What Is a Certified Legal Nurse?

Legal nurse consulting is a booming profession that bridges the medical and legal fields and enriches the litigation teams with valuable medical expertise.

A Certified Legal Nurse Consultant (CLNC^®) is a licensed, registered nurse who uses their expertise as a healthcare professional to sketch the anatomy of your case. The CLNC^® may evaluate clinical and administrative nursing practices, assess adherence to standards and guidelines of healthcare practices, interpret healthcare facts and issues, and analyze their outcomes for the legal profession, healthcare professions, and consumers of healthcare and legal services.

The clinical experience and specialized healthcare education distinguishes the legal nurse consultant from paralegals or legal assistants, and enables the consultant to dissect all medical elements of a case. The legal nurse consultant also possesses the right dosage of knowledge related to the litigation process, theories of liabilities, and contract formulation. Hence, the consultant is qualified to provide support to attorneys in all medically-related litigation and medical-legal areas such as:

• personal injury
• product liability
• medical negligence
• toxic torts
• workers' compensation
• risk management
• fraud
• abuse