage of the clerk to copy them. Never had any complaints.

Don D

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 04-11-05 AT 04:18PM (CST)[/font][br][br]25 centavos per page and the wage of the man running the copies. Please ignore the suggestions to go through the file and cull out what you 'think' ought to be purged. A personnel file is a personnel file. It's not a personnel file minus all the stuff you think might ought not be in it. If that were the case the subpoena would have a sentence telling you to carefully go through the file and purge it of things you'd rather the attorney not have. If it ought not be there, it SHOULD NOT be there in the first place. But, Crout, I'm preachin' to the choir. I know you think the same way on this one.

Sassy

Don, I rarely post on this forum, but read it a lot. The part about weeding the employee file made my eyes bug out. However, I suggest that the attorney take a close look at the request for the employee file. I recently had a subpoena and got the WHOLE file ready to go and double checked with our attorney. The subpoena was from another state and I was advised that it was not a legal subpoena due to HIPPA laws and to not send anything. Our attorney replied with a letter stating such and to date I have not had to send the copy of the file.

njjel

Sassy - Unless you were sending medical information, HIPPA would not apply to a personnel file as you should not have anything in there that is medically related.

HRinFL

I agree that a personnel file is just that, and that things that should not be there ought not ever be placed in the file. However, in the real world, this happens. We are a large employer, do not have HR in every location, and there are times when files contain documents that should not be there. By engaging in dialogue with the attorney to identify things that are in there that are not, as well as checking to make sure everything that should be in there is, we are trying to respond in "good faith" to the request. We have a personnel file and a location file for every ee. While these should be identical, they often are not. By going through both files with Counsel, we can make every effort to comply with the intent of the subpoena. I re-read my post and realize it makes it seem that we are "weeding out the file." By no means was that the intent. We want to make every effort that we provide the information requested.

marc

Also $1 per page.

lorrie

We also have charged 25 cents per page, plus my time to retrieve the paper file, copy and prepare for mailing, and the cost of postage. Since the personnel files are not to be viewed by unauthorized employees, and this is a one-person HR office, the time I charge for is my own pay rate.

HRockets

Ten cents per page.

sandra_d

$.25 per page plus my time in going through the file and copying it.

NaeNae55

Believe it or not, I have only had to do this once. The file was in offsite storage, so I charged the cost of retrieval and refiling, and a flat fee of $25. The file turned out to be larger than expected, so I wished I had charged more. Still, I feel we covered our costs.

I like the $1 per page idea. I will definitely put that idea to use in the future.

HMPL

We charge .10 per page based upon a Kentucky Attorney General ruling.

atrimble

I'd have to ask for clarification of "entire file." We keep our work comp claims in files separate from the personnel file, even in a different file cabinet. The only people that have "unlimited" access to personnel files are: supervisors reviewing an employee's performance (in which case, they don't need the details from a work comp claim), administration, and HR. The only people that need access to work comp files are HR and administration. It's my experience that a work comp file is much smaller than a personnel file, and as such, would cost less to reproduce. However, if the court order states "entire personnel file, including all work comp claim documentation," ya gotta comply.

We don't charge to provide copies under legal order, as it's considered a cost of doing business and my time in so doing is just part of the job. (I'm a one person personnel department.)

-Abby