A Legal Nurse Consultant is a collaborator and a strategist who supports both plaintiff and defense attorneys with the medical aspects of their legal cases, in the following areas of law:
- Personal Injury (including psychiatric injury and sexual assault)
- Medical Malpractice
- Product Liability
- Toxic Tort
- Criminal Law
- Employment Law
- Real Estate & Trust Law
- Workers' Compensation
- Forensic Investigations (Wrongful Death; Death Investigations of homicides & suicides; Sexual Assault Evidence Collection)
Legal Nurse Consultants assist plaintiff and defense attorneys in the following ways:
- Review medical records
- Locate and interview appropriate experts
- Compile chronologies and summaries of medical records, making voluminous records more concise
- Educate attorneys and experts on medical facts, terminology and medical issues on a case-by-case basis
- Identify standards of care, causation and damage issues
- Research medical literature via library, computer and the Internet
- Create customized charts and other relevant demonstrative evidence for trial
- Act as liaisons between attorney, physicians and clients
- Provide deposition and trial support
- Educate attorneys and non-medical experts on the medical facts and their relevance to the legal issues in each case
Legal Nurse Consultants also assist Accident Reconstructionists and Biomechanical Engineers in the following ways:
- Review medical records to identify physical damages and extent of injuries for a multiplicity of victims (auto, air, boating accidents)
- Identify where the victims were seated and whether or not they were seat belted or in infant/child safety seats by reviewing and cross-referencing all medical records and emergent-entity records
- Designs Trial Exhibits demonstrating injuries in relation to accident victims' injuries
- Reviews Coroners' Reports to identify seat belt markings, extent of injuries, internal organ injuries, drug or food ingestion as related to cause of death
- Designs relevant work product, in laymen's terms, to enhance engineer-experts' understanding of medical terms
A Legal Nurse Consultant also assists Private Investigators in the following ways:
- Provides consultation to Private Investigators regarding the medical findings, interpretation of medical terminology, and extent of injuries in insurance fraud, personal injury and death investigation cases.
©Copyright 1996-2005 Lisa Morgan, RN dba Legal Nurses OnLine® All rights reserved.
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