Safe nursing practice requires understanding the legal framework of health care. Understanding the legal implications of nursing practice demands critical reasoning skills to protect the patient’s rights and the nurse from liability. Society expects safe health care delivery, especially from nurses who are typically perceived as the most trusted profession. As patient care practice innovations and new health care technologies emerge, the principles of negligence and malpractice liability are being applied to challenging new situations. Nurses should not fear the law but instead practice nursing armed with the judgment skills that are the outcomes of informed critical thinking.