Career Summary

Few attorneys fully understand medical terminology, yet many lawyers deal with personal injury or medical malpractice cases on a regular basis. In order to determine the medical significance in a legal case, legal nurse consultants play a major role in translating medical records, explaining terminology, and explaining healthcare issues in a way to achieve the best results for the case.

Legal nurse consultants start out as registered nurses in the healthcare field and often times have worked in the profession for numerous years. In addition to this, legal nurse consultants need some type of legal training or experiece in the legal system. A graduate degree and certification often helps to establish credability.

Some of the duties of a legal nurse consultant include strategizing with legal firms for resolutions between parties involved with healthcare related cases, to educate attorneys of healthcare facts, conferring and interviewing with witnesses, drafting legal documents, developing case strategies, providing support during proceedings, as well as testifying.

Legal nurse consultants are valuable assets to law firms for both the experience they offer and the valuable information the can provide in important legal cases.