I have been an RN for well over 35 years and became a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant last year. I now have my own very successful CLNC^® business.

I learned about legal nurse consulting by seeing Vickie Milazzo Institute ads for 15 years. During that time, I thought of becoming a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant but the timing was never right for one reason or another. Early in my career I felt I wasn’t experienced enough and midway through my career, life was happening with family and financial responsibilities. Last year, I saw the ad with Vickie’s photo once again and something just clicked inside me. Instinctively, I knew this was my next career move. Having worked in the home health care field for seven years, I loved the autonomy, the field work and the attachment to my patients and their families. However, I was getting quite tired of the constant bureaucratic demands. I was at the brink of burnout so the timing for me to pursue a career change was right. I quickly enrolled in the VIP CLNC^® Business System with financing.

I watched the DVDs for a total of 65 hours and soon scheduled my CLNC^® Certification Exam. Throughout the process of my newfound education, I was excited at the prospect of using my extensive nursing knowledge and experience, creating a business of my own, educating attorneys and others on medical issues (I love to teach) and continuing to help people.

I took the CLNC^® Certification Exam at a Prometric Testing Center, and I was so happy when the screen on the computer displayed my passing score that I cried for about 10 minutes. I was now a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant. I went home, immediately put all my marketing materials together and mailed out 25 packets. Within three days, an attorney at the biggest law firm in my county called me to meet with him and his paralegal. He was very excited that I was so close. This firm does only personal injury and medical-malpractice cases. A few days later, I went to my first attorney meeting to sell my CLNC^® services. Unbeknownst to me, there were nine attorneys, three paralegals and three executive assistants waiting for me at this meeting. If this was a test for how I would do under pressure, I am proud to say I passed with flying colors.

During my interview, I focused on them and how I could help solve their problems (just like Vickie teaches). I asked several questions about what their biggest challenges were and how they were currently dealing with those challenges. I then explained how my CLNC^® services would enhance what they were already doing because I had the benefit of knowing the ins and outs of the hospital structure, workflows, hierarchy, etc. I emphasized that I have always analyzed, assessed, evaluated and made critical decisions about nursing and medical care. I addressed each of their challenges with confirmation that “this is why you need me” (sound familiar?). I emphasized the unique involvement of the paralegals and executive assistants and shared how I could help free them up to focus on their respective duties. After 45 minutes, I walked out of the office with nine cases to review. I worked on the three most urgent cases first and returned them within five days. My attorney-clients were very impressed at my timeliness, professionalism, ability to work with their staff and the quality of the reports I provided. I completed the other six reviews within seven business days and again they were very impressed. After the initial reviews, I helped prepare those nine cases for litigation and acquired new cases as well.

Incredibly in the first two cases, I discovered tampering of the medical records. The two attorneys working these cases were awed at my discovery. Both cases settled for significantly more than was previously anticipated. The ability to detect medical tampering has catapulted me to success with this law firm.

I was not at all afraid to put myself out there because I felt so confident with my clinical background, my experience and the education I received from Vickie in the CLNC^® Certification Program. Having prepared myself to market also helped me feel confident. I think preparation is key to anyone’s success. I know in my soul that I have a lot to offer any attorney who is willing to work with me, and with that mindset, I can’t fail. My standard of excellence gives me great confidence as well. You have to believe in yourself and what you are offering in order for others to believe in you too. Being focused, self-directed and clear in what you want to accomplish is absolutely crucial for success.

Transitioning from my full-time home health care job, where I was earning $120,000/yr to full-time CLNC^® consultant at $225/hr took me exactly four weeks. I consult with 12 attorneys in this firm, billing $8-10,000 a week on average. I have built a potential $500-600,000 a year business in the last six months. My goal is to create a $1 million business within the next two years.

My life has changed forever, in more ways than I can include here. These are just some of the highlights:

• I work from home: no commute, no traffic, no weather issues, no burnout!
• I built a brand-new 10,000 sq. ft. home.
• I created my own financial freedom.
• I built a successful CLNC^® business with a high profile in the legal community.
• I gained an abundance of new friends and business associates.

