September 2009

Locating testifying experts for attorneys can add a huge amount of revenue to your legal nurse consulting business. As part of the screening process, Certified Legal Nurse Consultants research the background of the potential expert witness candidates. Most people just get on the web and start Googling or binging away with variations of the name of the unsuspecting searchee. Some will go to social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn to see what can be learned about the search subject.

But it gets better after you’re finished with this blog. People like our Chief Techie Blogger, Tom, have long known and used the so-called “invisible Internet” to discover information. Today, the average Certified Legal Nurse Consultant has those same tools (some of them anyway) at their fingertips. By using these new tools, you can learn more about a search subject than the subject knows about themselves!

How? Using one of the new “deep-web” search engines. Sites like Spokeo.com, CVGadget.com, Spock.com and Pipl.com will all give you more information than is typically available through a regular search engine. Depending upon the site or service, they’ll search not only the social networking sites but also look for things like the wish lists and reviews a person posts on Amazon.com. They also search blog postings and comments associated with the person’s name and can even look for anything associated with a person’s email address. This includes photos the search subject posted on Flickr or that have been tagged with the subject’s name (these can be quite revealing). Some of the search sites will give you basic information and then “default” to the public information sites that sell information while others provide it for free.

Whether you’re searching for information on a potential expert witness, future attorney-prospect or just your daughter’s prom date, “deep-web” search engines can reveal more information than most people know is out there.

I’ve recommended in past blogs that every legal nurse consultant search for variations on their own names at least once a month. Now you should add a few more searches using a “deep-web” tool and if necessary, take steps to remove any potentially damaging or incorrect information. Remember, while you’re searching for information on other people, they may be searching for the same about you.

To paraphrase one of my favorite lines from the movies, “Here’s looking for you, kid.”

Success Is Inside (and the truth is out there)!

P.S.	So check yourself or someone else out on a “deep-web” search engine and comment on your findings.

Hammurabi was a ruler of ancient Babylon from about 1790-1750 BC. He’s most famous for writing down one of the first and most comprehensive listing of laws that existed during his reign. Hammurabi’s writings covered both civil and criminal law ranging from general to quite specific. His code isn’t a code in the legal sense that we’ve come to think of; the laws are not broken down by subject area and some refer to fees to be paid to specific occupations.

His code was published in every city that he ruled and believe it or not, was not the only set of laws in existence in that time period. Just about every king or ruler promulgated their own laws (but didn’t have the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution to even out trade). The Code of Hammurabi wasn’t just his own proclamations, it also codified common laws that existed during that time.

Several copies of the Code of Hammurabi exist, but the most complete and most famous is in Paris, safely ensconced in the Louvre. That specific stele was discovered, in what is now Iran, in 1901 by Gustav Jequier. It didn’t originate there, it had been taken to Iran as plunder during the 12th century BC. Not only did we have collections of laws during that period but we also had early art collectors.

The Code of Hammurabi

Louvre Museum Paris

What makes the Code of Hammurabi interesting to me and hopefully to Certified Legal Nurse Consultants, is that Hammurabi caused some of the first personal injury, medical malpractice and wrongful death laws to be “written in stone,” so to speak. Laws, which if they were on the books today, might make some doctors and nurses think twice about the quality of their practice. Disciplinary procedures for healthcare providers were pretty tough in those days!

Here’s some of my favorite examples from L.W. King’s 1910 translation of the Code of Hammurabi:

Personal Injury:

• If a man put out the eye of another man, his eye shall be put out.
• If he break another man’s bone, his bone shall be broken.
• If he put out the eye of a freed man, or break the bone of a freed man, he shall pay one gold mina.
• If he put out the eye of a man’s slave, or break the bone of a man’s slave, he shall pay one-half of its value.
• If a man knock out the teeth of his equal, his teeth shall be knocked out.
• If a free-born man strike the body of another free-born man of equal rank, he shall pay one gold mina.
• If a freed man strike the body of another freed man, he shall pay ten shekels in money.
• If the slave of a freed man strike the body of a freed man, his ear shall be cut off.
• If he knock out the teeth of a freed man, he shall pay one-third of a gold mina.
• If during a quarrel one man strike another and wound him, then he shall swear, “I did not injure him wittingly,” and pay the physicians.

Wrongful Death:

• If the man dies of his wound, he shall swear similarly, and if he (the deceased) was a free-born man, he shall pay half a mina in money.
• If he was a freed man, he shall pay one-third of a mina.
• If a man strike a free-born woman so that she lose her unborn child, he shall pay ten shekels for her loss.

Medical Malpractice:

• If a physician make a large incision with the operating knife, and kill him, or open a tumor with the operating knife, and cut out the eye, his hands shall be cut off.

