My Family Member Was Killed in an Alabama Car Wreck. Can I File a Wrongful Death Claim?

My Family Member Was Killed in an Alabama Car Wreck. Can I File a Wrongful Death Claim?

Few events are more devastating than losing a family member unexpectedly in a car wreck.

When the wreck was caused by another driver’s negligence or wrongful conduct, surviving family members understandably have questions:

Who can file a wrongful death claim?

What damages can be recovered?

Can we recover the income our family member would have earned?

What happens if the other driver has little or no insurance?

Alabama’s answers to those questions are unusual.  Alabama wrongful-death law differs significantly from the law of most states. A wrongful-death case is not simply a personal-injury case with larger damages. Alabama does not attempt to place a monetary value on the deceased person’s life or compensate the family through the wrongful-death claim for everything they have lost.  Instead, Alabama treats wrongful-death damages as punitive. The purpose is to punish wrongful conduct that caused a death, preserve human life, and deter similar conduct.

That distinction affects almost every aspect of an Alabama wrongful-death claim.

What Is an Alabama Wrongful Death Claim?

Alabama Code § 6-5-410 provides a cause of action when a person’s death is caused by the wrongful act, omission, or negligence of another person or corporation, provided the deceased person could have brought an action for that conduct if it had not caused death.

In a car wreck case, that may include a death caused by conduct such as:

• failing to yield;
• running a red light or stop sign;
• crossing the center line;
• following too closely;
• an unsafe lane change;
• negligent operation of a commercial vehicle;
• distracted driving;
• excessive speed; or
• other negligent or wrongful driving.

The key is not simply that someone died in a collision.  There must be a legal basis for holding another person or entity responsible for causing the death.

Can the Family File the Wrongful Death Lawsuit?

This is one of the most important differences between Alabama law and what many people naturally assume.  For an adult decedent, the wrongful-death action under § 6-5-410 is brought by the decedent’s personal representative—not directly by the spouse, children, parents, or other family members simply because they are heirs.

For purposes of § 6-5-410, the Alabama Supreme Court has explained that the personal representative is the properly appointed executor or administrator.  In Waters v. Hipp, the Court held that someone who files a wrongful-death action without having been appointed executor or administrator does not qualify as the personal representative.

This is not merely a technical pleading problem.

Alabama appellate decisions have repeatedly described a wrongful-death action filed by someone who lacks the required representative status as a nullity. That can create catastrophic consequences if the problem is not discovered until after the time for bringing the action has expired.

So, one of the first questions after a fatal Alabama car wreck should be: Who is—or who should become—the personal representative with legal authority to pursue the claim?

What If the Person Killed Was a Minor Child?

The wrongful death of a minor involves a separate Alabama statute, Ala. Code § 6-5-391, with different rules concerning who has the right to commence the action.

That situation should be evaluated separately rather than assuming the adult wrongful-death rules apply in exactly the same manner. Alabama cases recognize that § 6-5-391 can give a parent the right to bring an action for the wrongful death of a minor under circumstances specified by the statute.

How Long Do I Have to File an Alabama Wrongful Death Claim?

Alabama Code § 6-5-410(d) provides that an action under that section must be commenced within two years after the person’s death, but there is an important legal distinction here.

The Alabama Supreme Court has held that this two-year period is part of the substantive wrongful-death cause of action, rather than merely an ordinary statute of limitations. Once the statutory period expires, the wrongful-death remedy itself expires. That distinction can make mistakes about the identity or appointment of the personal representative particularly dangerous.

For example, Alabama cases have held that filing a wrongful-death lawsuit before the plaintiff has the legal status required by § 6-5-410 may result in a null action to which a later appointment cannot simply relate back after the two-year period has expired.

And two years should never be treated as permission to wait two years before investigating a fatal wreck.  Vehicles are repaired or destroyed. Electronic data can disappear. Video may be overwritten. Witnesses move or forget. Commercial defendants may possess records that need to be preserved quickly.

How Are Alabama Wrongful Death Damages Different From Other States?

This is probably the most important concept in the entire article.  In many states, wrongful-death damages attempt to compensate surviving family members for their financial and personal losses.

Alabama takes a fundamentally different approach.

