When a plaintiff attorney hires a LNC he or she is essentially bridging the gap between the medical world and the legal world. A LNC helps you (the attorney) become more familiar with the medical aspects of your case. Here are 10 Reasons Hiring a LNC is pertinent to a winning outcome.

1. Does your Case Have Merit? A LNC reviews the case for merit – this saves you money and time by not investing in a case that either has no merit or is simply a weak case that doesn’t substantiate a lawsuit.
2. Jury Simple Language: It’s better for an experienced expert witness to explain complicated issues so the jury understands them.  Attorney’s may stumble, explain it incorrectly or incompletely.  By hiring a Legal Nurse Consultant, you are hiring someone who has been trained to explain medical situations to patients and therefore can explain the medical aspects of the case to your jury.
3. Medical Record Analysis: A LNC analyzes medical records so that you don’t miss anything.  As they say, “the Devil is in the details”, by hiring a Legal Nurse Consultant you have an expert at your disposal to help you with the information found between the lines of a medical record. A LNC will also help you determine the significance of those findings.
4. Organized Presentation: LNC’s summarize and organize medical records for the attorney so they have quick reference to what they need during the case and can focus on argument.   By helping you determine time lines and organizing the information in a fashion that makes the case easier and quicker to present, you can focus on your argument and easily substantiate the evidence via quick reference.
5. Whose Involved? For a trained medical professional it’s easier to determine who played a vital role in the case by sifting through the medical records.  This allows for you, the attorney to know who is involved in the particular case and who to bring in for questions and witness support.
6. Are The Medical Records Complete? Often a case can hinge on whether the medical records are complete or not.  A LNC can help you determine if there is missing information, such as entries that should have been made, or incomplete medical records.
7. What is the Standard of Care? In legal terms, the level at which the average, prudent provider in a given community would practice. It is how similarly qualified practitioners would have managed the patient’s care under the same or similar circumstances. The medical malpractice plaintiff must establish the appropriate standard of care and demonstrate that the standard of care has been breached. A LNC is very aware of proper standards of care and can help you determine if these standards were met or not.
8. More Bang for Your Buck: In most cases hiring a LNC is far less expensive than hiring an MD.  But, more importantly, a LNC will walk side by side with you through the entire process of the case.  An MD is often very busy and cannot give the type of service that a LNC can provide. 
9. Help Finding Expert Witnesses: A LNC already on-board knows all the intricacies of the case, thus is postured to locate the perfect-fit expert for the case. Identifying expert witnesses lends strength to a case giving the attorney a better chance to win. Finding an expert witness can also be very time consuming, as you have to conduct interviews and know the right questions to ask.  A LNC is the perfect person for the job.
10. Save you Money! A legal nurse consultant in general is less expensive than hiring an MD, provides more help for your case, and helps you to determine if you have a case in the first place. Check out my recent blog post, 7 Ways a Legal Nurse Consultant Will Save an Attorney Money for more information.