Police report blames them, the insurer says 50/50

Attorney Answer

A fifty-fifty assessment is not a halved recovery in Alabama. If it stands, it ends the claim.

Alabama is one of a handful of states that still applies contributory negligence, and it changes everything about a claim here. If the person claiming is found to have been negligent themselves, and that negligence helped cause the injury, they recover nothing — not a reduced amount, nothing. There is no apportionment and no percentage.

Two things soften that, and both matter.

It is a defense the other side has to prove. Contributory negligence is an affirmative defense, so the burden is on the defendant to establish it rather than on the claimant to disprove it. And it is not established simply by showing carelessness: the defendant generally has to show the claimant knew of the danger, appreciated it, and failed to take reasonable care anyway. Alabama's courts have said that simple heedlessness is not enough, and that it is normally a question for a jury rather than something decided as a matter of law.

And it is no defense at all to wanton conduct. Where the other party's behavior goes beyond ordinary negligence to wantonness, contributory negligence does not bar the claim. That makes how the other driver's conduct is characterized one of the most consequential questions in an Alabama case.

So an insurer saying “fifty-fifty” is not proposing to split the loss. In Alabama it is asserting the defense that defeats the claim outright, and it should be treated as that rather than as an opening position in a negotiation.

The police report helps but does not decide it. An officer's conclusion about fault is not binding on the civil question, and insurers routinely disagree with one. It is evidence, and a good piece of it, but the insurer is entitled to reach its own view and you are entitled to contest that view with the rest of the evidence.

What matters now is what the insurer says you did wrong. Contributory negligence has to rest on something specific, and it has to be more than a bare assertion that you could have avoided the collision.

What you can do

1. Ask the insurer in writing to state exactly what conduct of yours it relies on. 2. Get the full crash report, including any diagram and witness details. 3. Photograph the vehicles and the location if you have not already, and look for nearby camera footage. 4. Do not give a recorded statement before you understand what is being alleged against you. 5. Speak to an Alabama attorney — a disputed fault assessment is worth more attention here than in most states.

⏱ Time limits apply. Ala. Code § 6-2-38(l) gives two years: “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.” Evidence goes sooner — footage is overwritten and memories fade — so the practical deadline is usually much earlier than the legal one.

An Alabama attorney can tell you quickly how the facts here line up, and most will look at a matter like this at no cost.