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
• Developes collaborative case strategies with those practicing within the legal system
• Provides support during discovery, depositions, trial and other legal proceedings