Two people hurt by a driver who ran a stop sign

Attorney Answer

A driver who runs a stop sign has failed the standard about as plainly as it can be failed, so liability is the least of your problems here. What needs attention is that the two of you have two separate claims, and that in Alabama the defense will still go looking for something you did.

Running a stop sign is close to the paradigm case of negligence: a driver who fails to stop where they are required to, and strikes a vehicle with the right of way, has not used the care a reasonable driver would use. If that is what happened and it can be shown, the difficult element of your claim is already largely answered.

You and your wife each have your own claim. That is worth saying plainly because people in one car tend to think of it as one matter. Your treatment, your lost earnings and the effect on your life are yours; hers are hers. They are valued separately, not divided out of a single amount. She was also a passenger, which puts her in the stronger position of the two — the conduct a defense would normally attack in a claimant simply is not available against someone who was not driving.

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 expect your own driving to be examined even though the other driver ran the sign. Your speed, your attention, whether the collision was avoidable, whether you could have seen them coming. This is not because the case against them is weak; it is because in Alabama the reward for finding any carelessness on your part is the whole claim rather than a percentage of it. That is the incentive the rule creates and it is worth understanding before you speak to anybody.

On the car, treat it as a separate track. A total loss is valued at what the vehicle was worth immediately before the collision, and it moves faster than an injury claim. Do not let the vehicle be resolved in a way that settles anything else — and read anything you are asked to sign for exactly what it releases.

What you can do

1. Get the crash report and check that both of you are recorded as injured occupants, and that the failure to stop is recorded. 2. Both of you should be seen by a doctor promptly and keep to the treatment plan. Unexplained gaps are the standard argument against an injury. 3. Identify any witness to the stop sign being run, and ask in writing for footage from any camera covering the junction. Most systems overwrite within days. 4. Photograph both vehicles and the junction, including the sightlines and the sign itself. 5. Keep your records separately from hers — bills, time off, expenses. 6. Settle the vehicle claim on its own terms and check what any release you sign actually covers before signing it. 7. Neither of you should give a recorded statement about your driving, or accept an offer, before taking advice. 8. Speak to an Alabama attorney. With two claimants and a total loss there is more to coordinate than it looks, and most will review it at no cost.

⏱ 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.