Legal Nurse Consulting Team

The American Association of Legal Nurse Consultants (AALNC), www.lnc.org, has defined legal nurse consulting as a specialty practice of the nursing profession.

The legal nurse consultant (LNC) is a licensed, registered nurse who performs a critical analysis of clinical and administrative nursing practice, healthcare facts and issues and their outcomes for the legal profession, healthcare professions, consumers of healthcare and legal services, and others as appropriate. With a strong educational and experiential foundation, the legal nurse consultant is qualified to assess adherence to standards and guidelines of healthcare practice as it applies to the nursing and healthcare professions.

As licensed registered nurses, legal nurse consultants bring specialized healthcare education and clinical experience to the medically related issues of the litigation process. This education and experience distinguishes legal nurse consultants from paralegals and legal assistants and provides the foundation for the legal nurse consultant's ability to recognize, interpret and analyze all relevant medically related information in a claim or case.

The primary role of the legal nurse consultant is to evaluate, analyze, and render informed opinions on the delivery of health care and the resulting outcomes. For nearly 20 years, legal nurse consultants have acted as collaborators and strategists, offering support in medically-related litigation and other medical-legal matters in the variety of practice areas.

Some LNCs practice as independent consultants; others are employed by law firms, insurance companies, government settings, and other institutions in a wide variety of roles.

At Stein, Mitchell & Muse, LNCs often have the initial contact with a potential client. Nurses commonly perform a phone intake with the client to gather pertinent case information. This information is then shared with the attorneys and our physician consultant. After reviewing the information a decision is made about how to proceed. Stein, Mitchell & Muse has two independent Legal Nurse Consultants. Cheryl Halkowicz RN, MS and Jill Carr, RN, CMSRN, LNCC have more than 40 years combined healthcare experience. They use this experience to identify issues in our cases and work the case through to a favorable outcome. Our nurses are uniquely qualified to assist with the medical aspects of our cases and are an integral part of our team.