Writing proposals that get accepted

A proposal is your pitch for one case. Attorneys usually compare three to five, side by side. Here's what makes yours the one they pick.

Read the brief twice

Note the service (chronology, merit screening, standard of care review, expert witness), the side, the jurisdiction, the page count and the deadline. Propose only when the case is in a setting you've practiced in.

The cover letter: three short paragraphs

1. Why you: your experience in this exact setting. "Eleven years in a step-down unit, including rapid response" beats a list of every job.
2. How you'll approach it: what you'll look at first and what you'll deliver. For a sepsis case: vital sign trends, escalation calls, the timing of cultures and antibiotics against the sepsis bundle.
3. What you need: records you expect to need beyond what's listed, like flowsheets, MARs or audit trails.

Keep it under 200 words. Attorneys skim.

Price it clearly

• Flat fee works best for defined deliverables like a merit screen or a chronology of a known page count. Attorneys like knowing the total.
• Hourly suits open-ended work. Give an honest estimate of hours: the firm pays the rate times your estimate as a deposit, and pays any balance or gets a refund at close.
• The firm pays the platform fee on top. You receive the full amount you propose.

Estimate hours from the page count and how dense the records are: nursing flowsheets and ICU records take longer per page than discharge summaries.

Give a delivery date you'll beat

Attorneys work to court deadlines. A realistic date you deliver early builds the reviews that win the next case.

Conflicts

Before you submit, confirm you have no conflict of interest with the parties. If anything could look like one, a past employer in the same health system for example, disclose it in the proposal. Disclosing builds trust; a conflict discovered later ends engagements. See Conflicts of interest for legal nurse consultants.

Testimony terms

When a case requires testimony, add your testimony rate, any minimum hours per deposition or trial day, and your terms for travel and cancellations.

Counter-offers

If the attorney counters, you can accept, decline or revise. A small adjustment to scope ("chronology only, no summary report") is often better than a lower rate.

After you're hired

Reply quickly, ask for missing records early, and log your time as you go if the case is hourly.