Legal nurse consultants offer medical opinions for legal cases, reviewing medical records and working as expert witnesses. They can work for various employers and industries, including pharmaceutical, food, and personal care. They may also create plans for injured employees and work with attorneys during trials.
Legal nurse consultant jobs vary greatly depending on the employer and the type of legal process that requires a consultant. In general, a legal nurse consultant will offer their opinion about a medical or health issue for a legal case. Legal nurse consultant jobs include reviewing medical records and working as an expert witness during a courtroom trial. She can work for lawyers, insurance companies, hospitals, nursing homes, day care centers or various private companies such as pharmaceutical companies.
Typically, legal nurse consultant jobs change according to the types of legal cases involved. In most cases, the consultant can be useful for any case where health, medicine or the practice of medicine is at issue. For example, a medical malpractice case might use a legal advisor to prove or disprove negligence on the part of a nurse or doctor. In a personal injury case, she may work to prove or disprove the fact that an injury was caused by a vehicular accident.
Often, legal consulting jobs include working with companies associated with the pharmaceutical, food, or personal care industries. A professional in this field can help lawyers, insurance companies, or affected individuals determine whether or not a particular product caused a specific harm. She may also work on environmental cases, helping attorneys determine the effect of certain substances, such as toxic chemicals, asbestos or lead.
Legal nurse consultant jobs usually involve looking into the medical records of a person or a group of people. She may be asked to talk with attorneys about the meaning of the information in the records as well. In some cases, one of the jobs of a legal nurse consultant is to summarize medical records in layman’s terms.
In some cases, particularly in workers’ compensation cases, one of the legal consultant jobs involves creating plans for an injured employee. In these cases, she must understand how the injured worker will be restricted in their duties based on the worker’s injury. For example, if the worker has a back injury, the consultant can create a plan where the worker cannot lift items heavier than a certain weight.
One of the more interesting jobs of a legal nurse consultant is working with attorneys during the course of a trial. A professional in this position can work as an expert witness, answering questions from attorneys on both sides of a case. Alternatively, she can review medical testimony and help lawyers think of good questions during trial. In some cases, she may be asked to answer questions on the stand or help an attorney fill out cross-examination questions.
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