Hammurabi also created the first medical care reform system by regulating the pay doctors would receive for certain operations.

• If a physician make a large incision with an operating knife and cure it, or if he open a tumor (over the eye) with an operating knife, and saves the eye, he shall receive ten shekels in money.
• If the patient be a freed man, he receives five shekels.
• If he be the slave of someone, his owner shall give the physician two shekels.
• If a physician heal the broken bone or diseased soft part of a man, the patient shall pay the physician five shekels in money.
• If he were a freed man he shall pay three shekels.
• If he were a slave his owner shall pay the physician two shekels.

Finally, Hammurabi also dealt with judicial or legal malpractice.

• If a judge try a case, reach a decision, and present his judgment in writing; if later error shall appear in his decision, and it be through his own fault, then he shall pay twelve times the fine set by him in the case, and he shall be publicly removed from the judge’s bench, and never again shall he sit there to render judgment.

It seems to me that Hammurabi in some respects was a man ahead of his time.

Success Is Inside!

P.S.	Comment and share your thoughts about these ancient laws.

You’ve always heard that people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. What should people who live in metal houses not throw? Magnets maybe? Or wireless Internet signals? I live in a house that’s got a lot of metal in it – the frame, the roof, the furniture in my office and the spare suit of armor in my closet. I’ve also got a pretty fast Internet in the home office, although government-grade, fiber-optic, warp factor 9 speed still isn’t fast enough for Vickie. She likes instantaneous (or faster) downloads that end before they begin. Having grown up in the days of 26k bps modems, I’m happy just getting (and staying) connected. In the home office we’re both happy because we sit within a sight-line of the speedometer on our router and can tell how fast we’re cruising on the information superhighway. It’s the one time Vickie doesn’t tell me to slow down.

I was sitting pretty, and like many Certified Legal Nurse Consultants in the audience, had no problems until I tried to add a wireless connection. You and I both know that something every guy dreams of is sitting by the pool or backyard barbeque surfing the Web for grilling times, looking for a new remote-controlled submarine on Amazon or just trying to learn to balance my pH (remember there’s no “P” in “ool” and I like to keep it that way).

I started this endeavor back before the arguments over which 802.11n standard was the best so my only choice was to go with an 802.11a/g wireless access point (WAP) that coincidently matched our computers’ wireless cards and also threw a signal just into the hallway outside the home office. After aborted attempts at moving the wireless access point up, down, sideways and even hanging it out the window, I ended up putting it at the highest point I could find – atop a large metal piece of furniture.

Well, my CLNC^® amigos, you can imagine how that’s working for me. It throws the signal into the guest bedroom (25 ft) but not downstairs to the kitchen, not to the pool and definitely not to our bedroom (I think Vickie lined the walls with tin foil to keep the signal out of there). So, if I want to write my legal nurse consulting tech tips from the cozy comfort of my man-cave (garage) or while tanning out by the pool, I need to call on a higher technical power, a friend who eats, sleeps and breathes tech.

His recommendation is one I had recommended in my Tech Talks at the NACLNC^® Annual Conferences – but for other reasons. I’ve always added up 2+2 and gotten nothing other than 4. He added 2+2 and got 5 and showed me the sum of the parts is greater than the whole! Here’s his solution and it’s elegant in its simplicity:

1. Keep my home office wired network intact.
2. Keep my wimpy 802.11a/g wireless home network intact (until I’m ready to buy new wireless cards and upgrade to 801.11n).
3. Here’s the genius part – buy a PowerLine network adapter kit and plug the first one into the wall (directly into the wall – not into a powerstrip) anywhere near my current wired router.
4. Then jump an Ethernet cable from my existing hub or wired router into the PowerLine adapter. Next go anywhere else in the house (even outside by the pool) that I want fast Internet, and
5. Plug the other (they come in pairs) PowerLine adapter into the wall and jack my computer into it with an Ethernet cable, or I could extend my wireless network with another WAP!

Think about the ease of setting up a network without rewiring the house. You can have fast Internet in any room or rooms in your house (kid’s room, legal nurse consulting office, kitchen, guest room and even the man-cave) simply by moving the second adapter around or by purchasing multiple adapters.

This is a simple, elegant and ugly (due to the black PowerLine wall warts) solution for extending a network. You can even add security to this network just in case you’re in a building (like a condo or apartment) that may share electrical systems with your freeloading, music-downloading neighbors.

Just for fun or maybe for your kids, if you have a home media center, you can add a multiple-port adapter down by your flat screen TV or media console and wire in a gaming console, TiVo or media server. My Internet reading tells me there may be some issues with different household wiring/breaker set-ups (my techie friend pooh-poohs this) but PowerLine networking is definitely worth a try.

Now you can keep on techin’ from the backyard or any room in the house (except the bedroom)! So, like I tell my best friend’s dogs, “Gopher it!”

