Legal Nurse Consultant Quick Tips for Success

Read these quick tips for legal nurse consultant success.

• Most law offices are not like the ones depicted on shows like Boston Legal, Harry’s Law, or Ally McBeal.

• Most attorneys are not going to look or act like William Shatner, Calista Flockhart or Kathy Bates.

• Do not assume; always verify the facts.

• Pay attention to detail. No one ever lost a case by knowing the facts too well.

• Never give an attorney an original or your only copy of a document.

• Develop your own daily reminder system. This way, tasks and deadlines do not fall through the cracks, and your systems serves as a backup to the general calendar system of your firm.

• Abide by a stringent, ethical code in your practice as LNC. Never give legal advice. Do not hold yourself out, or in any way give the impression, that you are a lawyer.

• Develop relationships with court personnel – treat them all with respect.

• If you do not know the answer, know the resources you can use to find it. Knowing the resource is half the battle. The other half is admitting you don’t know the answer and identifying the question

• If you make a mistake, admit it immediately. One can only correct a mistake if it is acknowledged, recognized, and addressed. It may be hard to admit to a mistake, but early admission may make the critical difference in being able to rectify the error.

• Do not be too quick to take “no” for an answer. Good LNCs always look for a way to work it out or get around an issue when someone initially says “no.”

• Proofread all work. One mistake can compromise your case. Even though I did not like it, I learned this lesson—sometimes the hard way—but I learned it.

• Respect your attorney and the client by meeting or exceeding expectations about deadlines. No one has ever been fired for finishing a project early.

• Listen and learn. Everyone has something to offer. You can learn from the most experienced of veterans and the most inexperienced “greenhorns.” Great ideas sometimes come from the most unexpected sources.

• Keep up with new court rules, changes in the law, and changes in technology.

• With each passing year, computer technology plays a larger role in the practice of law. Today we are faced with electronic medical records, as well as filing of legal documents via the internet. We communicate wirelessly on more occasions than in writing. Be sure your communications with your attorneys as well as their clients are secure and protected with a privacy filter. Become fluent in more than one word processing program.

• Document, document, document…each task completed, each client communication, each conference with an attorney, and all deadlines. Keep documentation on a protected network, such as investing in your own “cloud storage” program.

• Do not participate in office gossip; in the end it serves no purpose and is a distraction from your assigned tasks. Additionally, do not discuss privileged matters related to the client and their claim via social networking websites.

• Regardless of how adversarial your supervising attorneys may be, it is important for the LNC to be courteous, personable, and professional when dealing with court staff, witnesses, and opposing counsel.

• Conference frequently with your supervising attorney. Provide the attorney with a list of questions and topics for discussion prior to each meeting.

• Always repeat back instructions as given to you when receiving an assignment. This way you can confirm you heard what the other person thought she was saying.

• Networking is invaluable. You can never know too many smart people.

• Treat legal secretaries and all support personnel in the office as equals. You will find that they know more about many things than you do and are valuable resources.

• Do not lose sight of who you are really working for: the client. You may have twenty files on your desk, but to each client, his file is the only one that is important.

• Join and participate in local, state, and national professional organizations, and take advantage of continuing education programs offered to their members. Through these activities you can exchange ideas, find new resources, and develop a valuable network of peers.

• The most important lesson I learned is that success can only be achieved on your terms. Everyone has his or her idea of what constitutes a successful career. Ultimately, true success is how each of us chooses to define it.

Janabeth Taylor was an LNC and paralegal and owner of Attorney’s Medical Services, Inc. She contributed these tips in a chapter in a book edited by Pat Iyer: The Path to Legal Nurse Consulting. Get it at this link.