What I Learned About Alabama’s Comparative Negligence Rules From Reading An Alabama Personal Injury Lawfirm’s Website
I was reading a website of a personal injury firm that is a heavy advertiser and several things struck me about the website.
First, it was solely focused on the lawyer and how wonderful the lawyers are and rarely mentioned anything about you, the person that has been injured.
The other thing that caught my eye was various inaccuracies related to the law. For example, in the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), the question was posed to the effect of “If I am partially at fault, can I still recover damages for my personal injury case?
The answer started off “Under Alabama’s comparative negligence rules …” Unfortunately, Alabama does not have comparative negligence. Instead Alabama has contributory negligence which means if you were even 1 percent at fault, this will completely bar your recovery if you have sued under negligence.
Note - if you have sued under wantonness or recklessness then contributory negligence is not a bar.
I mentioned this to say for several persons. One is to be very careful about what you read and just because it is online and by a lawyer does not mean that it is accurate. The second reason is to provide a little bit of additional education on our rather strange law concerning contributory negligence which is one of only about three states in the nation that have the rule of contributory negligence barring your recovery. In every other state there is some variation of a formula used that, in essence, takes the degree of fault on your part and reduces the jury verdict by that percentage.
I hope this post has been helpful to you. You are welcome to have our free book - "Alabama Car Wrecks - 7 Ways To Lose Your Credibility Which Will Cause You To Lose Your Case" - just let us know if you would like this... Simply pick up the phone and call me at (205) 879 2447 or send me a message through our website here.
