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CLNC®s Reveal Fees
Benchmark Your Financial Success to These 12 CLNC® Pros
EDITOR'S NOTE: We asked 12 CLNC® Pros to disclose key financial aspects of their CLNC® practices. Their candid responses will help you benchmark your own CLNC® practice. These CLNC® Pros provide quite an impressive yardstick against which to measure. As you can see, you have much to look forward to.
- How many different attorney-clients do you consult with annually?
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No. of Surveyed CLNC®s |
| No. of Clients |
| 4-5 |
16.6% |
| 6-10 |
41.7% |
| 11-15 |
8.3% |
| 16-29 |
0% |
| 30-50 |
33.4%
|
Interestingly, the CLNC®s who consult with fewer attorney-clients are just as successful as those who have more clients.
- How many attorney-clients represent 80% of your annual revenue?
For all the CLNC®s with 15 or fewer clients, 2-5 attorney-clients represent 80% of their annual revenue. For the CLNC®s who consult with 30-50 clients annually, 14 clients represent 80% of their revenue. The bottom line is: 80% of your revenue will come from about 30% of your attorney-clients. It pays to pay special attention to your special clients.
- In the last 12 months what percentage of your clients were repeat attorney-clients and what percentage were new attorney-clients?
While every CLNC® in our survey recognizes the importance of repeat clients, all of them also acquired new clients within the last 12 months. Repeat clients represented an average of 70% of the business and new clients, 30%.
- What is your hourly fee?
The hourly fee for consulting experts ranges from $90/hour to $150/hour and averages $115/hour. Four of the CLNC®s also testify, and their testifying fees are in the $200-$250/hour range and average $222/hour.
- What is your annual revenue?
Annual revenue averages $105,000 and is as high as $200,000.
- What is your average fee per case?
The average fee per case is $3,000.
- What percentage of your revenue do you allocate to marketing?
On average the CLNC® Pros allocate 10% of their revenue to marketing. This is consistent with what marketing experts recommend.
Lou Addington, RN, CLNC co-owns Legal Nurse Associates in Florida. Lou has been a successful CLNC® since 1999 and specializes in vaccine litigation and long term care.
Suzanne E. Arragg, RN, BSN, CDONA/LTC, CLNC is the owner of SEA Consultant Company in California, specializing in long term care cases. She serves as a CLNC® Mentor for the Institute.
Linda Bandy, RN, MSN, CSPI, CLNC resides in Tennessee and has more than 20 years of nursing experience in a variety of specialties. A patient advocate, she brings all her experience to her CLNC® practice.
Dale Barnes, RN, MSN, CLNC has owned Barnes Medical Legal Services in California since 1999 and specializes in medical malpractice, bad faith insurance, general personal injury and a variety of other areas. She also serves as a CLNC® Mentor for the Institute.
Gloria A. Blackmon, RNC, BSN, LNHA is the CEO of Blackmon & Associates Medical-Legal Consulting in Kansas, specializing in long term care issues.
Susan J. Burnham, RNC, CLNC owns Burnham and Associates in Washington state. She specializes in quality of care issues. She also serves as a CLNC® Mentor for the Institute.
Rachel Cartwright, RN, MS, LHRM, CLNC, a CLNC® Mentor and guest faculty member, owns Medical-Legal Concepts in Florida. She specializes in critical care and regulatory compliance.
Nancy L. Dion, RN, MSM, CPHQ, CHCRM, LNHA, CLNC is a Florida-based CLNC® with expertise in clinical services, organizational redesign, quality improvement, risk management and executive team building and management. She serves as a CLNC® Mentor for the Institute.
Robert Erb, RN, MA, CS, CLNC, founder of Eagle Professional Management Services in California, has more than 34 years of healthcare experience, including psychiatric, emergency and long term care.
Lawrence H. Frace, RN, CLNC is an independent CLNC® with 28 years of nursing experience. He is the founder of Spectrum Medical-Legal Consulting in central New Jersey and specializes in medical malpractice cases.
Patsy Howard, RN, CLNC is the owner of Metro Legal Nurse Consulting in Missouri. She has 23 years of nursing experience and specializes in medical malpractice litigation.
Gina I. Rogers, RN, BSN, CLNC is the founder of Medical Review Consulting, LLC in Kentucky. She serves as a CLNC® Mentor and as a guest faculty member for the Institute.