Keep on techin’

Tom

Powerful, strong entrepreneurs have one common trait – they are passionate about their business. In today’s post, Beverly Denver, the publisher of Houston Woman Magazine talks with me about what drives passion in successful entrepreneurs. Certified Legal Nurse Consultants will find Beverly’s insights especially applicable to your CLNC^® businesses.

Success Is Inside!

P.S.	Comment and share how passion for your legal nurse consulting business has changed you.

For the first two months, nothing was happening. What was I doing wrong?

My husband said, “Give it a chance, Melanie. Let me help.”

He began calling the attorneys I had sent postcards to, and he got results. He booked me for presentations at law firms where I discovered that face-to-face interaction is my strong suit. Once an attorney agrees to a presentation, and I show what I can do, closing the sale is a given.

My first big client, however, came by way of a referral from my insurance agent. My agent’s neighbor is an attorney who referred his medical malpractice and personal injury cases to another attorney. That’s when I found out how useful it is to know people who know people who know people. He passed my name along, and I got a call.

“What can you do for us?” the attorney asked.

Boy, did I answer that question. Amazingly, their firm hadn’t used legal nurse consultants. Their paralegal was pulling her hair out, unable to provide what they needed.

In closing I asked, “When may I come to your office and show you what I can do?”

The Work Started Flowing and We Replaced My Husband’s Salary

I handle all of that attorney-client’s cases, including medical malpractice, personal injury and workers’ comp. This single attorney-client can keep me busy full time, but my goal is to grow big enough to hire CLNC^® subcontractors. We’re almost there. We have four attorney-clients now – and the work keeps flowing.

I say “we” now because my husband left his job and came to work for me full time as an office manager. That was one of the smartest moves I made. A disabled veteran, he’s able to take care of our children and still help with our marketing. He also answers the phone, which means an attorney gets a live voice, not an answering machine.

Being responsive is one important reason our business has grown so fast. We make $5,000-$6,000 per month and have already replaced my husband’s salary.

I Like Educating Attorneys – Once They Know You, They Need You

The most amazing thing happens when I give a presentation at a law firm: attorneys pay attention. I wow them with the CLNC^® services I can provide to help them win cases and they treat me as a professional. I use their feedback to refine my presentation for the next time I deliver it.

After attorneys learn what a CLNC^® consultant can do for them, they see the value. Later, when I actually work with them, they begin to rely on me in more and more areas, on more and more cases. Just recently, our biggest attorney-client emailed us to say we had become their best friends and they cannot function without us.

One thing I learned from Vickie is to hold my ground on nonmeritorious cases. That principle is working for me. After I review a case, my client will ask, “Melanie, what’s your recommendation? What do I do with this?”

If the case has merit, fine. I lay it out. But I sometimes have to say, “I understand that something bad happened, and your client is upset about it, but I don’t see merit here.” In the long run, the attorney saves money by not pursuing cases he can’t win.

My attorney-clients listen to me and respect my judgment. That makes me feel that my nursing experience and knowledge are making a difference.

While taking my CLNC^® training, I came up with the slogan we use in our marketing: We make you look best. My attorney-clients love it.

I Enjoy What I Do Every Day

Being a nurse is important to me, and my CLNC^® business makes me happy in many ways I never expected. I enjoy my attorney-client relationships. I enjoy feeling that I’m still helping people, even though it isn’t at the bedside.

On every case, I learn something new, which I can then use on future cases. That’s exciting. While I’m teaching my attorney-clients about medical records and the healthcare side of a situation, they’re handling the legal side and I’m learning from them, too. Together, we make a brilliant team. I help identify issues that will help them look good in the courtroom and win the cases that deserve to be won.

I also enjoy knowing that my children are not spending time at daycare. I used to feel guilty about leaving them, but now they’re getting the best care at home with their father. My CLNC^® business has positively impacted our entire family.

After serving his country in Iraq, my husband came home with limitations that make it hard for him to work outside the home. I created a job for him, and he’s a valuable asset to my CLNC^® business. No one could do a better job running the office, and I love working with him. This could never have happened if I’d stayed full time at the hospital. I’m proud that ours is a family business, that we can grow it together.

Recently, I’ve begun traveling for my attorney-clients, which is another exciting aspect of what I do. On one case, the attorney requested that I meet with his client who needed to be assessed for a life care plan. When I asked the attorney if he wanted me to find someone local to assess his client in order to save on travel cost, he insisted that I go myself because of the quality of my work. I was flattered. My office-manager husband made all the travel arrangements for me to fly in early one morning and come back the same day. This was a wonderful experience! I had never had a frequent flyer card before now. I feel professional!