Of course, no success is possible without a support system. First and foremost, I thank God every day for my blessings. Many thanks to my husband and my mother for their endless support. Equal appreciation to Vickie for the amazing preparation I have been so privileged to obtain. As Vickie says: “We are nurses and we can do anything!”^®

Guest Blogger Profile

Carmen Stine, RN, BSN, CCM, CLP, CLNC has more than 35 years nursing experience in critical care, ER, Burn ICU, managed care, longterm care, home health care, hospice care, risk management, case management, and utilization management. Carmen specializes in medical-malpractice and personal injury cases. She is also a Certified Case Manager and Certified Life Planner.

Last week my attorney-client invited me to meet a potential plaintiff at the office of a referring attorney. He needed to catch a flight immediately after this meeting, so we were on a tight schedule. I offered to drive us to the meeting and take him to the airport afterwards, giving me an opportunity to have his undivided attention for a period of time.

This particular attorney-client was my “break-in” client, and the one for whom I still do more than 90% of my work. He has been a very successful attorney in a prominent plaintiff firm for about 20 years, winning big awards for his clients. However, I was growing frustrated with what I felt was his tunnel vision when it came to damages in his cases. I wasn’t sure he was really reading my reports or just picking out what he wanted to see.

As a result, I believed he was missing an opportunity for bigger awards for his clients. During the ride I honestly discussed this, using medical issues from his cases on which I am presently working. He was “blown away” with some of the issues I presented, to which I responded, “Did you not read my report?” At the meeting with the potential plaintiff and referring attorney, my attorney-client introduced me as his nurse expert and “the brains of the team!”

Guest Blogger Profile

Annmarie Johnson, RN, BSN, CLNC owns and operates Bucks Medical-Legal Consulting. She has been a nurse for 26 years, 24 specializing in critical care. Annmarie’s CLNC^® business specializes in construction accidents and products liability.

Tammie Clarke-Heller RN, BSN, CLNC dropped by our CLNC^® Certification Program for the post-exam reception in Philly to share her success story with me and the new Certified Legal Nurse Consultant graduates.

In this video she shares how saying “Yes!” to a single opportunity jumpstarted her CLNC^® business.

Vickie, I just have to tell you about my recent exhibiting success. I started my Certified Legal Nurse Consultant business 5½ months ago after a long hiatus from nursing. I was fortunate to be able to work on my legal nurse consulting business full time and I made a concerted effort to use the marketing strategies I learned from the CLNC^® Certification Program. I got my first two cases on the same day within a week of my launch date just networking with friends. This networking brought me two attorneys and seven cases in the first three months.

To create immediate success for my legal nurse consulting business, I decided to exhibit at a statewide plaintiff attorney convention. I put to use the event marketing information in the Core Curriculum for Legal Nurse Consulting^® textbook, NACLNC^® Apprenticeship and Advanced CLNC^® Practice-Building Programs. I decided to spend the money to hire a graphic designer to create a professional tri-fold exhibit I could use repeatedly. I was thrilled with the final product and thanks to the information I received from Vickie Milazzo Institute, my exhibit booth looked attractive and professional.

I stood in front of my exhibit throughout the convention and introduced myself to most everyone who walked by. I passed out numerous business cards and brochures. I focused my conversations on how the attorneys were currently screening and developing their medical-related cases and how I could save them time and money. On the first day, I stayed until all attorneys and all but two exhibitors had left the exhibit hall. Ten minutes after returning to my hotel room, I got a call from an attorney-prospect who was waiting by my booth with medical records for me to review! Needless to say, I ran downstairs to meet with him. Believe it or not, I walked away from that convention with not one but two sets of medical records and retainers for both cases from that one attorney!

