Environmental Exposure Legal Nurse Consulting

Environmental exposure can be one of the most difficult tort litigations because of the highly-complicated medical and scientific standards related to causation. That’s why it is vitally important to have a legal nurse consultant skilled at assessing the mitigating factors related to the exposure claim and the alleged adverse outcome in order to identify potential causation information.  Common exposures include:

1. Oil spills
2. Waste products from manufacturing processes
3. Radiation contamination
4. Hazardous chemicals in a workplace
5. Waste management and disposal
6. Pesticides
7. Lead poisoning

With the clarity provided by MRC legal nurse consultants, legal teams will confidently know whether there was evidence of exposure in the alleged damages or if something else is to blame. This information is extracted from the medical records by analyzing evidence of exposure, the timing of the allegations, the presence of symptoms, pre-existing conditions, and treatment.

Correct Diagnosis

Legal teams lean on MRC when it comes to determining how the initial diagnosis relates to the evidence of exposure. In toxic tort cases, where medical history plays a major role in how causation is determined, it is important that legal nurse consultants provide a clear picture into how the medical past may have influenced the alleged adverse event.

The true benefit of MRC is in our more than 40 years of legal nurse consulting. The legal nurse consultant assigned to your case will have experience working similar environmental exposure cases,  allowing legal teams to leverage our combined experience and proven global strategies.

Besides reviewing and analyzing the medical facts found in the medical records, legal nurse consultants are expected to assist in medical literature research in order to support the medical findings and conclusion. MRC legal nurse consultants are experts at finding pertinent information and identifying missing or conflicting information. Every key piece of information is then translated and packaged into a report that drives decisions.

MRC was contracted to review the medical records for a product liability case for one of our largest clients, but upon research from our legal nurse consultant, the legal team was able to prove that the cause was actually environmental exposure.

Initially, the client was in the process of determining damages for the subjects in the product liability case and wanted an experienced legal nurse consultant from MRC to review the medical records and interpret the medical facts.

While sifting through the records, the legal nurse consultant extracted a key element related to the symptoms the patient had experienced. According to the research, the symptoms shared a lot of similarities with someone who worked in a mineral mine. Once it was discovered the patient lived in a state where mines are prevalent, the case was reevaluated and the suit dropped.

The MRC nurse  consultant was able to present a potential alternate causation or contributing factor and concluded that a large number of mines in the that area could have contributed to the same symptoms, which means it should be classified as environmental exposure instead of product liability.