The Alabama Supreme Court has repeatedly held that damages recovered under Alabama’s wrongful-death statute are punitive rather than compensatory. Their purpose is to punish the defendant for the wrongful conduct that caused the death and deter similar conduct in the future.  That means an Alabama wrongful-death jury is not supposed to determine: “What was this person’s life worth in dollars?”

In Killough v. Jahandarfard, the Alabama Supreme Court emphasized that the jury’s focus is on the defendant’s conduct rather than attempting to place a monetary value on the victim’s life.

That is a profound difference from an ordinary personal-injury case.

Can the Family Recover the Deceased Person’s Lost Future Wages?

Not as compensatory damages in the § 6-5-410 wrongful-death claim itself.

Suppose a 40-year-old parent earning $75,000 per year is killed in a car wreck.  It may seem logical to calculate what that person would probably have earned over the remainder of his or her working life and award that amount to the family, but that is not how Alabama’s wrongful-death damages are measured.

The wrongful-death award is not intended to compensate the survivors for the decedent’s lost future earnings or to calculate the economic value of the person’s remaining life expectancy. Alabama’s punitive-only approach focuses instead upon the wrongfulness of the defendant’s conduct and the preservation of human life.  That is one reason Alabama wrongful-death law can seem counterintuitive to families encountering it for the first time.

Can We Recover for Our Grief and Loss of Companionship?

Again, not as compensatory damages under Alabama’s wrongful-death statute.

The death of a spouse, parent, or child may cause immeasurable grief and permanently change a family, but § 6-5-410 does not calculate wrongful-death damages by assigning monetary compensation for the family’s grief, sorrow, emotional distress, or loss of companionship.

The focus remains on the defendant’s wrongful conduct rather than the monetary value of the loss suffered by individual family members.

This does not mean Alabama law considers those losses unimportant.

The underlying philosophy is essentially the opposite: Alabama’s wrongful-death doctrine is based on the premise that human life cannot appropriately be reduced to a compensatory price tag. The civil remedy instead uses punitive damages to punish and deter conduct that destroys human life.

What About Medical Bills and Funeral Expenses?

This is where we need to be particularly careful about distinguishing a wrongful-death claim from other potential claims.

Medical bills incurred before death and funeral expenses are not simply added to an Alabama § 6-5-410 wrongful-death verdict as compensatory damages.  The wrongful-death action itself remains punitive, but that does not mean expenses or claims arising before death should simply be ignored. Depending upon the circumstances, there may be separate issues involving surviving claims, insurance, contractual rights, liens, or other sources of payment.

One particularly important question is whether the deceased person had already filed a personal-injury action before death.

That brings us to Alabama’s survival statute.

What If My Family Member Lived for a Period After the Wreck Before Dying?

This can create one of the more complicated issues in Alabama wrongful-death law.  Suppose a person is seriously injured in a wreck, remains hospitalized for several months, and then dies because of those injuries.

During that period, the person may have experienced substantial pain, incurred medical expenses, and lost income.

Whether a personal-injury claim for those losses survives after death can depend upon whether an action had already been filed.  Alabama Code § 6-5-462 provides, among other things, that personal claims upon which an action has been filed generally survive in favor of the personal representative, except claims involving injury to reputation.

The Alabama Supreme Court addressed this directly in King v. National Spa & Pool Institute, Inc.  In this case, the injured plaintiff had filed a personal-injury action before he died from complications of his injuries. The Court held that the pending personal-injury action survived his death. His personal representative could pursue that existing personal-injury claim and add a wrongful-death claim arising from the death.

That distinction matters because the two claims seek fundamentally different damages.

The surviving personal-injury action may involve compensatory damages attributable to the injury before death.  The wrongful-death action involves Alabama’s punitive wrongful-death damages.

What If My Family Member Had Not Filed a Personal Injury Lawsuit Before Dying?

That can produce a very different result.  Under Alabama’s survival statute, the general rule is that an unfiled tort claim does not survive in favor of the injured person’s personal representative after the injured person dies.  The Alabama Supreme Court reiterated that rule in Malcolm v. King.

This can create a result that surprises families.  Imagine two people suffer identical catastrophic injuries and remain hospitalized for three months before dying from those injuries.

Person A filed a personal-injury lawsuit during those three months.

Person B did not.

Under Alabama’s survival statute and King v. National Spa, the pending personal-injury action of Person A may survive, allowing the personal representative to continue that claim in addition to pursuing wrongful death.  Person B’s previously unfiled personal tort claim generally does not survive merely because a personal representative is later appointed.

