What a malpractice record review costs and how long it takes
Answer in brief: the physician's hours are most of the cost. SEAK's 2024 survey of 1,633 experts puts the median rate for file review at $450 an hour and the median total billed on a typical case at $7,000. Record preparation costs far less: $0.25 a page for a nurse-written summary at NaviCase, $25 an hour for a chronology at MedicoLegal Request, $0.10 a page or less in software. Turnaround runs from 24 hours for a screen to 2 to 4 weeks for a full review.
Limits: Prices, turnarounds and claims come from each provider's own pages or the cited survey and statute, read 2026-11-14. We bought no review from anyone listed and cannot vouch for the quality of any reviewer, and nothing here is legal advice on who may testify in your state.
Published rates for physician review
Very few physicians or firms publish what a standard-of-care review costs. The best public data is SEAK's 2024 expert witness fee survey, collected in January and February 2024. It covers experts in every field, so a board-certified specialist will often sit above the median.
| Measure | Median | Average | Range | Source, read on |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hourly fee, case review and preparation | $450 | $466 | $55 to $2,500 | SEAK 2024 summary, 2026-11-14 |
| Hourly fee, deposition | $500 | $571 | $55 to $2,500 | SEAK 2024 summary, 2026-11-14 |
| Retainer, where required | $3,000 | $4,084 | $275 to $50,000 | SEAK 2024 summary, 2026-11-14 |
| Typical total billed on 1 case | $7,000 | $14,376 | $20 to $500,000 | SEAK 2024 summary, 2026-11-14 |
| Indiana review panel, per provider panelist | Up to $500 for all work, plus travel; chair $250 a day up to $2,500 | IC 34-18-10-25, 2026-11-14 | ||
An older SEAK fee study, still online, reported that medical experts charged more than double what non-medical experts did for court testimony, which is why the all-field median understates physician rates. That study does not give a medical-only file review figure, so we don't quote one.
Published rates for record preparation
| Provider | What you get | Published price | Stated turnaround | Source, read on |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NaviCase | Clinician-written record summary | $0.25 a page; $0.40 with analysis; $150 minimum | 5 business days; rush +25% or +50% | navicasemed.com, 2026-11-14 |
| LezDo TechMed | Record review service, monthly volume tiers | Example: $0.29 a page at 100,001 to 200,000 pages a month; narrative summary add-on $0.05 to $0.08 a page | Not on the pricing page | lezdotechmed.com, 2026-11-14 |
| MedicoLegal Request | Medical chronology by MDs and nurse consultants | $25 an hour | 1 week | medicolegalrequestllc.com, 2026-11-14 |
| Medrecords AI (ours) | Software: deduplication, page-cited timeline, missing records, report draft from your notes | $0.10 per deduplicated page, $0.08 at 100,000 credits, $0.05 at 500,000; report $10 | About 1 hour per case | our page, 2026-11-14 |
Preparation is a different product from review. A $435 summary of a 1,742-page file (NaviCase's own worked example) does not answer whether care met the standard. It shortens the physician's path to the answer.
What a 2,000-page file costs: preparation versus physician time
The pattern holds at any realistic pace: preparation is a few percent of the budget. It pays for itself only if it saves the physician hours, which depends on how much of the file the physician can skip once a reliable, page-cited chronology exists. The physician still opens every page the opinion rests on.
Cost calculator for your file
Every input is yours to change. Defaults: a 2,000-page file, the SEAK 2024 median rate, and a reading pace of 50 pages an hour, which is an illustrative number, not a published benchmark; no study we found measures how fast physicians read for a standard-of-care review. The second scenario assumes a prepared chronology lets you read fully only the pages your decision points rest on.
The calculator runs in your browser and sends nothing anywhere. It ignores retainers, deposition and trial time.
Turnaround, as stated by each provider
| Provider | Stage | Stated turnaround | Source, read on |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reliable Clinical Experts | Initial case screen; full record review; expert report | 24 hours; 2 to 4 weeks; 1 to 2 weeks | reliableclinicalexperts.com, 2026-11-14 |
| Expert Institute | Certificate of merit | 2 to 3 days | expertinstitute.com, 2026-11-14 |
| Retain | First expert candidates | Within 48 hours for most requests | retainexpertwitness.com, 2026-11-14 |
| Medplace | Peer or case review | 6 days | medplace.com, 2026-11-14 |
| NaviCase | Record summary | 5 business days | navicasemed.com, 2026-11-14 |
| MedicoLegal Request | Chronology | 1 week | medicolegalrequestllc.com, 2026-11-14 |
| The Pediatric Expert | Physician review | No single fixed turnaround; depends on volume, complexity and clinic schedule | thepediatricexpert.com, 2026-11-14 |
| Indiana medical review panel | Panel opinion | Within 180 days of the last panelist's selection | IC 34-18-10-13, 2026-11-14 |
Each figure is the provider's own claim; we did not time any of them. Read the stage column closely: 24 hours is a screen, not a review.
How to budget a review you are commissioning
- Ask for the reviewer's hourly rate, retainer and minimums in writing before records go out.
- Send the page count and number of providers, and ask for an hours estimate per stage: screen, full review, report.
- Decide whether record preparation happens before the physician starts, and who checks it.
- Set the deadline from the legal or committee date backward, leaving time to chase missing records.
- Agree how added records are billed; NaviCase, for example, recounts and reprices pages added after intake.