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An Alabama Work Injury Can Support a Lawsuit Beyond Workers' Compensation
If you were hurt on the job in Alabama, workers' compensation may cover your treatment and part of your lost pay, and someone other than your employer may owe you the rest.
Compensation pays nothing for pain and suffering, and a permanent partial disability benefit generally stops at $220 a week.
A machine maker, a contractor, a property owner, or a driver can be sued separately for the full harm.
So can a co-worker who willfully removed a safety guard the manufacturer provided, knowing injury would likely result.
You generally have two years to sue, and the machine or the jobsite may change long before that.
Don Worley is admitted in Alabama and takes serious job injury and death cases against the companies responsible.
Call (888) 713-6653 for a free review, with no fee and no costs unless we recover.
- Serious plant, construction, and job site injury claims across Alabama
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What Alabama Workers' Compensation Pays, and the Gap It Leaves
Alabama's compensation system generally pays regardless of negligence, and it comes with limits. Temporary total disability pays 66 2/3 percent of your average weekly earnings, up to the state's maximum. Permanent partial disability cannot exceed $220 a week, and an unscheduled permanent partial benefit stops after 300 weeks.[1] Nothing in that system pays for your pain or the life you had before, and it pays for disfigurement only in the narrow case where serious disfigurement materially affects your employability, for up to 100 weeks.
Compensation is also generally your only remedy against a covered employer, though employers with fewer than five workers and some kinds of jobs generally fall outside the Act. Disputes go to circuit court, where a judge sets the attorney's fee at no more than 15 percent of the award.[2] The way to reach the rest of your loss is usually a claim against someone else, and Alabama's statute expressly preserves that right.
A worker who has lost a hand, a good back, or a career needs someone to ask who besides the employer was involved.
Who Else Can Be Sued After a Plant or Job Site Injury
Ala. Code § 25-5-11 lets an injured worker take compensation and also sue a third party who is responsible.[3] These are the claims that most often change a case.
A Machine or Equipment Maker
A machine sold without a needed guard, a forklift that tips, or a saw with a failed brake can support a product claim against its maker. If the maker supplied a guard and someone at the plant removed it, expect the maker to argue the machine was substantially changed, and the claim may then run against the person who removed it. See our page on product liability in Alabama.
A General Contractor or Property Owner
On a construction site or at a plant, another company may control the conditions that hurt you. A company that is not your employer can answer for unsafe scaffolding, an unmarked hole, or an electrical hazard it created or controlled. The contract documents often decide who had that responsibility.
A Driver or Trucking Company
A crash during your work day can be both a compensation claim and a lawsuit against the other driver. Transportation incidents were the leading cause of Alabama work deaths in 2024. See our page on truck crash claims in Alabama.
A Co-Worker Who Removed a Safety Guard
Co-workers are generally immune, with narrow exceptions for willful conduct. The next section explains the one that matters most on a plant floor.
The Safety Guard Exception for Co-Employee Suits in Ala. Code § 25-5-11
Alabama lets you sue a co-employee for "willful conduct," and the statute defines it. It includes the "willful and intentional removal from a machine of a safety guard or safety device provided by the manufacturer of the machine with knowledge that injury or death would likely or probably result."
What counts. The removal must have increased the danger, and the person must have known injury would likely or probably result. The statute excludes removal for repair, and a modification that made the guard unnecessary. Courts have also looked at bypassing a guard or failing to install one, so describe exactly what happened.
Other willful conduct. The statute also reaches an intent to injure, a co-employee's intoxication, and in limited circumstances, a willful violation of a written safety rule after a detailed written notice, where the employee is killed or totally disabled within six months.
The deadline. Two years, under Ala. Code § 6-2-38(g).
Take a photo of the machine if it is safe, write down who told you to run the machine that way, and call us before the machine gets fixed. Alabama law also bars firing someone solely for bringing a compensation claim or filing that written safety notice.
How Your Employer Gets Repaid From a Third-Party Recovery Under § 25-5-11
When a third-party claim pays, your employer or its comp carrier generally gets reimbursed for what it paid. The recovery is credited against the compensation owed and can end the employer's obligation, and permanent total benefits can be suspended for a computed period. In a settlement, the employer pays its proportional share of the attorney's fee. If you do not sue in time, the employer or carrier gets six more months to bring the claim itself.
The arithmetic deserves attention before any settlement, and we go through what you would keep in plain numbers before you sign anything.
Plant, Shipyard, and Construction Injuries in a State With 75 Work Deaths in 2024
The Bureau of Labor Statistics counted 75 fatal work injuries in Alabama in 2024. Transportation incidents caused 32, and falls and contact incidents caused 14 each. Construction accounted for 14 deaths, manufacturing for 7, and transportation and warehousing for 22.[4]
Auto and Parts Plants
Honda's Lincoln plant employs more than 4,500 people, Hyundai's Montgomery plant about 4,200, and Toyota's Huntsville engine plant about 2,000, and suppliers surround each one.[5] Robots, presses, and conveyors can injure a worker when guarding or lockout fails, and the equipment maker or an outside integrator may answer for it.
Construction and Scaffolding
Falls, trench collapses, and electrical contact can all involve a general contractor or another trade. We ask who controlled the site and who wrote the safety plan.
Shipyards, Docks, and Vessels
Federal law may apply in place of Alabama's compensation system, with different deadlines and rules on fault. Our Mobile personal injury lawyer page covers the Jones Act and Longshore Act.
A Death on the Job
A family may have compensation death benefits and also a wrongful death claim against a third party, where the jury weighs that party's conduct. See our Alabama wrongful death lawyer page.
How Much Is an Alabama Third-Party Work Injury Case Worth?
A third-party claim can include your full lost income and earning ability, lifelong medical care, and pain, disfigurement, and mental anguish, with no cap against a private company. That is a recovery measured by what the injury took from you, beyond the weekly check.
The value depends on how permanent the injury is and how strong the case against the outside company is. The fault rule can matter here. On most negligence claims, your own negligence can bar recovery, so the company will argue you ignored a warning or bypassed a safety step. Under Alabama's product doctrine, your negligence in using the product can also be a defense, so what you were told and trained to do matters.
How Long Do You Have After a Work Injury, From Comp to Third Parties?
A lawsuit against a third party or a co-employee generally has two years. A workers' compensation claim also generally has two years under Ala. Code § 25-5-80, with its own rules for payments already made and for cumulative injuries.[6] Give your employer written notice within five days, and never later than 90 days, because missing it can cost you benefits.
The evidence runs out faster than either deadline. Machines get repaired and sites move on, so ask that the machine be kept as it was, photograph what you can, and write down the names of the people who saw it.
Experience Behind Claims Against Machine Makers and Contractors
- Depth of experience. Over 40,000 cases handled nationwide, and more than 20 years of serious injury work by Don Worley.
- Prepared to try the case. We build a case for a jury from the start.
- Access when you need it. Spanish-speaking lawyers and staff, and visits to your home or hospital room.