Nurses have served as expert witnesses in nursing malpractice cases for many years. But it was not until the early 1970s, according to the American Association of Legal Nurse Consultants (AALNC), that nurses began to receive compensation for providing this much-needed expertise to the legal community. As nursing and medical malpractice litigation increased in the 1980s, more nurses were needed to serve as expert witnesses in legal proceedings. During this time, according to the AALNC, nurses also began assisting lawyers with understanding medical records and literature, hospital policies and procedures, and medical testimony. Law firms quickly realized that legal nurse consultants were a knowledgeable, cost-effective alternative to physician consultants and began to hire these professionals to assist them with not only nursing and medical malpractice issues, but also personal injury and criminal cases.
The AALNC was founded in 1989 to serve the professional needs of legal nurse consultants.
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