Almost every week, someone calls our office with a strong case and a bad date on the calendar. The wreck was real, the injuries were documented, the other driver was clearly at fault — and the deadline to do anything about it passed two months ago.
That deadline is called the statute of limitations, and Alabama courts enforce it without much sympathy. A case filed one day late is generally gone for good, no matter how badly someone was hurt or how obvious the other side’s fault was.
Here’s the part that surprises people most: there is no single deadline. The clock that applies to you depends on how you were hurt, who hurt you, and — if you work on or near the water — which body of law covers your job. Some of those clocks run for six years. One of them runs out in six months. And for many injured maritime workers, the most important deadline hits at the one-year mark.
Below is a plain-English breakdown of the deadlines that matter most along the Alabama Gulf Coast.
The general rule: two years for injury claims
For most personal injury cases in Alabama — car wrecks, truck collisions, motorcycle crashes, pedestrian injuries, slip and falls — you have two years from the date of the injury to file suit. That comes from Ala. Code § 6-2-38(l), which covers injuries to the person that don’t arise out of a contract.
Two things trip people up here.
First, the clock usually starts on the day of the crash, not the day you finished treatment, not the day the insurance company denied your claim, and not the day you realized how serious the injury really was.
Second, negotiating with an insurance adjuster does not stop the clock. Nothing about an open claim file, a pending settlement demand, or a friendly adjuster who keeps saying “we’re still reviewing it” extends your deadline. The only thing that stops the clock is a lawsuit actually filed in court. Adjusters know the deadline as well as we do, and a claim that goes quiet in month twenty-two rarely goes quiet by accident.
Wrongful death: two years, and the clock starts at death
If a crash or workplace incident kills someone, Alabama gives the personal representative of the estate two years from the date of death to file — not two years from the date of the injury. Ala. Code § 6-5-410 and § 6-2-38(a). When someone is injured in March and passes away in September, the wrongful death clock starts in September.
Alabama’s wrongful death statute is unusual in another way. Courts here have long treated the two-year period as built into the right to sue itself, rather than as an ordinary limitations period. In practical terms, that means the tolling arguments that sometimes rescue a late personal injury case generally do not rescue a late wrongful death case. This is one of the least forgiving deadlines in Alabama law.
Your own insurance company: a longer clock, with a catch
If the at-fault driver had no insurance or not enough of it, your claim for uninsured/underinsured motorist (UM/UIM) benefits runs against your own carrier. Because that claim arises from your insurance policy, it’s treated as a contract claim with a six-year deadline under Ala. Code § 6-2-34. The Alabama Supreme Court has confirmed that a direct UM/UIM claim accrues on the date of the accident.
Two important caveats. Six years is the outside limit on the UM/UIM claim only — your two-year clock against the at-fault driver is still ticking, and letting it expire can create real problems for the rest of your case. And your policy itself may contain a shorter contractual deadline or a notice requirement that a court will enforce. Alabama courts have upheld policy language shortening the time to sue. Never assume you have six years because you read it somewhere.
Suing a city, a county, or the government: months, not years
This is the deadline that ends the most cases.
If a city or town vehicle causes your wreck, or you’re hurt on municipal property, Ala. Code § 11-47-23 requires that a claim for damages be presented within six months. Section 11-47-192 spells out the sworn statement you have to file with the city clerk describing how, when, and where you were hurt and what you’re claiming. Miss the six-month window and the claim is barred — even though the underlying two-year statute hasn’t come close to running.
Claims against an Alabama county generally require an itemized claim presented within twelve months under Ala. Code § 11-12-8.
And if a federal employee was involved — a postal truck, a government vehicle, a federal facility — the Federal Tort Claims Act requires an administrative claim with the responsible agency within two years, before any lawsuit can be filed.
If a government vehicle or property had anything to do with your injury, treat the deadline as six months and work backward from there.
Workplace injuries: two clocks, not one
An on-the-job injury in Alabama usually involves two separate tracks with two separate deadlines, and workers routinely protect one while losing the other.
Track one: the workers’ compensation claim
Notice to your employer comes first. Ala. Code § 25-5-78 calls for written notice within five days of the accident. Actual notice to a supervisor can satisfy the requirement, but if no notice is given within 90 days, the claim is barred. This is the single most common way a legitimate work injury claim dies — a worker tells a coworker instead of a supervisor, tries to work through the pain, and comes forward four months later.
Then the filing deadline. Under Ala. Code § 25-5-80, a workers’ compensation claim must be brought within two years of the accident, or two years from the date of the last payment of compensation — whichever is later. Note that payment of medical bills is not “compensation” for this purpose. A worker whose medical treatment is being covered can still watch the two-year clock expire.
