Alabama Workers’ Compensation Lawyer

Most employees of a business with five or more regular employees (Ala. Code § 25-5-50). Smaller employers, domestic workers, farm labor, and casual labor are generally outside the Act unless the employer opts in — with one notable exception: on-site construction of new single-family homes is covered regardless of employer size. Coverage is no-fault: you do not have to prove your employer did anything wrong, only that the injury arose out of and in the course of your job.

The trade-off is exclusivity. Workers’ compensation is normally your only remedy against your employer and co-workers (Ala. Code § 25-5-53), except for willful conduct. That is why the third-party claim, discussed below, matters so much.

Reasonable medical treatment for the work injury, and wage benefits at two-thirds of your average weekly wage, subject to a state maximum and minimum (Ala. Code § 25-5-57). For injuries on or after July 1, 2026, the Alabama Department of Workforce set the maximum at $1,219 per week and the minimum at $335. Temporary benefits run while you recover; permanent partial disability benefits are limited to 300 weeks and capped at $220 per week (Ala. Code § 25-5-68); permanent total disability continues for the duration of the disability.

Two clocks. First, notice: report the injury to your employer in writing within five days; benefits owed before notice can be forfeited, and no compensation is payable at all if written notice is not given within 90 days (Ala. Code § 25-5-78). Second, the claim itself: unless the parties have agreed on compensation, a verified complaint must be filed within two years of the accident — two years from the date of injury for cumulative-stress injuries, and two years from death for death claims (Ala. Code § 25-5-80).

Denials usually cite one of those two rules. Both have exceptions, and the facts that trigger them — when your supervisor actually knew, when a payment was last made — are exactly what a lawyer nails down.

Yes, and it is often the most valuable part of the case. Alabama lets an injured worker collect workers’ compensation and, at the same time, sue a third party whose negligence caused the injury (Ala. Code § 25-5-11) — a careless driver who hit you on a delivery run, a trucking company, a property owner, a defective-equipment manufacturer. The third-party case is decided under ordinary injury law, with full damages available, and the employer’s insurer is reimbursed from that recovery. Read about how those claims work on our Alabama car accident and Alabama truck accident pages.

Suits against co-workers or the comp carrier are limited to willful conduct as the statute defines it — a high bar, but one that is met more often than injured workers assume.

Alabama law prohibits terminating an employee solely for filing or maintaining a workers’ compensation claim, or for filing a written notice of a safety-rule violation (Ala. Code § 25-5-11.1). A retaliatory discharge claim is a separate lawsuit with its own damages. If the timing of a termination looks suspicious, keep every document and call a lawyer before signing anything.

Because we handle both halves of the case. Many comp firms never look for the third-party claim, and many injury firms never touch comp. We pursue benefits under Title 25 and the full injury claim together, from offices in Birmingham and Montgomery, for workers across Alabama. Appeals go to the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals (Ala. Code § 12-3-10), and we handle those too. Free consultation, no fee unless we recover — meet the attorneys on our team page.