A legal nurse consultant is usually a registered nurse who acts as a legal consultant on medical issues in lawsuits. They work with law firms on a case-by-case basis to review medical records and patient treatment. Some also work in-house as salaried employees for law firms. They are brought in on a wide variety of cases, from personal injury to product liability research.
The profession grew from the legal field’s use of “expert witnesses.” As the need for medical expertise grew, experienced RNs who provided occasional testimony found that there was a niche developing for the profession. It has taken the Legal Nurse Consultant far less time to gain recognition and respect from the legal community than it took for paralegals. While the ABA prefers to look on medical consultants as paralegals, they are beginning to acknowledge that there is a difference and it deserves recognition. Nurses are accustomed to battles of that sort, having all engaged in some sort of confrontation with hospital management either as employees or through union confrontations.
Becoming a Qualified Legal Nurse Consultant
In 1989 the American Association of Legal Nurse Consultants was formed. This organization has been active in lobbying for recognition of the profession, and has developed a certification program to help give credibility to its members. Requirements for taking the exam include:
1) Licensure in good standing as an RN;
2) 2,000 hours of work as an LNC in a three-year period;
3) successful completion of the Legal Nurse Certification exam; and
4) a minimum of five years experience practicing as an RN.
There are LNC training programs being developed at a rapid rate. Technical schools are providing LNC programs as are online schools. Most of them provide a certificate upon successful completion of the course of study. There is no real national certification program however. While a certificate may have some value as an introductory device, most attorneys are more interested in the caliber of the testimony or the quality of the investigative work that the legal nurse consultant provides.
A Legal Nurse Consultant on the Job
With their medical background, LNCs can educate attorneys about standards of medical treatment, explain medical procedures and provide assistance with discovery requests, deposition questions and selection of expert witnesses. In personal injury or liability cases LNCs will review medical records, prepare chronologies of medical treatments and to evaluate patient care.
This can require detailed review when testimony requires looking into the specifics of the patient’s care and the complications that arose during treatment. The legal nurse consultant can make a judgment call and determine if the complication was an acceptable risk. That often requires research into the medical literature. The LNC is in a position to ask the perennial medical question “Was this procedure necessary?”
Many legal nurse consultants are finding full time employment with law firms that specialize in matters with medical issues involved. The job can vary from case to case; one may involve medical detective work on a patient’s treatment while another might require educating the legal team on the medical ramifications within the lawsuit as a whole. It can be a job with much more variety to it than what an RN encounters as a career staff nurse.