For occupational diseases and cumulative trauma — hearing loss, respiratory conditions, repetitive motion injuries — the clock generally runs from the date of last exposure rather than any single accident date.
For death claims, the period runs two years from the date of death, but no claim may be filed if the death occurs more than three years after the accident.
Track two: the third-party claim
Workers’ compensation is a no-fault system, which means it doesn’t pay for pain and suffering and it doesn’t require proving anyone did anything wrong. But it also isn’t always the only recovery available.
If someone other than your employer contributed to your injury — a negligent driver who hit you while you were making a delivery, a subcontractor on the jobsite, a manufacturer whose equipment failed, a property owner who let a hazard sit — you may have a separate personal injury claim against that party, subject to the two-year deadline under § 6-2-38(l). Ala. Code § 25-5-11 also preserves limited claims against co-employees for willful conduct.
These third-party claims are frequently where the meaningful compensation is, and they are frequently the ones nobody investigates until it’s too late. The comp adjuster has no obligation to tell you about them.
Offshore, longshore, and maritime workers: different law, different clocks
Mobile is a working port. Between the shipyards, the docks, the offshore service vessels, and the Gulf platforms, a lot of injuries around here never touch Alabama workers’ compensation law at all. Which federal law applies to you depends on your job and where you were hurt — and the deadlines vary by a factor of three.
Jones Act seamen: three years
If you’re a master or member of the crew of a vessel in navigation — a deckhand, an engineer, a captain, a crew member on a supply boat, tug, jack-up rig, or drillship — you’re likely a seaman covered by the Jones Act, and you can sue your employer for negligence. The deadline is three years from the date of injury under 46 U.S.C. § 30106.
The related general maritime claims usually travel with it:
Unseaworthiness claims against the vessel owner: generally three years.
Maintenance and cure — your right to daily living expenses and medical care until maximum medical improvement, owed regardless of fault: courts generally apply the same three-year benchmark.
Three years sounds comfortable. It isn’t. Vessels get sold, repaired, and repainted. Crews rotate out and scatter across the Gulf. Maintenance logs and rig floor video get overwritten. And the accident report your employer asks you to sign in the first 48 hours will follow the case to trial.
Longshore and harbor workers: 30 days and one year
If you load or unload vessels, build or repair or break ships, or work on the docks and terminals, you’re likely covered by the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act instead — a federal no-fault benefits system, not a negligence lawsuit.
The LHWCA deadlines are the shortest in this entire article:
Written notice of injury to your employer within 30 days (33 U.S.C. § 912).
A claim filed with the Department of Labor within one year of the injury or the date of last payment of compensation (33 U.S.C. § 913).
For occupational disease, two years from when you became aware of the condition and its connection to your work.
Longshore workers also often have a separate claim worth far more than the benefits themselves: a Section 905(b) negligence action against a vessel owner whose fault caused the injury, which carries the three-year maritime deadline. Settling a longshore benefits claim without evaluating a 905(b) claim is a costly mistake.
Offshore platform workers: OCSLA
Workers on fixed platforms on the Outer Continental Shelf are generally not seamen, because a fixed platform is not a vessel. The Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (43 U.S.C. § 1331 et seq.) routes their benefits claims through the LHWCA — meaning those short 30-day and one-year deadlines apply — while adopting the law of the adjacent state as surrogate federal law where federal law is silent.
Whether you were standing on a jack-up rig, a semi-submersible, a fixed production platform, or a crew boat at the moment you were hurt can change your deadline from one year to three, change who you can sue, and change what you can recover. That classification is contested constantly, and employers and their insurers have every incentive to classify you into the cheaper category.
Death offshore
The Death on the High Seas Act applies to deaths occurring more than three nautical miles from shore and carries a three-year deadline. Which death statute applies — DOHSA, the Jones Act, general maritime law, or Alabama’s wrongful death statute — depends on where the death occurred and the worker’s status, and the answer changes both the deadline and the damages available.
