Legal Nursing Consultant

Legal nurses, also called legal nurse consultants (LNCs), assist the legal team in analyzing cases potentially involving medical errors. LNCs’ clinical knowledge offers a unique contribution to understanding how situations may occur and provides an insider’s view of the complicated process of healthcare.

Depending on their worksite, legal nurses review and evaluate the documentation surrounding a medical occurrence, interview those involved, and create written chronologies to illustrate the event’s circumstances. Legal nurses help determine whether the actions of others were appropriate or should be called into question. They offer the legal team vital input to decide the case’s direction.

Legal nurses possess the skill to decipher nuances in standards of practice and explain them to the legal team or in the courts as expert witnesses.

Legal nurses often receive advanced training to improve their skills. For example, some start as paralegals and then take classes to become certified legal nurses. Others continue to obtain their master’s or doctoral degrees or become nurse attorneys.

Legal nurses review and summarize medical documents to enable the legal team to determine the case’s merits. After researching the medical literature, they must compare the actions that occurred against current standards of care. They may interview other health care providers and be involved in forming questions used in depositions. Some legal nurses participate in arbitration and mediation meetings between both sides involved.

Legal nurses who work in expanded settings such as case management or those who attend independent medical exams may have other duties involving more patient contact. Other legal nurses who have expertise in a specialty area such as orthopedics or neurology can expand into expert witness roles.

Legal nurses need the training to understand legal terminology. They use critical thinking, expert research skills, and ethics to understand how medical events occur. LNCs rely on their years of nursing experience to determine if a medical response met the standard of care.

Strong communication skills are needed to interact with lawyers and interview families or other health providers. They must remain objective so as not to misinterpret the facts presented. Legal nurses must be precise in their written descriptions and explanations of what the documents show and be able to lay out an accurate chronology of the situation to be presented in court.

Legal nurses often work for law firms, insurance companies, hospital risk management departments, forensic environments, and government agencies. In addition, some have independent consulting practices.

• Medical malpractice
• Personal injury
• Elder and long-term care law
• Workers compensation
• Forensic or criminal cases
• Risk management
• Product liability
• Medicare-related

The American Association of Legal Nurse Consultants (AALNC) offers a 17 module self-paced program to obtain LNCC certification. The only legal nurse consulting credential approved by the American Board of Nursing Specialties.

Member rate: $2291
Non-member rate: $4273

Vickie Milazzo Institute for Medical-Legal Consulting offers an online program with four levels of certification:

Regular price: $4,997, currently on sale for $3,197.

LNC STAT
LNC STAT is accredited by the Boards of Nursing. Certification programs include:

• Advanced Legal Nurse Consultant (ALNC) Certification
• Expert of Medical-Legal Specialties (EMLS) Certification

Packages Costs: $3,995 to $14,495

All nurse specialty areas require an Associate Degree in Nursing (ADN) or Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree and successfully pass the state's NCLEX-RN exam. The AALNC recommends you actively practice for five years before becoming a legal nurse consultant.

1. Complete an Associate Degree in Nursing (ADN) or Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree: takes two-to-four years based on the program
2. Pass the NCLEX-RN exam and apply for your RN license after graduation
3. Work for at least five years as a registered nurse
4. Obtain training as an LNC through a certificate or certification program
5. Become certified as an LNCC after meeting the prerequisites and gaining work experience.

You can advance your career by getting an MSN or doctoral degree in an area of interest.

Alternatively, you can become a nurse attorney and obtain your (JD). You first need your BSN or MSN. Afterward, you will be licensed to practice both nursing and law.

Legal nurses typically make between $62,375 - $98,898, with a median salary of $77,651, according to Salary.com.

The May 2021 Bureau of Labor and Statistics report shows which states have the highest and lowest wages for nurses. They do not list by nurse specialty, but legal nurse salaries would likely follow suit. The highest-paid states are California, Hawaii, and Oregon. The lowest-paid states are South Dakota, Alabama, and Mississippi.

American Association of Legal Nurse Consultants (AALNC)

National Alliance of Certified Legal Nurse Consultants‍ (associated with Vickie Milazzo Institute)

The International & American Association of the Legal Nurse Industry