What is a Legal Nurse Consultant?

The legal nurse consultant is a licensed, registered nurse who performs a critical analysis of clinical and administrative nursing practice, healthcare facts and issues and their outcomes for the legal profession, healthcare professions, consumers of healthcare and legal services, and others as appropriate. With a strong educational and experiential foundation, the legal nurse consultant is qualified to assess adherence to standards and guidelines of healthcare practice as it applies to the nursing and healthcare professions.

What Makes a Legal Nurse Consultant Distinct?
As licensed registered nurses, legal nurse consultants bring specialized healthcare education and clinical experience to the medically related issues of the litigation process. This education and experience distinguishes legal nurse consultants from paralegals and legal assistants and provides the foundation for the legal nurse consultant's ability to recognize, interpret and analyze all relevant medically related information in a claim or case.

What Does a Legal Nurse Consultant Do?
Acts as a liaison with attorneys, physicians and clients
Educates attorneys regarding medical facts and issues relating to a case or claim
Researches applicable literature and evidence to determine the merits of a case
Reviews and analyzes documents and compares them to the allegations
Summarizes medical literature
Screens for record tampering
Defines and evaluates the standards of care practices
Evaluates the possible breach of duty on the part of the healthcare practitioner or facility
Prepares witness and exhibit lists
Interviews witnesses and involved parties
Prepares persuasive graphic exhibits for trial
Assesses issues of damage and causation
Identifies and retains expert witnesses
Assists in obtaining medical records and identifying missing records
Organizes medical records and other medically-related litigation materials
Prepares chronologies of medical events and correlates them to the allegations
Develops collaborative case strategies with those practicing within the legal system
Provides support during discovery, depositions, trial and other legal proceedings

Where Does the Legal Nurse Consultant Practice?
As a liaison between the legal and the healthcare communities as well as the consumer, the legal nurse consultant can practice in a variety of settings including:
Law firms
Government offices
Insurance companies
Hospital risk management departments
Forensic environments
Consulting firms
HMOs
Self-employed independent practices

What is the Role of the Legal Nurse Consultant?
The primary role of the legal nurse consultant is to evaluate, analyze, and render informed opinions on the delivery of health care and the resulting outcomes. For nearly 20 years, legal nurse consultants have acted as collaborators and strategists, offering support in medically-related litigation and other medical-legal matters in the variety of practice areas including the following:
Personal injury
Product liability
Medical malpractice
Workers' compensation
Toxic torts
Risk management
Medical licensure investigation
Fraud and abuse, compliance
Criminal law
Elder law
Other applicable cases