Legal nurse consultants apply their knowledge and understanding of medical, nursing and health-related issues to make the attorney's job easier, more efficient and more effective.

Legal nurse consultants are medical insiders who know the inner workings of our complicated healthcare system firsthand. Their professional expertise as an RN and a legal nurse consultant qualifies them to provide the following services:

Assessing Medical Records and Analyzing the Case

• Identify, locate, review and interpret relevant medical records, hospital policies and procedures, other documents and tangible items.
• Organize, tab and paginate medical records for easy reference.
• Prepare chronologies of the medical events involved in a case.
• Summarize, translate and interpret medical records.
• Identify issues of tampering with the medical records.
• Screen medical malpractice cases for merit.
• Identify, locate, summarize and interpret applicable standards of care.
• Identify adherences to and deviations from these standards.
• Identify causation issues, assess damages/injuries and identify contributing factors.
• Identify and recommend potential defendants.
• Develop written reports for the attorney's use as study tools.

Supporting the Attorney's Case

• Search and summarize medical and nursing literature and integrate results of your search into case analysis.
• Analyze the validity of research studies relied on by all parties.
• Coordinate and attend independent medical examinations.
• Help in developing life care plans.
• Expand the attorney's medical library.

Serving as the Attorney's Liaison

• Interview plaintiff and defense clients, key witnesses and experts.
• Consult with healthcare providers.
• Meet with other consultants and service providers on the attorney's behalf.

Working with Experts and Other Witnesses

• Identify types of testifying experts needed for the case.
• Find and communicate with appropriate expert witnesses for deposition and trial.
• Analyze potential experts' reports and other work product.
• Help prepare witnesses and experts for deposition and trial.
• Serve as an expert witness and testify to the nursing standard of care.

Assisting with Discovery and Preparing for Court

• Prepare questions for deposition or trial examination (direct or cross).
• Prepare interrogatories and requests for production.
• Review and draft responses to various legal documents and correspondence for the attorney's signature.
• Analyze and summarize depositions and past testimony.
• Assist with exhibit preparation and other demonstrative evidence.
• Attend courtroom proceedings when relevant.
• Coordinate and assist with facilitating focus groups and mock trials.
• Assist in resolution of cases through alternative dispute resolution, such as arbitration and mediation.

About the Author: Inc. Top 10 Entrepreneur Vickie L. Milazzo, RN, MSN, JD is the founder and president of Vickie Milazzo Institute. She is credited by The New York Times with creating the legal nurse consulting profession in 1982. She is the recipient of the Nursing Excellence Award for Advancing the Profession and the Stevie Award (business's Oscar) as Mentor of the Year. Vickie has revolutionized the careers of thousands of RNs. She is the author of Inside Every Woman: Using the 10 Strengths You Didn't Know You Had to Get the Career and Life You Want Now, coming March 2006 from John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Preorder this anticipated bestseller now at www.Amazon.com

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