About LNC

What is a Legal Nurse Consultant?
A Certified Legal Nurse ConsultantCM is a registered nurse who uses existing expertise as a healthcare professional plus specialized CLNC® training to consult on medical-related cases. Few attorneys know how to read medical records or understand the terminology and subtleties of healthcare issues to achieve the best results for their clients. A CLNC® consultant bridges that gap in the attorney's knowledge. While the attorney is the expert on legal issues, the CLNC® is the expert on nursing, the healthcare system and its inner workings.

According to the Houston Chronicle, "Of the approximately 1,162,124* attorneys in practice today, 25 percent deal with medical malpractice and personal injury cases." These attorneys rely on specially trained CLNC®s to help them win their cases.

When would I hire a LNC and what is their role?
You would hire a LNC when you require a professional to conduct a thorough analysis of medical records, provide in-depth research of relevant information, and provide additional services, enabling you to focus on the legal aspects of the case. The role of the legal Nurse Consultant can be best defined as an educator. The Legal Nurse Consultant educates the attorney/client, opposing attorney, plaintiff and defendants, jurors, judge resource consultants and consumers.

Why a Nurse and not a Doctor?
A LNC will save you time and money in non-meritorious cases and by honing the review in meritorious. Using an MD only gives you half of the picture, as the RNs are the primary care givers in constant contact with the patients. Nurses are more knowledgeable of hospital policies and inside events than doctors. A nurse can give you vital information in terms you can understand.

What are Standards of Care?
By definition: "A Standard of Care holds a person exceptional skill or knowledge to a duty of acting as would a reasonable and prudent person possessing the same or similar skills or knowledge under the same or similar circumstances."

Why a LNC and not a paralegal assistant?
Don't be confused. Legal nurse consulting is an entirely different career from nurse-paralegal. Certified Legal Nurse Consultants are highly respected, educated professionals. During the litigation process, the LNC brings that specialized education and clinical expertise of the medical team. Paralegals and legal assistants are often high school graduates with a few months of costly additional training. Their scope of practice is very limited, paralegals and legal assistants are employed by law firms under the supervision of licensed attorneys, and are not typically trained in medical terminology and are not aware of the latest health care issues.

What does certification mean and why it is important?
The Certification entails extensive medical-legal training and successfully completing a certification exam to demonstrate their level of proficiency and commitment to continuing education. A registered Nurse has taken specialized training to promote excellence in legal nurse consulting and standardization of the principles and practice in the field.