That is another reason the interaction between personal injury, survival, and wrongful death should be evaluated carefully when someone suffers catastrophic injuries in a wreck.

Do I Have to Prove Wantonness to Recover Wrongful Death Damages?

No.  This is a particularly important Alabama rule.

In an ordinary personal-injury case, punitive damages generally require the heightened conduct and proof described in Ala. Code § 6-11-20, but § 6-11-20 expressly excepts wrongful-death actions brought under §§ 6-5-391 and 6-5-410 from its ordinary punitive-damages requirements.

Alabama wrongful-death damages can therefore be recovered in a case based upon simple negligence when that negligence proximately caused the death.

So, if a driver negligently runs a red light and kills another motorist, the personal representative does not necessarily have to transform the case into a wantonness claim before Alabama’s wrongful-death remedy becomes available.

Negligence can support the action.

Then Why Does Wantonness Matter in a Fatal Car Wreck?

Because the nature and seriousness of the defendant’s conduct still matter.

Alabama wrongful-death damages are punitive, and the amount assessed is related to the culpability of the defendant’s conduct and the purposes of punishment and deterrence.   There can therefore be an important factual difference between a driver who makes a momentary negligent mistake and a driver whose conduct demonstrates the much greater culpability associated with wantonness.

Evidence might involve circumstances such as extreme driving behavior, conscious disregard of a known danger, or other facts supporting a wantonness theory, but the critical doctrinal point is:

Wantonness may affect the theory and culpability of the defendant’s conduct, but Alabama does not require proof of wantonness merely to maintain every wrongful-death action arising from a negligently caused fatal wreck.

What If My Family Member Was Partly at Fault for the Wreck?

This can be critical because Alabama remains a contributory-negligence state.

In a wrongful-death action based upon ordinary negligence, evidence that the decedent’s own negligence proximately contributed to causing the collision can provide a complete defense to the negligence claim.  A recent Alabama Supreme Court automobile wrongful-death decision, Deese v. Brown, illustrates that contributory-negligence principles continue to matter in fatal-collision litigation.

The fact that a collision was fatal does not eliminate disputes over who caused it.

Recommended Reading: The Insurance Company Says the Car Wreck Was Partly My Fault. Can I Still Recover in Alabama?

What If Several People or Companies Caused the Fatal Wreck?

A fatal collision may involve more than one legally responsible person or company, and Alabama follows a distinctive rule when multiple defendants are liable for the same wrongful death.

The Alabama Supreme Court has long held that wrongful-death damages are not apportioned among joint tortfeasors according to each defendant’s individual percentage or degree of culpability. Instead, the jury returns a single verdict fixing the wrongful-death damages against the defendants found liable. Bell v. Riley Bus Lines, 257 Ala. 120, 57 So. 2d 612 (1952); Tatum v. Schering Corp., 523 So. 2d 1042 (Ala. 1988); Campbell v. Williams, 638 So. 2d 804 (Ala. 1994). In Campbell, the Court summarized the rule by explaining that the jury “must return a single verdict that is based, in part, on the total culpability of all defendants.” The Alabama Supreme Court was still expressly recognizing the nonapportionment rule in 2025.

Who Receives the Money From an Alabama Wrongful Death Case?

Another unusual feature of Alabama law is what happens to the recovery.  Alabama Code Section 6-5-410(c) expressly provides that wrongful-death damages are not subject to payment of the debts or liabilities of the decedent. Instead, they are distributed according to Alabama’s statute of distributions.

What Does It Mean That Wrongful Death Proceeds Are Distributed According to Alabama’s “Statute of Distributions”?

Alabama Code § 6-5-410(c) says something unusual about money recovered in an Alabama wrongful-death case:

“The damages recovered are not subject to the payment of the debts or liabilities of the testator or intestate, but must be distributed according to the statute of distributions.”

What does that mean?

In plain English, the wrongful-death recovery does not pass according to the deceased person’s will. It passes to the people Alabama law identifies as the deceased person’s heirs when a person dies without a will.

The Alabama Supreme Court has described wrongful-death proceeds as passing directly to the heirs according to Alabama’s statutory scheme of intestate succession. The personal representative brings and controls the wrongful-death action, but the recovery is not an ordinary asset of the deceased person’s estate. Lowe v. Fulford, 442 So. 2d 29 (Ala. 1983); Steele v. Steele, 623 So. 2d 1140 (Ala. 1993).