I received permission to follow up from every attorney with whom I spoke. I also gave free screenings to three attorneys who were particularly interested in my CLNC^® services. Two other attorneys asked me to call them after the convention to discuss a case on which they needed help. The day after I notified one attorney of his free screening, he called me to discuss a case he wanted me to handle. He needed help with several cases and wanted to get started. His firm handles a large number of malpractice and negligence cases so this opportunity really opened doors for my CLNC^® business.

I was surprised on the second day of the convention when one of the other two legal nurse consultant exhibitors shut down their booth (three RNs were exhibiting together). It was “tax-free shopping” that weekend so they closed their booth at 11:00am and went shopping! Needless to say, they had not attended the Vickie Milazzo Institute’s CLNC^® Certification Program. Since the convention was only 2½ days, they lost a huge opportunity to meet attorneys.

All in all, as a result of exhibiting at this one event I came home with the following:

• Two sets of medical records and retainer fees for each case from the same attorney.
• Requests from two attorneys to call regarding cases on which they need help.
• Request to screen a case for merit from a new attorney-client.
• Request to locate two testifying experts.
• Plus I received the attorney mailing list database from the association sponsoring the convention.

While exhibiting is not cheap nor easy, it definitely paid off for me. It gave my CLNC^® business statewide exposure and I will be hiring my first CLNC^® subcontractor to help with my rapidly increasing case load. I love my new career as a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant and look forward to many years of exhibiting success.

Laura H. Beard, RN, BSN, CLNC is president of LHB Medical-Legal Consulting located in South Carolina and specializes in medical malpractice, personal injury, workers’ compensation cases and Medicare Set-Aside Allocations.

I was asked to be the speaker at the February meeting for the Massachusetts Academy of Trial Attorneys. I arrived early to get prepared. Several people were late due to the weather. Only 10 attorneys braved the cold, rainy, snowy night to attend.

I began my presentation with information about legal nurse consulting, the CLNC^® services I provide and my nursing expertise. After my presentation, they all took my contact information and brochure. Then, they spent a lot of time talking about their cases.

The next day I got a call from one of the attorneys who had attended. He was looking for a wound care specialist. The day after that I got a call from another attorney for a case review. The phone has not stopped ringing since that night and the referrals from these attorneys have also been great.

What I want Certified Legal Nurse Consultants to know is that no matter how small the crowd, it will pay off!

Guest Blogger Profile:

Mildred Mannion, RN, BSN, CNOR, CLNC is the owner of M3 Legal Nurse Consulting, Inc. in Massachusetts. She has 22 years of nursing experience and currently works in the operating room of a large teaching hospital.

As a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant, I focus on helping hospitals reduce Medicare denials and win more Medicare Part A appeals. My photo and short bio on my websites generate four to five calls from hospital attorneys each month.

Hospitals want to be paid and I’ve learned that the first level of preventing Medicare denials is the assessment of the patient and the physician’s documentation of medical necessity. It’s usually the lack of this information that triggers a Medicare denial of payment.

The first rule to get the physicians to buy into what you are trying to teach them is to feed them. So, I contact the hospital administrators in question and explain that I have a plan that will help them reduce Medicare denials and change their doctors’ bad documentation habits. If lunch is not within the facility’s budget, then I work with ancillary vendors who might want to participate and provide lunch.

I use exhibit posters and flip charts to present during lunch (provided by the hospital). I also use a dry-marker board and include actual excerpts from Medicare’s denial documents. The exhibits show what was missing and how to correct it. My program includes hand-outs with the information from the posters, dry board and flip charts.

This educational approach usually works and I receive calls from physicians with questions for some time after each event. The marketing benefit is that people from different hospitals talk to one another, which often generates calls from other facilities wanting presentations and I get more clients.

My marketing strategies include:

• Bulletin board teasers with movie ad-like messages: “For Doctors: Coming soon to your hospital…” posted a couple weeks before the presentation.
• Hand-outs placed in facility mail boxes at least two weeks ahead of time.
• Posters on stands just inside the entrance to the presentation room at least 30 minutes before start time.
• Enlargements focused only on the most important pieces of Medicare rules on the subject that affects physicians.

