Legal Nurse Consultant Salary

Legal Nurse Consultants have Three Options for Earning Income

Your salary is determined by the option you choose.

Your first option as a Legal Nurse Consultant is to find a full or part time job. This type of Legal Nurse is called an In-House or Staff Legal Nurse Consultant. Organizations such as larger law firms, insurance companies, and some managed care organizations have Legal Nurse Consultants employed full-time if they have a large enough case load.

In-house Legal Nurse Consultants cannot be expert witnesses. It would be a conflict of interest because they cannot be unbiased in their opinion on the stand, due to a possible fear of losing their job. It may not be a real fear, but the opposing attorney would certainly paint a that picture for the jurors. They may be able to assist in interviewing experts, but independent nurses more often network and can locate those experts.

In this type of Legal Nurse Consulting, you can earn an hourly pay of $20-$60 per hour. But, you may also expect extra benefits that are offered with the job. The pay and benefits for this option would likely be similar to comparable autonomous nursing positions in your region.

Your second career option is to start your own practice where you would work on a consulting basis. This is the most popular option because Nurses often become tired of working for anyone else. This option provides the ultimate flexibility, since you can take cases for supplemental or full-time income. You can set your own schedule and take on as many cases as you wish.

The main benefit of this option is the difference in pay. While an In-house Legal Nurse can expect to earn $20-$60 per hour, an independently practicing Advanced Legal Nurse Consultant (ALNC) can earn $125-$200 per hour.

As an independent Legal Nurse Consultant, you can choose whether or not to accept a case. After reviewing a record, you can take a side. If it happens to not be the side of the attorney who hired you to review the case for merit, you will discuss with him or her your thoughts. At that point it will decide whether or not you should proceed with the case from a data extraction perspective.

The independent Legal Nurse Consultant can act as expert witness during a trial because they are not employed by their client. On average, you can earn $300-$500 per hour when acting as an expert witness.

Your third option is to subcontract for other Legal Nurse Consultants. In this option, you would work with other Legal Nurse Consultants or other types of nurses who have hired you to help with their cases. Subcontractors are most often used when a Legal Nurse has a case that is outside of their areas of expertise.

You will typically be paid a percentage of the fee that they are paid on the case. Subcontractors can make more money per hour than In-house Legal Nurse Consultants, but less per hour than independently practicing Legal Nurse Consultants who work directly with attorneys.

The down-side is that you would have to rely on other Legal Nurses to secure work for you. Therefore, your work load may not be as regular as you may want if you are not working with a well established Legal Nurse.

Deciding Which Path to Take

You don't have to stick with just one option. You can chose any combination of these three options. Many Legal Nurse Consultants successfully work independently with attorneys and subcontract with other Legal Nurse Consultants on the side.

Decide which direction you would like to pursue in your Legal Nurse Consulting career. Do you feel that you have the drive and motivation to pursue new cases to work on, or would you rather work a job where they tell you what cases to do and how to do them? Most nurses chose to start their own practice and work independently. However, the choice if yours. Since the idea of better income with freedom and flexibility is appealing to nurses, most choose to start their own practice.

How to Begin Practicing