Alabama recognizes fault-based car accident laws. If you were hurt because of another driver’s carelessness, you may be able to hold them legally responsible and recover compensation to pay your medical bills and cover other expenses you incurred. An Alabama car accident attorney from Morris Bart may be able to handle this process for you and secure the payout you need and deserve.
You can learn more about your rights and legal options based on the details of your case. Our attorneys provide free case evaluations for crash victims and their families. We offer this opportunity so that potential clients can understand how to get justice in their cases and how our team can help them do so.
Getting Compensation for the Damages You Suffered in Your Crash
Justice in a car accident case comes in the form of compensation from the at-fault driver or their insurer. If you were hurt by another motorist’s carelessness in Alabama, state law allows you to pursue and recover money for the expenses you incurred, including your current, future, and intangible damages. This is possible through an insurance claim or personal injury lawsuit.
A car accident lawyer can manage this process for you while you heal from your injuries. Injuries in a car accident vary widely. The severity and type of injuries you suffer are the greatest factors that influence the compensation you can recover. Some common car accident injuries include:
- Broken bones
- Internal injuries
- Head and neck injuries
- Back injuries
- Soft tissue injuries
- Joint injuries
- Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs)
- Spinal cord injuries, often with paralysis
As you can imagine, those with more significant injuries—especially when there are lasting impairments—can generally document more accident-related damages than those who suffered a relatively minor injury. This is because catastrophic injuries cost much more to treat, keep you out of work longer, and require more money to manage than a broken arm that heals without surgery in a matter of weeks.
Some recoverable damages in an Alabama car accident case include:
- Medical bills and related costs
- Ongoing and future treatment and medical needs
- Lost wages, benefits, and other income from days missed at work
- Reduced ability to work and earn if you have lasting injuries
- Property damages and repairs
- Miscellaneous expenses
- Pain and suffering damages
- Emotional distress
Our team can help you value your claim and determine what a fair settlement offer might look like. This is an extremely important step in the process and one reason why you should never accept a settlement agreement offer from an insurance company without first discussing your legal options with a lawyer. We even know how to put an accurate value on future and intangible losses, ensuring you receive enough to cover your ongoing medical needs, as well.
My Loved One Died in an Alabama Car Accident
If you lost a family member because of the injuries they endured in an Alabama car accident, Ala. Code § 6-5-410 may allow you to take legal action to hold the at-fault driver financially responsible. However, the laws that outline the wrongful death process in Alabama differ somewhat from other states and the state’s own personal injury options.
Alabama does not allow surviving family members to seek and recover compensable damages in a wrongful death car accident case. Instead, they only allow the recovery of punitive damages in these claims. Punitive damages are generally only awarded by a jury and are meant to penalize the at-fault party and teach others not to act the same way.
Thus, the value of a wrongful death claim in Alabama will be unrelated to your losses. Instead, it will be determined by how badly the at-fault party behaved. Punitive damages are almost never awarded in personal injury cases, despite being the only damages available in wrongful death claims in Alabama.
For a free legal consultation with a Car Accident lawyer serving Alabama, call 800-537-8185
Morris Bart Fights for Compensation for Accident Victims
Our lawyers represent clients in car accidents, DUI crashes, and truck collisions, among other types of traffic accident claims. We fight for the compensation our clients deserve based on the damages they experienced. We strive to provide the necessary services they need while allowing them to focus entirely on their health and physical recovery. Our clients count on us to:
- Gather evidence to support their claim
- Value and document their damages
- Manage all communication related to the case
- Keep them updated on the claim’s progress
- Protect their right to compensation
- Meet all applicable deadlines
- File the necessary paperwork for an insurance claim or lawsuit
- Negotiate with the insurers for a fair settlement
- Represent their best interests from start to finish
The areas we serve include not only Alabama but also Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Our office locations in Alabama are:
- Birmingham
- Decatur
- Hoover
- Huntsville
- Mobile
- Montgomery
We also serve all other areas of the state, meeting with clients in their homes or other convenient locations. If you were hurt in a crash anywhere in Alabama, an attorney from our team will come to you to handle your claim and seek compensation on your behalf.
Our attorneys have more than 40 years of experience handling cases like yours. While each one has unique aspects, we have significant experience navigating the process and overcoming obstacles that arise. We believe this allows us to manage these claims and lawsuits more easily, reducing the stress and frustration our clients experience. Our client reviews seem to agree:
- “My attorney was kind, understanding. We had a good connection.” — Dianne G.
- “My attorney was very cooperative, interested in the case, called back in a timely manner, and updated me about my case. He carried the case a step further than I expected.” — Stephen D.
- “My attorney was very polite, handled the case in a timely manner, was very informative, and was a good attorney. Good personal skills.” — Norman P.
- “It was a great experience, and I appreciate everything you did for me.” — Akeem Y.
