LNC Awareness Week

A legal nurse consultant, as defined by Legal Nurse Consulting: Principles and Practices-4th Edition, is a licensed registered nurse who performs a critical analysis of clinically related issues in a variety of settings in the legal arena.

Legal Nurse Consulting:

• Is the application of knowledge acquired during the course of professional nursing education, training, and clinical experience to the evaluation of standard of care, causation, damages and other clinically related issues in cases or claims
• Is the application of additional knowledge acquired through education and experience regarding applicable legal standards and/or strategy to the evaluation of cases or claims
• Involves critical analysis of healthcare records and medical literature, as well as relevant legal documents and other information pertinent to the evaluation and resolution of cases or claims
• Results in the development of case-specific work products and opinions for use by legal professionals or agencies handling cases or claims (AALNC, Scope and Standards of Practice, 2021, p. 4)

The foundation of legal nurse consulting is nursing education and experience.  Along with those essential skills it is recommended legal nurse consultants possess the following qualities and traits:

• Drive-ambition, energy and effort are needed to secure cases and see them through to completion.
• Analytical Skills-Collecting and synthesizing medical records to place the pieces together and spotting details that do not seem right and discover possible nuances in a case.
• Attention to Detail-Knowing what is relevant to a case, and what is not while sifting through multiple documents
• Communication Skills-Actively listening, observation, accurate documentation, and teaching skills are needed to convert complex medical information into layman's terms.
• Writing Skills-Written works, such as reports, are necessary to comprise as a legal nurse consultant.  They need to be clear, succinct, and detailed.

Self-Assessment of these qualities, traits, and skills is needed at the start of your legal nurse consultant journey to strengthen those areas needed to be successful.

If you have been practicing as a clinical RN, you have the experience you need to be a Legal Nurse Consultant.

You do not need formal education, a certification or certificate (click here to read the difference), to start working as a legal nurse consultant, but additional education courses do help guide you through the transition and assist with understanding this nursing specialty. Your experience as a nurse (more than a lay person's knowledge of medical/nursing) is what is needed to get you started.  It is recommended that you do have a few years of clinical nurse practice prior to starting as a legal nurse consultant.

Looking to get involved outside of LNC Awareness Week? Here's a great place to start!

• Attend a monthly AALNC Lounge meeting, free to both members and non-members. There is a new LNC topic each month, presented for the first 15-20 minutes and then open discussion and networking with Legal Nurse Consultants from around the country. Find these on our Events Calendar.
• Are you an AALNC member or thinking of becoming one? You can also join a Chapter! Chapters provide additional education events, virtual happy hours and occasional in-person events. This is a great, easy-going approach to get started and ask questions of other Legal Nurse Consultants. You can join any chapter, no matter your location.
• Jumpstart your Legal Nurse Consulting career by registering for our Jumpstart Virtual Workshop on August 29, 2026.
• Networking! This is the number one suggestion we hear from our members. Attending virtual meet ups and getting to know others makes last connections that can turn into cases.

You do not need to be certified to start working as a legal nurse consultant.  Education from any reputable source is helpful though as are you starting out.  It can be hard to differentiate between certificate programs (finishing a program) and certification programs (valid credentials).  For more information on these differences, click here.

The Legal Nurse Consultant Certified (LNCC®) is the only legal nurse consultant program accredited by the Accreditation Board for Specialty Nursing Certification (ABSNC) and ANCC Magnet recognized.  The LNCC accreditation does require practicing as a nurse for 5 years and working in the specialty for 2000 hours before taking the exam.  This is similar to other nursing specialty certifications, like CCRN, PCCN, OCN, CMSRN, NE-BC, etc.  Find more information on the LNCC and eligibility requirements here.