One of the most rewarding experiences occurred while I was auditing a telephone conference regarding Medicare appeals with corporate attorneys for two of my hospital-clients. One hospital administrator on the call wondered why two facilities seemed to be doing much better than the others in overturning denials. The attorney explained, “That’s because they have a Camy,” as though I were a product brand name.

Another time a different hospital-client armed with the education and hand-outs I provided, was able to make enough immediate and lasting changes that they, effectively, stopped their denials cold. Most hospitals make changes slowly and with a lot of kicking and screaming. This hospital’s collective, firm resolve made the changes using the education they paid me to give them – and won big!

Medicare is my specialty and marketing, as I learned from Vickie Milazzo, is what sells my CLNC^® services.

Guest Blogger Profile

Camy Joyner, RN, BSN, CCM, CLNC, CEO and co-owner of C. Joyner and Associates, LLC. Consults/manages Medicare Part A appeals for acute general rehabilitation hospitals. Consults for records review/audit for physician medical pertinence. Also consults in non-Medicare negligence cases.

After I became a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant, I worked for a corporation doing internal auditing. After two years, a CLNC^® friend told me about an opportunity to have an exclusive Certified Legal Nurse Consultant contract with an attorney. At first I wasn’t sure I wanted an exclusive contract with any attorney because I did not know if he would have enough work for me. I was wrong. I ended up signing a contract with this attorney-client for $150,000 annually for 40 hours a week. This year I will make about $175,000.

Technology has been a big plus for my CLNC^® business. My husband retired and we moved to Tennessee. My attorney-client lives in California. Technology allows me to work full time at home out of an office that used to be part of our barn as I watch over llamas grazing outside. My attorney-client, who has a protected server that allows her to download documents, copies everything to a disk. One of the best things I’ve adopted from one of Tom’s Tech Tips was dual monitors. I review the files from my attorney-client on one screen while I write my report using the second screen. I also take my work on the road when I travel. My husband races cars so I can just pack up my bag with my laptop and go with him. It’s great because my legal nurse consulting business is completely portable.

The benefits of being a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant are endless. I work out every morning, have coffee with friends, then I go to work. The more I work, the more money I make. I can work 50 hours one week and take a day off the next whenever I choose. In my prior job, I only slept in my own bed about eight nights a month because I had to travel so much. Now as a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant, I enjoy staying at home.

When I worked at a full-time job, I could count my friends on one hand. Now, I am more involved in my community and I’m active in the charities that are important to me.

I was going to semi-retire, do a little CLNC^® work but not really do much. However, I have stayed busy and have had numerous offers for additional legal nurse consulting work. When this happens, I contact my network of CLNC^® peers. The NACLNC^® Directory has a wealth of CLNC^® consultants who I can refer business to or recommend as experts.

My advice to nurses is to stop waiting – do it now. Become a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant today. Stop procrastinating!

Guest Blogger Profile

Sheila Silvus Chesanow, RN, MS, CLNC is owner of Chesanow & Associates in Tennessee. She has been a nurse for 30+ years and has been clinically active as a nurse practitioner. Sheila’s CLNC^® practice specializes in acute care, long term care and geriatric medicine.

Certified Legal Nurse Consultant David Kuntz

During my career as an ICU nurse, I was always looking for ways to better myself. I took and passed the CCRN exam, but to my dismay I received no recognition from the hospital administrators for this accomplishment. I tried management and found that I was working more hours and getting paid less than the nurses on my unit. Then something happened that changed my career. I tore a ligament in my hand while restraining a patient. I could no longer lift anything over 25 pounds. I was devastated. My ICU nursing career was over. I spent one and half years on light duty and was told that I had to find a different job or the hospital would settle with me. After months of searching, I landed a job in IT as a clinical analyst.

At home after my surgery I had time on my hands, or in my case – hand, so I started to search for different ways to use my nursing knowledge. I came across legal nurse consulting on one of my searches. I spent hours researching legal nurse consulting. The spark was lit and grew with every bad day I had.

