Alabama Personal Injury Lawyer

If someone's carelessness hurt you in Alabama, the person or company responsible owes you for your medical bills, your lost income, and your pain and suffering.

Alabama generally sets no cap on that compensation against a private defendant.

The danger is Alabama's fault rule, which only four states and the District of Columbia still follow.

Any negligence of yours that helped cause the injury can bar a negligence claim completely.

You have two years to sue in most cases, and as little as six months when a city is responsible.

Don Worley, the lawyer lawyers call when cases get complicated, is admitted in Alabama and takes serious injury and death cases across the state.

Call (888) 713-6653 for a free review of your claim, with no fee and no costs unless we recover.

In Georgia or Tennessee, a driver who is 20 percent at fault collects 80 percent of the damages. On the same facts in Alabama, that driver can collect nothing, because the Alabama Supreme Court reconsidered contributory negligence in 1993 and kept it.^[1]

The rule is harsh, and it has limits. The defense has to prove it, and a jury usually decides it, though a judge can end the claim when the facts allow only one conclusion. The insurer must show you knew about the danger, or should have understood it, and failed to use reasonable care. A child between 7 and 14 is presumed incapable of contributory negligence unless the defense shows otherwise. An adjuster's opinion that you share the blame proves none of that.^[2]

The first answer is wantonness. Contributory negligence is no defense to a wantonness claim.^[3] Alabama defines wantonness as conduct "carried on with a reckless or conscious disregard of the rights or safety of others."^[4] A drunk driver, a trucker who drove past the federal hours limit, or a company that sent out a vehicle it knew was unsafe can each be evidence of it. It requires proof the person knew injury would likely result, usually from records such as a blood-alcohol result, a driver's logs, or a maintenance file, and proving it also opens the door to punitive damages.

The second answer is subsequent negligence. If the other driver knew you were in danger, had time to avoid hurting you, and failed to use reasonable care, your earlier mistake does not bar the claim.^[5] Picture a stalled car in a lane and a driver who saw it with room to stop. It does not apply when the danger and the crash come in the same instant.

A passenger riding free faces a different bar against the host driver or owner, because Alabama's guest statute, Ala. Code § 32-1-2, requires willful or wanton misconduct, though the passenger's own uninsured motorist coverage may still respond.

Alabama also takes one common argument away from the insurer. Not wearing a seat belt "shall not be considered evidence of contributory negligence."^[6]

For you, this means the question of fault gets answered with evidence, and we start gathering that evidence early so the insurer's version is not the only one in the file.

Under a rule where a small share of fault can end the claim, an offhand remark carries more risk in Alabama than almost anywhere else. These steps protect you in the first days after an injury.

• Decline the recorded statement. You have no duty to give one to the other driver's insurer or to a store's claims company, and you can say your lawyer will respond.
• Leave out guesses and apologies. "I didn't see him," "I'm sorry," and "I'm fine" all get repeated later, usually without the rest of what you said.
• See a doctor and keep going. A gap in treatment becomes the insurer's argument that you were not hurt, and it can cut the value of a claim the fault rule leaves standing.
• Save what proves your care. Photos of the scene, dashcam video, witness names, and your phone records can show you were doing what a careful person does.
• Sign nothing yet. A release given to one insurer can damage a claim against another, as the coverage section below explains.

If you already gave a statement, tell us what you said. It does not always end the case, and it is better to plan around it early.

Alabama recorded 140,118 crashes and 967 traffic deaths in 2024.^[7] Serious injury cases also come from hospitals, plants, stores, and care facilities.