These two questions are from a prior survey of experienced legal nurse consultants.
- How Do You Charge for Locating an Expert Witness for an Attorney?
- I charge my hourly rate with a one-hour minimum.
- I charge my hourly consulting rate for locating expert witnesses.
- I charge a minimum of three hours of my time for locating a witness already in my database of experts. My fee is higher for locating experts outside my database.
- My fee is $500.00-$1,000.00.
- I charge $1,000.00 per expert.
- My fee is $500.00 per expert.
- I charge a flat fee of $5,000.00 to locate an expert witness, which includes screening the case for merit. I collect the full fee up front.
In summary, the CLNC® Pros charge $500.00-$1,000.00 for each expert witness they locate.
- What Is the Most You've Ever Billed on One Case?
- In a two-month period I billed a defense firm $17,000.00 on a nursing home case. I provided the following CLNC® services:
- Analyzed four banker's boxes of medical records
- Prepared trial exhibits
- Prepared witnesses and expert witnesses for deposition and trial
- Attended the trial
- Prepared questions for the cross-examination of the plaintiff's experts and witnesses during the trial
- This case alleged elder abuse and wrongful death of an 86-year-old ventilator-dependant male patient. The patient had respiratory failure, MRSA pneumonia of sputum (recurrent), congestive heart failure, atherosclerotic heart disease, hypertension and chronic renal insuffiency. He had been in the nursing home for only 11 days. During this period changes in sputum with elevated temperature were noted, and further respiratory compromise occured, requiring 911 transfer to the acute care hospital. His family enforced a full code status, despite many conversations with his physicians regarding the severity of his medical condition and poor rehabilitation potential. On day 2 of his hospitalization, myiasis was noted at the tracheal site. The jury verdict was no wrongful death, no elder abuse; damages of $600,000.00 were awarded. However, since the defense had offered a $750,000.00 settlement the day before trial, they saw this award as a victory.
- The most I have billed on a single case is about $12,750.00. This case lasted more than a year. A young autistic man was given medication that resulted in his having NMS and multiple compounded complications. He went from being fairly functional in the community to being non-functional and totally dependent on his parents for 24-hour care. (To read the full story, click here.)
- The most I have billed on one case is $23,000.00 in a plaintiff medical malpractice case against the state. I reviewed the case, organized the medical records, created a chronology, did research, located experts and prepared deposition questions for the medical experts.
- The most I have ever billed on one case is approximately $13,000.00 for case review, deposition and out-of-state court trial testimony. The case involved a long-term care facility that did not provide adequate resident supervision or control of smoking supplies. This allowed a resident to smoke on the patio unsupervised, resulting in extensive burns and ultimately death. The jury found the facility negligent and awarded punitive damages.
- The most I've ever billed is $13,200.00 on a case involving a 50-year-old male, post appendectomy with a known abdominal aortic aneurysm. A per-diem RN gave him a paralytic drug instead of an antibiotic in ICU (he was not intubated). The case settled a few weeks before trial, and his daughters retained the right to speak publicly about his care. They are currently pursuing a case with the state board of nursing as they feel this RN should not be allowed practice.
- I do not focus on how much I bill for a case. I often do not know the total amount I have billed. My accountant knows. When I'm on the witness stand in trial and the defense counsel asks me questions like this, I say I do not know, because I don't. This keeps the jury from thinking, "She's in this for the money."
© 2003 Medical-Legal Consulting Institute, Inc.
Reprinted from Legal Nurse Consulting Ezine, No. 24, 2003
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Successful CLNC®s Say
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"I want to thank you. Without your generous sharing and guidance, I wouldn't have a business.
I have experienced success because of you. The first week of my official opening, I was retained on three cases.
The attorneys who took advantage of my skills were so pleased that I got every case that came into their offices and word-of-mouth business began to happen.
Now, I get calls from attorneys in surrounding states. Many nurses have contacted me about legal nurse consulting, and I encourage each of them to attend your courses.
In fact, anyone who wants to subcontract for me must attend your course before I will even consider bringing them on board."
June H. Cameron,
RN, CLNC, Mississippi
Consulting fees charged by our panel ranged from $65.00/hour to $250.00/hour.
Our panel charges $400.00-$4,000.00 for locating an expert witness.
"Be sure to collect your fee or retainer up front."
"The most I've billed for any one case was $49,000.00."
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