Auburn Personal Injury Attorneys

Filing a Personal Injury Claim in Alabama 

When you are injured or someone you love tragically passes away due to the careless, reckless, or wrongful conduct of another, you have the right to take legal action. By filing a personal injury or wrongful death claim, you can fight to hold the liable party accountable. A successful claim also provides you with financial compensation for your related losses, such as medical expenses, lost income, pain and suffering, lost quality of life, and more. 

Navigating the legal process after a serious injury or devastating loss can feel overwhelmed—but you don’t have to do it alone. At Mike Slocumb Law Firm, our Auburn personal injury lawyers are here to walk you through every step, protecting your rights and fighting for your maximum recovery throughout the entire process. We understand what you and your family are going through, and we know how to help. Our team has recovered more than $500 billion in settlements and verdicts for our clients; we are prepared to do everything we can to recover the full, fair amount you are owed.

If you were injured, and you believe someone else was at fault, contact our Auburn office today at (334) 219-3906 to schedule a no-cost, no-obligation consultation. Hablamos español.

Who Can File a Personal Injury Claim in Alabama? 

Generally speaking, Alabama law allows you to file a personal injury claim when you are injured due to negligence, wrongful conduct, malpractice, or default. Because most personal injury claims are brought on the basis of negligence, most individuals who file such claims (known as “plaintiffs”) must prove several key elements.

The basic elements of most negligence-based personal injury cases are: 

• Duty of Care: The duty of care refers to the defendant’s legal responsibility to take certain measures and avoid other acts that could cause foreseeable harm. For example, all drivers have a responsibility to follow the rules of the road, obey traffic laws, and take certain reasonable measures to prevent causing accidents.
• Breach: To have a personal injury case, you will need to prove that the defendant breached, or failed to uphold, the duty of care they owed to you. Most often, this involves proving that the defendant acted negligently or wrongfully in some way. For example, someone who drives drunk has behalf wrongfully and negligently put others at risk.
• Injury: You only have a personal injury case if you can demonstrate that you were injured and that your injuries led to measurable, compensable “damages.” The term “damages” refers to economic and non-economic losses you have endured as a result of your injuries and may include things like medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering.
• Causation: Proving “causation,” or the fact that the defendant’s conduct was the direct or proximate cause of your injuries and damages, is one of the most important elements of your claim. You must prove that you were injured because of the defendant’s breach of the duty of care in order to prove that they are liable for your damages.

In Alabama, shared fault can significantly impact your claim. “Shared fault” refers to injury-causing events in which multiple parties are partly to blame. Because Alabama follows a strict, defendant-friendly rule of contributory negligence, you cannot file a personal injury claim if you were partly at fault for the incident, regardless of how small your part in causing the incident was. Even if the insurance adjuster and/or court find you just one percent to blame, you cannot file a claim or recover any compensation for your damages. 

What Is the Statute of Limitations on Personal Injury Cases in Alabama? 

Like every other state, Alabama has a deadline for filing personal injury lawsuits, known as the “statute of limitations.” Once the statute of limitations has expired, you will almost certainly be prohibited from filing a claim or collecting any compensation for your damages.

The statute of limitations on nearly all personal injury cases in Alabama is two years. The clock typically starts running on the date you were injured, though there may be some exceptions in cases where an injury could not reasonably be discovered right away. In such cases, the statute of limitations may be deferred to two years from the date on which the injury was discovered or reasonably could have been discovered with the information provided to the plaintiff.