A Family Member Hurt at Your Workplace in Alabama: Who Is Responsible and When to Act

Attorney Answer

Your daughter was a visitor, not an employee, so workers' compensation does not stand in her way. An injury like hers can support an ordinary claim against the business for the condition of its premises, and your employer's own statement about the bracket matters. Her deadline depends on her age: Alabama's age of majority is 19, and if she is under 19, the two years for her own claim do not start until she turns 19.

Workers' compensation is about employees. Alabama's workers' compensation law replaces lawsuits against an employer for an employee's own work injury. Ala. Code § 25-5-53 begins:

The rights and remedies granted in this chapter to an employee shall exclude all other rights and remedies of the employee, his or her personal representative, parent, dependent, or next of kin, at common law, by statute, or otherwise on account of injury, loss of services, or death.

That bar is about the injury of the employee. Your daughter was not the employee, so her injury falls outside it, and a claim on her behalf does not go through workers' comp.

The business's responsibility. A business owes visitors care about the condition of its premises. A wall-mounted bracket left open with no warning, which the business says it knew was a problem and had tried to fix, is the kind of condition a claim looks at. Whether it amounts to a claim depends on what the business knew, for how long, and what it did. The statement you heard is evidence on exactly that point, so write it down now.

Alabama's harshest rule. Alabama is a contributory negligence state: a person whose own negligence helped cause the injury recovers nothing at all. It is a defense the business must plead and prove, and simple heedlessness does not establish it as a matter of law. If your daughter is young, how that rule applies to a child is itself a question Alabama treats specially, which is one reason a lawyer will ask her age first.

The deadline depends on her age. The usual period is two years under Ala. Code § 6-2-38(l). Alabama's age of majority is 19. Ala. Code § 26-1-1(a):

(a) Any person in this state, at the arrival at the age of 19 years, shall be relieved of his or her disabilities of minority and thereafter shall have the same legal rights and abilities as persons over 21 years of age.

For a person under 19 when hurt, Ala. Code § 6-2-8(a) moves the clock:

(a) If anyone entitled to commence any of the actions enumerated in this chapter, to make an entry on land or enter a defense founded on the title to real property is, at the time the right accrues, below the age of 19 years, or insane, he or she shall have three years, or the period allowed by law for the commencement of an action if it be less than three years, after the termination of the disability to commence an action, make entry, or defend.

No disability shall extend the period of limitations so as to allow an action to be commenced, entry made, or defense made after the lapse of 20 years from the time the claim or right accrued.

Because two years is less than three, a person hurt before turning 19 has two years after their 19th birthday to bring their own claim, never more than 20 years from the injury. If your daughter was 19 or older, she has two years from the day she was hurt. Any claim of your own, for example for medical bills you paid, may run on a different clock. Ask a lawyer about that one early.

What you can do

1. Keep every medical record and bill for the staples and any follow-up care.

2. Write down what your employer said about the bracket, when it was said and who said it.

3. Photograph the bracket and the area around it, if you can do so without disrupting work.

4. Ask your employer, in writing, for the name of its liability insurer for injuries to visitors.

5. Even if you are handling this yourself, you would be best served by a brief phone consultation with a local Alabama attorney before you act. Most lawyers offer a short initial call at no cost, and a few minutes on your specific facts — and on how your court actually handles this — is worth more than any general guidance, including this page.

⏱ Time limits apply. Two years from the injury under Ala. Code § 6-2-38(l): “All actions for any injury to the person or rights of another not arising from contract and not specifically enumerated in this section must be brought within two years.” If your daughter was under 19, the period for her own claim runs from her 19th birthday under Ala. Code § 6-2-8(a). A parent's own claim may not wait, so don't rely on her extension for yours.