Attorneys Know When To Hire a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant
Posted: Saturday, November 27, 2010
by Joyce Pope
JPS Legal Nurse Consultant
The Attorney is the expert on the legal issues and the law governing any case. The Certified Legal Nurse doses not render legal advice. The Attorney serves as the advocate, the person who pleads and urges the cause of another. Education is one of the primary roles a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant provides at the earliest onset of the legal case. The sooner the nurse is involved in the case the less time is spent on the case outcome. Attorneys use Certified Legal Nurse Consulting services both as defense and plaintiff. Other clients that use a CLNC services include, Insurance companies, Healthcare Facilities, Governmental agencies, and private corporations.
Certified Legal Nurse Consultants excel in cases about negligence and a professional care provider, care provided by a facility or a learning institution. Nurses excel in cases where a decision is made regarding access to health care services. In the process of gaining that access there was a delay in treatment, inappropriate use of utilization review or negligent case management.
2. When you get a General Negligence Case
Personal Injury cases that are non-health-care professionals related are considered general negligence. Personal injury cases include, but are not limited to, sports injuries, water accidents, liquor liability, aviation, railroad, auto accidents, sexual assault, or slip and fall cases.
3. When you get a Products Liability Case
Products Liability include medical or non medical manufacturers and sellers of a product to someone who purchased it and was themselves injured and or an injured bystander caused by the defective product.
4. When you get a Toxic Tort and Environmental Case
Environmental or Toxic Tort cases involving alleged damages and or injuries caused by the release of toxins into the environment, such as oil spills, lead poisoning, asbestos, pesticides and secondary smoke exposure.
5. When you get a Workers’ Compensation and Workplace Injury Case
Injuries that occur out of and in the course of employment are workplace injuries and exhibit impairment that make them unable to earn the income they made when they became injured in the same job or another job.
6. When you get a Criminal Case
Although criminal cases require proof beyond a reasonable doubt and the verdict must be unanimous. Some actions can be both criminal and civil. Criminal cases include acts that society has deemed contrary to the public good and is injurious to society, such as homicide, sexual and physical assault, child, spouse and elderly abuse, criminal environmental, Medicare fraud, psychiatric or rape.
7. Whenever an Attorney get a Case Where Health, Illness or Injury is in Issue = hires a CLNC!
Certified Legal Nurse Consultants are qualified to research topics, answer questions and assist the attorney in developing the medical-related issues of many types of cases. Additional examples of cases a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant can assist in are, family law, probate, disability, employee-employer wrongful dismissal, right to die, Medicare/ social security benefit, elder issues, wrongful adoption, insurance issues and including health care professional board disciplinary actions.
Certified Legal Nurse Consultant’s Impact on the Legal System
Certified Legal Nurse Consultants are nurses and they represent and speak for the nursing profession. They uphold standards of care for the healthcare community by identifying meritorious cases and communicating deviations from recognized standards. The result is improved quality of care. They identify fraudulent and nonmeritorious claims and help to keep them out of the system. Certified Legal Nurse Consultants help to ensure that the legal system uses scientific, medical and nursing information properly and without distortion, provide a cost effective adjunct to the litigation process.
Why use a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant?
By completing the Certified Legal Nurse Consultant Certification indicates the attainment of specialized knowledge beyond the nursing degree. This process promotes CLNC quality within the nursing practice, the nursing profession and the community. Certified Legal Nurse Consultants provide assistance with strategies for quality assurance, risk identification and management, evaluation and control of loss exposure.
To complete the CLNC Certification the nursing candidate:
-Masters a complex body of specialized knowledge while preparing to practice.
-Promotes excellence and standardization of the principles and practice of legal nurse consulting, a distinct professional nursing specialty.
-Demonstrates to law firms and insurance companies the successful completion of the nationally recognized training program, a division of Medical-Legal Consulting Institute, Inc.
-Gains a competitive edge over other consultants with a demonstrated level of proficiency in the field of Legal Nurse Consulting and a commitment to continuing education.
-Becomes a member of the largest legal nurse consulting association, the National Alliance of Certified Legal Nurse Consultants (NACLNC).
What is Certification?
The CLNC Certification process is administered by The Vickie Milazzo Institute, http://www.legalnurse.com/. The official certification of the National Alliance of Certified Legal Nurse Consultants (NACLNC) and the CLNC Certification were implemented in 1994. Successful consultants nationwide had input into this implementation. There are well over 7,000 National Alliance of Certified Legal Nurse Consultants nationwide. CLNC Certification is designed for registered nurses seeking the in-depth knowledge and continuing education necessary to practice in this sophisticated and rapidly changing field.
CLNC Graduates are a valuable asset
Graduates of CLNC® programs have consulted on cases ranging from simple neck injuries caused by auto accidents to high profile cases such as Rodney King and groundbreaking litigations like FenPhen, Vioxx®, silicone implants, toxic mold and more.
CLNCs’ are valuable assets to any Attorney faced with the confusing task of understanding and processing legal cases with multiple medical elements, medical language and alteration in health status or injuries with a time line. Understanding who may be responsible in a medical case can be very involved. Understanding Nursing /Medical expertise means having a CLNC® on your “Legal Team." CLNC Graduates can add to an attorneys insight and understanding of and the scope of practice of multiple players in the medical system. Attorneys gain clarity from the research the analytical fact data gathering skills a nurse brings to the situation. Attorneys gain a well oiled working tool to their specifications and a quality Standard of Practice. They gain insight into deviations from recognized Standards of Practice of health-care delivery system. Attorneys save time, money and efforts, and they gain an improved organization and less frustration.
Contact a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant today http://www.jpslegalnurse.com/contact.
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