When to Bring in an LNC

The most common mistake I see isn't bringing in an LNC — it's bringing one in too late. By the time discovery deadlines are close, there's no room left to catch a causation problem, request a missing record, or reconsider whether a case is worth the resources it's about to absorb.

Early screening doesn't cost you time. It buys you time, by surfacing the clinical problems while you can still do something about them.

A few signals are worth paying attention to: the medical picture feels more complicated than the intake summary suggested; multiple providers or facilities are involved and the records haven't been reconciled; a defense expert's opinion needs a clinical response; or you simply need a second, trained set of eyes before deciding how much to invest in a case.

None of those require a fully developed theory of the case first. They're exactly the situations an early screen is built for.

Bring me in early and I can flag a weak causation link before you've built a strategy around it, identify which records are still missing while there's time to request them, and help you decide whether a case is worth pursuing at all.

Bring me in late and I'm working around decisions that have already been made — trying to fit clinical reality into a theory that was built without it.

A case screen is a rapid, merit-based review: I read what you have, flag strengths and vulnerabilities, and give you a clear, direct read on viability. It's not a full record review or a chronology — it's the fast pass that tells you whether either of those is worth commissioning.