We Keep Marketing Smart to Attract New Attorney-Clients Like Vickie Taught Us

One day we drove past a billboard for a law firm that specializes in personal injury cases. I told my husband, “We should call on them.” He called and booked me for a presentation.

That’s the sort of marketing that gets big results at low cost. This month we’ll be mailing out and following up on a hundred postcards, which is also low cost.

We offer a discount on the first case. Attorneys are like anybody else when it comes to saving money, they expect to get value for their dollars. The discount encourages them to take a chance, and it costs us nothing until a prospect actually hires us. We do a great job, the client is impressed and hires us again at our full rate. Marketing can be effective without draining your bank account – Vickie taught me that too.

Vickie Made It All Possible

I feel very lucky to have been trained by Vickie Milazzo. She’s amazing. When I came home from the CLNC^® 6-Day Certification Seminar, I told my husband, “She’s a tiny lady but powerful. She looks at you like you’re the only person on the planet. The world around her stops and she listens to you, giving you her time and all her attention.”

It has been a year now since my CLNC^® Certification. A very happy year. I think back to those first two months, when I doubted myself, and I have to laugh. My life has changed in so many wonderful ways since I became a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant.

Guest Blogger Profile

Melanie V. Paquette, RN, BSN, CLNC is co-founder with her husband of Paquette Legal-Medical Consulting Services LLC based in Texas. She has more than 13 years of clinical experience in emergency care, intensive care, level 1 trauma, cardiology, interventional radiology, neurology and has hospital and insurance experience as a case manager.

P.S.	Read more CLNC® Success Stories and send your CLNC® Success Story to feedback@LegalNurse.com.
P.P.S.	Comment if you would like to congratulate Melanie on her CLNC® success.

I keep telling Vickie that UPS means more than the hunky guy that delivers packages to the Institute. Sure UPS stands for United Parcel Service and that’s what springs to most people’s minds when they hear it. But to a techie, UPS is more than just another way to get cool stuff delivered to your home or office. It’s what protects your computer and other equipment from electrical power surges and it protects your data from accidental loss.

To me, UPS means uninterrupted power supply. The original purpose of a UPS was to keep (battery) power flowing to the computer when electrical power failed. Most UPS devices are battery backups designed to keep a CLNC^® consultant’s computer and monitor running for a short time after the power goes out. The UPS seamlessly (but usually noisily) switches over to the battery and your workflow continues as if nothing happened. You can’t expect a UPS to run forever (unless you buy a really, really big one) but it’ll run long enough to allow you to save your legal nurse consulting work product and shut down your computer until your electricity is restored.

Besides a UPS, a techie’s next best friend is his surge protector. Surge protectors are an entirely different animal than the UPS. The sole purpose of a surge protector is to protect your important electronic equipment (like your 79″ flat screen TV and Wii console) from surges or spikes in the electrical supplies caused by lightning, power station issues or when that 8-ton AC unit in your backyard switches off and juice starts flowing back into the rest of the house.

Electrical power isn’t always the constant current you think that it is. Your electrical devices are designed to work on a steady stream of electricity and a power surge or spike can literally blow your device up, much like putting too much water into a balloon.

The UPS on our home stereo system displays the incoming voltage and it runs anywhere from 118-123 volts at any given time. Surge protectors act kind of like a tidal basin or sponge to soak up any excess power and keep only the “allowed” level of power flowing through to your computer. A power spike or surge can be dangerous, so a surge protector is necessary and cheap insurance to keep from overloading your valuable equipment.

But, do you really want to have two different klunky-looking pieces of electronica on or under your desk? I don’t either, so the best way to get around this is to buy a combination surge-protector and UPS. Lots of companies make these combination devices. The best in my opinion are made by APC and my favorite is the APC Back-UPS ES 8 Outlet 550VA 120V unit. This unit has four battery-backed-up plugs and four surge-protected plugs. You simply plug your computer and monitor into the battery-backed-up plugs, then plug any other peripherals (scanner, printer, etc.) you want to protect into the surge-protected plugs. That way when your power fails, your computer will keep running (but not the other power-sucking devices you don’t really need). APC also has its own “PowerChute^®” software that will not only allow you to check the status of your battery, but will also gently shut down your computer, saving your work if power fails while your computer is unattended.

I have one of the higher end versions of these on my flat-screen TV, Blue-Ray DVD player and cable box, not to run them but just to keep them from being destroyed by one of our famous Houston thunderstorms (which we’ve been greatly lacking this summer). If you plan on running more than just a PC and monitor, you may want to consider a bigger unit, but for most Certified Legal Nurse Consultants the standard amperage unit above should be more than enough.

So, when I say “keep on techin,’” I really mean it! Get yourself a great UPS and you won’t have to worry about anything other than paying your electric bill.

Keep on techin’,

Tom