• Car crashes. The fault rule shapes these claims from the first call, along with the state's $25,000 minimum policy. Our page on Alabama car accident claims covers both, plus the phone statute and rideshare coverage.
• Truck and 18-wheeler crashes. A carrier, its broker, and a shipper can all answer alongside the driver, and federal records can be evidence of wantonness, which the fault rule does not bar. See truck crash claims on Alabama interstates.
• Wrongful death. Alabama juries set a death award by the wrongdoer's conduct, and no statute caps it against a private defendant. Our page on how Alabama families bring a death claim explains who files and where the money goes.
• Medical malpractice. The Alabama Medical Liability Act has its own deadline, its own expert rule, and a pleading requirement that limits the evidence. See malpractice claims against Alabama hospitals and doctors.
• Nursing home neglect. The same Act covers nursing homes and assisted living, so a neglect case runs on malpractice rules. Our page on nursing home abuse and neglect in Alabama covers what families should watch for.
• Slip and fall injuries. A fall claim turns on what the owner knew and whether the hazard was open and obvious. See Alabama slip and fall claims.
• Defective products. Alabama's product doctrine is fault-based, and your negligence in causing a crash does not bar an AEMLD claim that the vehicle failed to protect you. See product liability in Alabama.
• Plant, shipyard, and job site injuries. Workers' compensation may not be the whole recovery when a machine maker or contractor played a part, or in narrow cases of willful conduct, a co-worker. See who else can be sued after a work injury.

Which of these fits your injury decides your deadline and who pays, so it is the first thing we sort out with you.

The two-year deadline does not protect you if a public body caused the injury. A city needs a sworn statement in its clerk's hands within six months, or a lawsuit filed in that time, and mailing the statement is a risk unless it arrives in time.^[8] The State of Alabama cannot be sued in court at all, so an injury it caused goes to the Board of Adjustment.^[9]

The $100,000 limit applies per injured person, with a $300,000 total when more than two people have claims from one occurrence.^[10] A serious injury can pass that limit quickly, so we look for a private contractor or another driver who shares responsibility and can pay the rest.

Our page on injury claims against an Alabama city, county, or state agency takes each route in turn, including school buses and the 2025 police immunity statute.

Most states pay a family for lost income and companionship after a wrongful death. Alabama is the only state that limits the recovery to punitive damages, and the purpose is to protect human life by punishing the conduct that took it.^[14] A jury looks at what the defendant did and how wrong it was.

Two things follow for a grieving family. Ordinary negligence is generally enough to bring the claim, and no statute caps a verdict against a private defendant. The award also goes to the family under the statute of distributions, out of reach of the person's creditors.

Alabama has a second death rule that catches families off guard. An injury claim that was never filed does not survive the injured person, so if someone badly hurt dies of an unrelated cause before suit, the claim can end with them.^[15] Our page on what happens to a claim when the injured person dies explains why an older or medically fragile client's case should be filed early.

Compensation in Alabama covers your medical care, past and future, your lost income and earning ability, and your pain and suffering, disfigurement, and mental anguish. We will not give you a number before reading the file, because four things set the value.

• How badly and how permanently you were hurt. Surgery, a lasting limitation, and future care drive the largest recoveries.
• Whether the fault rule can be answered. Clean liability or a provable wantonness claim is worth far more than a file the insurer can argue is barred.
• How much insurance exists. A $25,000 policy limits what that insurer will pay, which makes underinsured coverage and other defendants central.
• How the defendant behaved. On clear and convincing proof of wantonness, a jury can add punitive damages, generally capped at the greater of three times compensatory damages or a base figure of $1.5 million in a physical injury case, adjusted for inflation.^[16]

A jury in Alabama can also hear that insurance paid your medical bills, and you can show what that coverage cost you and what you must pay back.^[17] We plan the damages case around that rule from the start, so the jury sees what the injury costs you beyond the bills.

A first offer that arrives before treatment is finished is priced on the bills so far, and a signed release closes the claim for everything that comes later.

Most Alabama injury lawsuits must be filed within two years, and wrongful death runs two years from the death.^[18] A child's two years generally begin at the 19th birthday, with a 20-year outer limit.^[19]

Medical malpractice generally runs two years from the act, with six months from discovery when the harm could not reasonably have been found sooner, and four years as the outer limit in nearly every case. Government claims run far shorter, as the table above shows.

Missing a deadline usually ends the claim whatever its merits, and no adjuster's promise to keep talking stops the clock. Send us the date of your injury and we will tell you which deadline governs and how much of it is left.