What is an LNC?
The utilization of a Legal Nurse Consultant is an efficient use of a client's time, money and resources.
The Legal Nurse Consultant [LNC] is a licensed registered nurse who performs a critical analysis of clinical and administrative healthcare practice, facts and issues and their outcomes. This analysis is provided for the legal and healthcare professions and other organizations that represent consumers of healthcare. As licensed registered nurses, LNCs bring specialized healthcare education and clinical experience to the medically-related issues of the litigation process. This education and experience distinguishes LNCs from Paralegals and Legal Assistants and provides the foundation for the LNC's ability to recognize, interpret and analyze all relevant medically-related information in a claim or case. It also makes the Legal Nurse Consultant uniquely qualified to assess adherence to, and deviations from, standards of care and other guidelines of healthcare practice as it applies to nursing, medicine, and other healthcare professions.
Services Provided by a Legal Nurse Consultant:
- Reviews, analyzes and organizes medical records
- Prepares reports in narrative form or time-line chronology
- Defines pertinent medical terms, procedures and disease processes
- Evaluates and analyzes issues of causation
- Performs healthcare research
- Identifies adherences to and deviations from standards of care
- Assists with determining merits or defensibility of cases
- Assesses damages and related costs of services
- Assists with preparing areas of inquiry for depositions
- Attends and reports on Independent Medical Examinations
- Provides trial support services such as trial strategy and preparation of exhibits
- Locates and confers with experts witnesses
- Provides expert witness testimony
Areas of Practice of a Legal Nurse Consultant:
- Personal Injury
- Product Liability
- Medical and Nursing Negligence and Malpractice
- Toxic Torts
- Workers' Compensation
- Disability
- Risk Management
- Healthcare Licensure Investigation
Legal Nurse Consultants Practice Settings:
- In-house plaintiff law firms
- In-house defense law firms
- Insurance companies
- Specialized insurers for healthcare professionals
- Hospitals and other health-related facilities
- Government agencies
- Independent consultative practice
