Birmingham Personal Injury Lawyer

The Wilson PC’s Birmingham office is on 20th Street North in downtown Birmingham, a few blocks from Linn Park and the Jefferson County Courthouse, at 420 20th St N, Suite 2200, Birmingham, AL 35203. There is parking close by, and if your injuries make travel difficult we will meet you by phone, by video or at UAB Hospital. Call (205) 938-4869 and we will set a time that works for you.

Get medical attention first, at UAB Hospital or the nearest urgent care, even for injuries that seem minor; the record you create that day becomes the foundation of your claim. Then report the incident: call 911 for a crash so Birmingham Police Department files a report, ask the manager for a written incident report after a fall, or contact animal control after a dog bite. Photograph the scene and the hazard, get witness names, and keep the clothing, product or other items involved. Do not give a recorded statement to any insurer, and do not post about the incident online. Finally, call a Birmingham personal injury lawyer before you sign anything. The Wilson PC’s consultation is free.

The Wilson PC takes on the legal fight so you can focus on healing. Here is what we do:

• Free Case Review: We evaluate your claim at no cost and tell you honestly whether it is worth pursuing.
• Investigate and Preserve: We send preservation letters, obtain reports and surveillance video, and retain the experts your case needs.
• Value the Whole Claim: We account for every medical bill, every lost paycheck and the pain the injury has caused.
• No Fees Unless We Win: You owe no attorney fee unless we recover compensation for you.

The general rule under Ala. Code § 6-2-38(l) is two years from the date of the injury. Medical malpractice claims also carry a two-year limit, with a short six-month window for injuries that could not reasonably have been discovered sooner and an absolute four-year outer limit. An injured person under 19 gets extra time under § 6-2-8, but the parents’ own claims do not.

Government defendants have much shorter clocks. A claim against the City of Birmingham must be presented as a sworn claim within six months, a claim against Jefferson County must go to the county commission within twelve months, and claims against a state agency are heard by the Board of Adjustment rather than a court. Missing any of these deadlines ends the claim, so call us early.

Alabama still follows pure contributory negligence, a rule most states abandoned decades ago. If the defendant proves that you knew of the danger, appreciated it, and failed to use reasonable care, and that your carelessness contributed to the injury, the law can bar you from recovering anything. Insurers in Birmingham raise it in nearly every case: you should have seen the hazard, you were on your phone, you were walking where you should not have been.

The rule has real limits. It is no defense when the defendant was wanton, acting with reckless or conscious disregard for your safety. The last clear chance doctrine keeps your claim alive when the defendant had the final opportunity to prevent the harm. A person facing a sudden emergency not of their own making is judged more leniently. And in a car crash, Ala. Code § 32-5B-7 forbids using seat-belt non-use as evidence of contributory negligence. We build every Birmingham case to shut this defense down.

Alabama allows an injured person to recover economic damages, meaning the money the injury has cost and will cost: treatment at UAB Hospital, Grandview Medical Center, Ascension St. Vincent’s Birmingham or Brookwood Baptist Medical Center, surgery, therapy, medication, future care, lost wages and lost earning capacity, damaged property and out-of-pocket expenses such as transportation and home help.

You can also recover non-economic damages for physical pain, mental anguish and loss of enjoyment of life, and Alabama places no statutory cap on compensatory damages in an ordinary injury case. There is no cap on medical malpractice damages either; the Alabama Supreme Court struck one down. Where the defendant acted wantonly, fraudulently or maliciously, a jury may add punitive damages under Ala. Code § 6-11-20, subject to the limits in § 6-11-21. Claims against a city or county are capped at $100,000 per injured person by § 11-93-2.

Almost certainly. A quick offer means the insurer has already decided the claim is worth more than it is offering and wants to close it before you find out. The number usually reflects the bills it has seen, not the surgery, therapy or lost income still ahead of you.

The Alabama twist is that the offer often arrives with a request for a recorded statement or a signed medical authorization. Both are tools for building a contributory negligence defense if you refuse the money. Before you sign a release in Birmingham, let a personal injury lawyer review it for free. A release is final; there is no reopening the claim when the next MRI shows more damage.

Most Birmingham personal injury claims settle within six to eighteen months, but the range is wide. A clear-liability fall with a broken wrist may resolve in a few months. A medical malpractice claim, which requires expert review before suit can be filed, or a case where the insurer contests fault, can take two years or more once it is filed in the Jefferson County Circuit Court (10th Judicial Circuit, Birmingham Division).

We will not push you to settle before you reach maximum medical improvement, because a settlement signed before your doctors know your permanent limitations is a settlement for less than the case is worth. Where a delay is costing you, we can often obtain treatment on a letter of protection so care continues while the case proceeds.

Government claims run on their own rules, and the deadlines are unforgiving. A claim against the City of Birmingham or another municipality must be presented as a sworn, itemized claim within six months of the injury under Ala. Code § 11-47-23, and the city is liable only for its employees’ negligence in the line of duty or for street and building defects it failed to fix after notice. A claim against Jefferson County must be presented to the county commission and is barred after twelve months.

Recovery from a city or county is capped at $100,000 per injured person and $300,000 per occurrence by § 11-93-2. Claims against the State of Alabama and its agencies cannot be filed in court at all; they go to the Board of Adjustment. Because a government defendant may not be the only one at fault, we also look for private parties, such as contractors or drivers, whose liability is not capped.

Every case is different, but the building blocks are the same:

• Incident and Police Reports: The ALEA crash report from the investigating officer, the store or property incident report, or the animal-control record.
• Medical Documentation: Records that tie your injuries and treatment directly to the incident.
• Photo and Video Proof: Pictures of the hazard and your injuries, plus surveillance and traffic-camera footage we request before it is erased.
• Expert Testimony: Engineers, physicians, economists and reconstruction specialists when fault, causation or the value of the claim is disputed.

Nothing up front. The Wilson PC represents injured people in Birmingham on a contingency fee: you pay no retainer and no hourly charges, and our fee is a percentage of the recovery, agreed in writing before the work begins. We advance the costs of investigation, records and expert witnesses.

If we do not recover compensation for you, you owe us no attorney fee. That arrangement lets anyone in Jefferson County, regardless of income, hire a firm that is prepared to take the case to a jury in the Jefferson County Circuit Court (10th Judicial Circuit, Birmingham Division).

We will give you the honest answer: in Alabama, if the defendant proves you were negligent and that your negligence contributed to the injury, contributory negligence can bar your recovery completely. There is no percentage reduction as in other states.

But an adjuster’s opinion that you were careless is not proof. The defense must show you actually knew of the danger, appreciated it and failed to use ordinary care. We look for evidence that you acted reasonably, that the defendant was wanton, or that the defendant had the last clear chance to avoid the harm. Many Birmingham clients were told they had no case before they called us. Let us look at the facts before you accept that answer.