Becoming a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant

Legal nurse consultants are registered nurses who switch over to the legal field after completing legal training in matters of health care and the litigation process. Legal certification affirms legal nurses experience and knowledge as consultants in the legal field, and legal nurse consultants provide professional medical malpractice opinions on case laws entwining health care and litigation processes.

Pre-Certification Requirements

• Make sure that you are a registered nurse in the United States or its territories.


• Pursue, if you wish to, the American Association of Legal Consultants' American Board of Nursing Specialties program (ABNS) that trains and awards legal nurses certification.


• There is no stipulation that you must attend the ABNS' training program, since there are other schools that offer legal nursing consultant training and certification.


• Be sure that you have 2000 hours of legal nurse consulting experience within the last 3 years.


• The legal consulting work you performed must be identified as billable registered nurse's expertise and that you performed the work at the client's request and that the work done is conducted through a legal business organization.

Legal Nurse Certification Exam

• Exam assesses the nurse's ability to get and examine health care records.


• The exam evaluates the candidate's ability to aid communications between clients, witnesses and experts.


• It measures how effectively sound the candidates for certification provide expert testimony.


• The exam focuses on medical malpractice and personal injury, product liability toxic civil wrong laws, elder law and criminal forensics and how to prepare evidence and prepare for trial, among other areas of law that combine health care and legal practice in litigation lawsuits.