$100-$150 per hour...too good to be true?

wow,it is a really high salary!!

But only if you are actually getting work.

I think the only one's making $100 - $150 an hour are the one's selling the online course. JIMHO

If it sounds too good to be true - Beware!

Again, not true.

It's not the norm (the upper level of this amount), but many of us command and receive, fees that are inline with those ranges.

If you take a look at some attorneys fee schedules, you will find that they even bill out their paralegals, legal assistants, and law student interns in the $50-100 range. I don't know about you guys, but I have many years and a lot of money invested in becoming a competent, educated nurse and I believe my services are worth more than what a law student would make.

Anytime you set your fee schedule, you need to be aware of the going rate for attorneys and their staff in your area if you are planning on getting business locally.

If you want work as an LNC, you will find work. And if you do quality work, you will get the fees you desire. But it takes a lot more dedication and sweat than most people are willing to put out.

An LNC who is a testifying expert can only testify within her area of expertise. So, testifying to the facts as to nursing practice standards and deviations would be appropriate.

So when you say an LNC who is a testifying expert only testifies against nurses, this is actually as it should be. He or she would most likely be qualified to testify to nursing issues.

I have to disagree sort of with a couple of people. I get $100.00 and hour to review medical records so the salary is not unrealistic for someone just starting out. Additionally while a course is not required it is strongly recomended. Most nurses understand nursing practice, but may not have a grasp of legal principles as they apply to malpractice. There are courses out there that you do not have to pay an arm and a leg for. The courses provide you with a foundation of the law and how to market yourself as an LNC. I think many will find the courses very useful.

I think $100-150 is reasonable if, as sirI says, you apply yourself, work hard, understand the medical malpractice law in your jurisdiction, and can produce a quality work product. If you can learn the elements of negligence (especially the concept of causation) and the other aspects of health law claims without a formal course, then you have saved yourself a lot of money. What attorneys want is a succinct summary that gives them the relevant details of the case without all the fluff. Do they have a case? Are their client's actions defensible? But to get there, you need to understand a lot about the medicine and a lot about the law. Regarding expert witnessing, I totally agree that you are more credible if you have testified for both sides. Otherwise, you look like a hired gun for one side or the other.

There is no reason to pay big $$$$ to learn what you already know- how to read medical charts with a critical eye and find mistakes, and know how a disease process is managed. Most of these courses are more hype and selling marketing materials than anything else. For example, if you have never worked in OB, no amount of overpriced materials that you buy from the "Amway of Legal Nurse Consulting", will buy you credibility with an attorney if you cannot decipher the stips from the fetal monitor. Same with cardiac and ICU cases. If you have never worked in ICU you have no business reviewing records for an ICU case just because you spent alot of money on the "Cardiac Cases Chart Review" from one of these programs. $$$ paid out does not buy you credibility with attorneys. JMHO and my NY$0.02.

Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN
Spokane, Washington

I agree with Lindarn. If you have the ability to read a chart (or series of charts) and figure out where there may be breaches of the standard of care, then you could probably do without formal LNC training. I myself never had formal LNC training but I knew what the issues were and I could extract the information from the chart, explain it, and timeline it out to show the attorney what should have happened when, and the result of it not happening. In my role as a med-mal attorney, I use several nurse experts, but I don't believe that any of them have formal LNC training. All that is required in Texas is that you are actively practicing in the field that you are giving an opinion about, or were at the time the lawsuit arose. If I get a report from opposing counsel's nurse and (s)he has been in academia for 20 years and not at the bedside at all, I'm going to ask the court to strike that expert as unqualified.