It took me five years until I finally decided to just go for it. I enrolled in the CLNC^® Certification Program in July 2009 and immediately started the home-study course. I finished it in a week and was certified the following weekend. I then worked on the NACLNC^® Apprenticeship Program. It took me a little over a week to finish and at that point, I started getting my promotional materials, sample work products and letters refined and ready to send to attorneys.

I started sending out material toward the end of August using all of the techniques I learned from Vickie. One goal that was foremost in my mind was to have a case before I attended the CLNC^® 6-Day Certification Program in October.

I was nervous before I made my first phone call to an attorney, but I kept remembering that they are people just like everyone else and that really calmed me down. In that first call, I introduced myself and gave a brief synopsis of the material I had already sent. I asked for an appointment and the attorney said, “Sure, come in at 4:00pm.”

Now I was really nervous. I looked over the sample interview questions in the online NACLNC^® Community and realized that I knew this information. I met with the attorney and the interview went so well, he is sending me a medical-malpractice case.

Two weeks later, I called another attorney to follow-up on my promotional material. He told me he didn’t receive it, so I presented a short version of how I could assist him. He asked me to set up a meeting with his secretary. The next day I went to his office and he walked into the conference room with a case in his hands and a check for $1,500.00. Inside I was doing cartwheels yet I remained composed until I got in my car and was heading home. The following day I talked with a different attorney and he wants to use me on two cases.

From the end of August to the first week in October, I was able to obtain three attorney-clients.

My first goal was met. I followed what Vickie taught and used her techniques. If everyone follows what they learn in the CLNC^® Certification Program, they will be successful in this business. Vickie and Vickie Milazzo Institute have already done the hard work; all a student has to do is apply what they learn from the CNLC^® Certification Program.

Guest Blogger Profile

David Kuntz, RN, BSN, CLNC has 17 years of nursing experience. He is the owner of David Kuntz and Associates in western New Mexico and specializes in medical malpractice.

What are you waiting for before you start your career and business as a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant? In this video, Doris Huegel, RN, CLNC shares that after attending the CLNC^® 6-Day Certification Program, she didn’t even wait to unpack her bags before marketing herself to an attorney-prospect near her hometown in rural Pennsylvania. Her enthusiasm and initiative secured that first case for her. Congratulations Doris for going for it.

Success Is Inside!

Hi Vickie, I just had to tell you the great news. I just finished my taxes and I am happy, no make that thrilled, no make that “over the moon with joy” to tell you that I earned more than $100,000.00. I went ahead and incorporated and named my CLNC^® business when the work started coming in faster than I could keep up. I just keep working hard trying to keep up with all of the work and make sure that I still put out top-quality work product. I was so happy when one of my attorney-clients forwarded my information to another law firm. I did a case for them and they were so happy with the “excellent CLNC^® work product” that I provided that they immediately forwarded another case to me.

I have been keeping so busy and I absolutely love being able to work for myself. I still have the law firm that I first started working for, and I had originally worked for the pharmaceutical attorneys, but from there I have also gotten cases from the medical-malpractice attorneys, nursing home negligence and more. I am keeping so busy that I am going to have to start hiring CLNC^® subcontractors. Luckily I met this incredible nurse and I convinced her to go through your CLNC^® Certification Program, which she just recently completed. Now that she is a CLNC^® consultant, I am ready to ask her to subcontract with me on my huge case load.

I now have cases going to trial. I am working with three attorney-clients that are in the first round of trials and two attorney-clients in the second group of trials. These cases all need detailed chronological summaries – something that I have been providing to these law firms for deposition preps.

Anyway, I just thought I would let you know how happy I am that I became a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant. I love the way that I can combine my love and knowledge of nursing with my love of law. Thank you, Vickie, a hundred times over for helping me become a successful Certified Legal Nurse Consultant. You rock!

I hope my positive experiences will help other Certified Legal Nurse Consultants go for that BIG success. I feel honored to share my CLNC^® successes.