- “My attorney was excellent, and I loved how he handled my case. No stress. Gave the best advice.” — Amanda G.
- “My attorney was very professional, and I loved her!” — Pamela D.
- “Thank y’all for doing a good job. I appreciate everything Morris Bart’s office did for me.” — Adrian S.
- “Best attorney I’ve ever dealt with…hands down!” — Billy S.
- “Best compliments and experience . . . continue to do the good work over at Morris Bart!” — Glenn W.
We never charge car accident victims upfront fees when we handle their cases. Instead, our attorneys work based on a contingency fee. They use firm resources to pay for their work upfront and then charge the client after they secure compensation from the case. If they do not receive monetary damages, we do not charge attorney’s fees.
Proving Fault and Liability After an Alabama Collision
The car accident attorneys from Morris Bart prove fault and liability as a part of every collision claim we handle. We must demonstrate what happened and who is responsible before we can negotiate with the insurer or file the paperwork to begin a lawsuit.
The evidence available in your traffic accident will allow us to analyze what happened and develop a claim to hold the at-fault driver or other liable parties legally responsible for what happened. We will investigate your crash and gather evidence that could include:
- Witness statements
- Expert testimony
- Accident reconstruction data
- Medical records and specialists’ opinions
- Crash reports filed by police
- A survey of the scene
- Video of the crash
- Photos from the scene
- The damage to each vehicle
It is not uncommon for at-fault drivers, their insurers, and their legal counsel to try to avoid liability by blaming a portion of the accident on the victim. While this type of allegation could reduce the compensation available to the victim in most states, it is especially troublesome in Alabama. Alabama is one of only four states with laws recognizing “pure contributory negligence.”
Under Alabama Supreme Court case law, Golden v. McCurry (1980), anyone involved in a collision who contributed to causing it is barred from recovering compensation. This means you will not be able to negotiate a settlement with the insurance company or take the case to trial for an award.
If this happens in your case, we will fight the allegations and provide a strong argument and evidence to show that the at-fault driver caused the collision. We will work to steer the focus away from any contribution they may believe you made and counter any evidence they present.
Accidents Involving Commercial Vehicles
When a commercial vehicle driver causes a crash, there are additional considerations regarding liability. We prove negligence the same way as in other accidents. Then, we determine who the at-fault driver worked for, whether they were doing their job at the time of the crash, and the insurance coverage available from their employer. This is because Alabama case law recognizes respondeat superior.
Respondeat superior allows us to hold employers vicariously liable for the negligent actions of their employees. This likely applies any time workers who drive as a part of their job cause an accident on the clock. In the Alabama Supreme Court decision in St. Louis-San Francisco Ry. Co. v. Robbins (1929), the opinion stated that the employer is vicariously liable when the worker was “within the scope of his employment” when the negligence occurred.
Because many commercial vehicles are much larger than passenger cars—tractor-trailers, delivery vans, buses, work trucks, dump trucks, and garbage trucks, for example—the occupants can suffer major injuries. For this reason, access to a large corporate liability policy could greatly benefit victims. We often file claims or lawsuits against the employer in these cases and will not back down regardless of the size of the company.
Drunk Driving Accidents
While drunk driving crash claims move forward in a similar way to most traffic accidents, it is important to know that the at-fault driver may also face criminal charges. When this happens, the criminal case is separate from your civil case in every way. We can win compensation for clients hurt in these accidents regardless of the charges they face or the outcome of that case.
The criminal case can provide us with additional evidence to support our claim, but we do not have to prove the driver was drunk to recover compensation for our client.
Click to contact our Alabama Personal Injury Attorney today
Act Now to Build a Strong Case and Hold the At-Fault Driver Responsible
It is crucial to get started quickly to develop a strong argument against the at-fault motorist. We recommend contacting us when your injuries are stable. If they are relatively minor, you can wait until you reach maximum medical improvement. Be careful, though, because there are deadlines in these cases.
You only have two years to begin your lawsuit based on a car accident in Alabama, according to Ala. Code § 6-2-38. While this deadline applies to most cases, some could have additional sooner deadlines. This is common in cases where the liable party is a municipal agency or the State of Alabama, for example.
There are also other reasons to get started as soon as possible. Some evidence is available only for a limited time. Witnesses forget details, videos are recorded over, and vehicles are towed from the scene. The sooner you hire our attorneys to build a case, the sooner we can identify, collect, and analyze the available evidence.
You Can Discuss Your Case With a Morris Bart Attorney
You can talk to a car accident lawyer from Morris Bart for free today. We will assess your options for building a case and recovering compensation, explain how we can help, and answer any questions you have about your rights or claim. We will also discuss our contingency fees and how we may approach your case.
Call now to talk to an attorney from our team.
Questions?Call 800-537-8185
to find a Morris Bart office near you.