Quick reference
| Type of claim | Deadline | Authority |
|---|---|---|
| Car, truck, or motorcycle wreck injury | 2 years from injury | Ala. Code § 6-2-38(l) |
| Wrongful death (Alabama) | 2 years from death | Ala. Code § 6-5-410 |
| UM/UIM claim vs. your own insurer | 6 years from accident (policy terms may shorten) | Ala. Code § 6-2-34 |
| Claim against a city or town | 6 months — sworn notice to clerk | Ala. Code §§ 11-47-23, 11-47-192 |
| Claim against a county | 12 months — itemized claim | Ala. Code § 11-12-8 |
| Claim involving a federal employee | 2 years — administrative claim | 28 U.S.C. § 2401(b) |
| Workers’ comp — notice to employer | 5 days written; absolute bar at 90 days | Ala. Code § 25-5-78 |
| Workers’ comp — filing the claim | 2 years from accident or last compensation paid | Ala. Code § 25-5-80 |
| Occupational disease / cumulative trauma | 2 years from last exposure | Ala. Code § 25-5-117 |
| Third-party claim from a work injury | 2 years | Ala. Code § 6-2-38(l) |
| Jones Act (seaman) | 3 years | 46 U.S.C. § 30106 |
| Unseaworthiness / general maritime tort | 3 years | 46 U.S.C. § 30106 |
| LHWCA — notice to employer | 30 days | 33 U.S.C. § 912 |
| LHWCA — filing the claim | 1 year | 33 U.S.C. § 913 |
| LHWCA § 905(b) vessel negligence | 3 years | General maritime law |
| Death on the High Seas Act | 3 years | 46 U.S.C. § 30302 |
This chart is a general guide, not legal advice. Exceptions, tolling rules, and contract provisions can change any of these dates.
When the clock pauses — and when it doesn’t
Alabama recognizes a limited set of exceptions. Under Ala. Code § 6-2-8, someone who is under 19 (Alabama’s age of majority) or legally incapacitated when injured may have the limitations period suspended until the disability ends. Fraudulent concealment and certain discovery rules can matter in specific types of cases. Medical malpractice claims operate under their own framework with a limited discovery extension and an absolute outer deadline.
But these exceptions are narrower than most people assume, they don’t apply across the board, and Alabama’s wrongful death deadline in particular resists them. Building a case around the hope that an exception applies is a poor plan.
What actually matters in the first 30 days
The filing deadline is the outer edge. The case is usually won or lost long before it.
Report it in writing, immediately. Tell a supervisor, not a coworker, and keep a copy of what you submitted.
Get evaluated. Gaps in treatment become the centerpiece of the defense.
Preserve what you can. Photographs, the name of every witness, the equipment involved, the vehicle before it’s repaired or totaled.
Be careful with recorded statements. You are not required to give the other driver’s insurer a recorded statement, and those statements are taken for a reason.
Get the deadline analysis done early. Which clock applies to you is a legal question with real consequences, and it should be answered in week one — not month twenty-three.
Talk to us before the calendar decides for you
Since 1987, Boteler Richardson Wolfe has represented injured people and their families across Mobile, Baldwin County, and the Alabama Gulf Coast — in car and truck crash cases, on-the-job injuries, and maritime and offshore claims. Consultations are free, and we handle injury cases on a contingency basis: no fee unless we recover for you.
If you were hurt in a wreck or on the job — onshore, on the docks, or offshore — call (251) 433-7766 or contact us online. Even if you aren’t sure you want to pursue a claim, a short conversation now costs nothing and can keep the option open.
Related reading: Motor Vehicle Crash Claims · On the Job Injuries · Maritime Injury Law · Wrongful Death Claims
Frequently asked questions
How long do I have to file a car accident lawsuit in Alabama? Generally two years from the date of the crash, under Ala. Code § 6-2-38(l). Shorter deadlines apply if a city, county, or government entity was involved.
Does talking to the insurance company extend my deadline? No. Only filing a lawsuit in court stops the statute of limitations. Ongoing settlement negotiations have no effect on the deadline.
What is the deadline for a workers’ compensation claim in Alabama? You must notify your employer promptly — written notice within five days, and no later than 90 days, or the claim is barred. The claim itself must be brought within two years of the accident or two years from the last payment of compensation.
How long does a seaman have to file a Jones Act claim? Three years from the date of injury, under 46 U.S.C. § 30106. Unseaworthiness and maintenance and cure claims generally follow the same three-year period.
What is the deadline for a longshore worker’s claim? Written notice to the employer within 30 days and a claim filed with the Department of Labor within one year — the shortest deadlines discussed here. A related vessel negligence claim under Section 905(b) carries a three-year deadline.
Can I file a workers’ comp claim and a lawsuit for the same injury? Sometimes. Workers’ compensation is generally your exclusive remedy against your employer, but if a third party contributed to your injury — another driver, a subcontractor, an equipment manufacturer — you may have a separate two-year claim against that party.
What happens if I miss the deadline? The claim is almost always barred permanently, regardless of its merits. A narrow set of exceptions exists for minors and incapacitated claimants, but they are limited and shouldn’t be relied on.
This article is provided for general information only and is not legal advice. Deadlines depend on the specific facts of your case, and the law changes. No attorney-client relationship is created by reading this page. If you have been injured, consult a licensed attorney promptly.
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