Benefits of a Legal Nurse Consultant

Let’s say you were in a fatal car accident. You have several fractures and injuries in various parts of your body because of the seriousness of the collision that occurred. You have trouble with mobility, whether this means getting around your home or performing activities of daily living. And it’s just your luck that you have to provide for a family and you are not well enough to go to work or take care of your children. To add insult to injury, your hospital bills are piling up and you are losing money because you can’t go to work while you wait to heal. You deserve compensation so you consult an attorney who can lawfully obtain restitution from that drunk driver who severely injured you. A qualified lawyer can fight your case in court and probably give you the money you need to pay your bills and become well again. Yet legal know-how is not enough in a courtroom case like this. To argue a good, well-examined case, you may need someone with proper medical knowledge, and that person is a legal nurse consultant.

A legal nurse consultant, or an LNC, is a certified nurse who assists an attorney at law. This individual can explain to a lawyer information on medical records, medical phrasing, and other knowledge relating to health and nursing. An LNC is first and foremost a medical care provider and is not required to have legal training, yet assists an attorney in many tasks. These include researching the medical case and cases similar to it, reporting on necessary care for the plaintiff, searching for witnesses, demonstrating evidence, and anything that will help a lawyer prepare a case.

For finding a quality LNC, you may want to seek out a member of the American Association of Legal Nurse Consultants (AALNC), which has been around for nearly a quarter of a century. This association is for providing more specialized nurses whose services can be utilized more effectively in a court of law. It also promotes a Code of Ethics for anyone wishing to become an LNC so that he or she can serve not only the lawyer but contribute to the practice of justice in general. Hiring a legal nurse consultant from the AALNC may be difficult to do so because they are so few in number, yet doing so will ensure a quality professional who has all the healthcare expertise required as well as legal know-how. For your most well-rounded case against someone who has wronged you and has seriously impaired you, remember the benefits of hiring an LNC.