The relevant distribution rules are primarily found in Ala. Code §§ 43-8-41 and 43-8-42. Those statutes determine the shares passing to a surviving spouse, children and other descendants, parents, and, if necessary, more remote relatives.

For example, if there is no surviving spouse, the descendants generally come first. If there are no surviving descendants, the parents are next. When there is a surviving spouse, the calculation depends upon whether the deceased person also left children or other descendants, whether those descendants were also descendants of the surviving spouse, and whether the deceased person’s parents are living.

That can produce a result that surprises families: A person’s will does not control the distribution of an Alabama wrongful-death recovery.

In Steele v. Steele, for example, the Alabama Supreme Court explained that wrongful-death damages pass as though the deceased person had died without a will.

What Happens to the Deceased Person’s Medical Bills?

This is another important consequence of Alabama’s unusual wrongful-death law.  The wrongful-death recovery itself is not available to pay the deceased person’s medical debts.

Section 6-5-410(c) expressly says that wrongful-death damages are not subject to the deceased person’s “debts or liabilities.”

That makes sense when considered alongside Alabama’s punitive approach to wrongful death. Medical expenses are compensatory damages. Alabama’s wrongful-death recovery is punitive, not compensatory.

So, suppose someone incurs $250,000 in hospital bills after a catastrophic car wreck and later dies from the injuries. The personal representative subsequently recovers $1 million in a § 6-5-410 wrongful-death action.  The hospital bills are not simply deducted from that $1 million before the balance is divided among the heirs.

The wrongful-death proceeds are statutorily protected from the deceased person’s debts and liabilities and are distributed to the statutory heirs. The medical bills may still present separate estate, insurance, lien, or survival-claim issues depending upon the facts, but they are not paid out of the § 6-5-410 wrongful-death recovery merely because they resulted from the fatal injury.

That distinction becomes particularly important if the deceased person filed a personal-injury action before death. As we discussed above, a properly filed personal-injury action may survive under § 6-5-462, and that surviving compensatory claim is legally different from the punitive wrongful-death claim. The treatment of medical expenses and liens can therefore differ depending upon which recovery is involved.

What About Funeral Expenses?

The same basic distinction applies.

Funeral expenses are not compensatory damages recoverable in the Alabama wrongful-death action, and the wrongful-death proceeds are not estate funds available to pay the funeral bill.

Harrell is unusually direct on this point. The court explained that Alabama’s wrongful-death statute does not permit the administrator to use wrongful-death damages to pay the deceased person’s last-illness or funeral expenses.

Funeral expenses can be obligations of the estate. The Alabama Supreme Court has recognized funeral expenses as debts chargeable against the estate and has treated a person entitled to reimbursement for funeral expenses as a creditor of the estate. Douglas v. King, 889 So. 2d 534 (Ala. 2004).

But that is precisely why the distinction matters: The estate and the wrongful-death recovery are not the same pot of money.

Ordinary estate assets may be subject to debts and expenses of administration. Alabama wrongful-death proceeds are governed by § 6-5-410(c), which expressly removes those proceeds from the payment of the decedent’s debts and liabilities.

Why Does Alabama Do It This Way?

It goes back to the unusual purpose of Alabama’s wrongful-death statute.  Alabama does not treat the recovery as compensation belonging to the deceased person’s estate. The personal representative is instead acting as a statutory representative to pursue Alabama’s policy of punishing conduct that causes death and deterring similar conduct.

The Alabama Supreme Court has therefore described the personal representative essentially as the statutory vehicle through which the wrongful-death claim is pursued and the recovery passed to the people designated by Alabama’s distribution laws. The distinction is significant enough that in Rodgers v. McElroy, 153 So. 3d 814 (Ala. 2013), the Alabama Supreme Court held that a personal representative could not take statutory personal-representative compensation from the wrongful-death proceeds as though those proceeds belonged to the estate. The Court emphasized that Alabama law mandates payment of wrongful-death proceeds to the deceased person’s heirs and that § 6-5-410 contains no allowance for paying ordinary estate-administration expenses from those proceeds.

A useful way to think about it is: The personal representative brings the wrongful-death case, but the personal representative does not recover the money for the estate. The recovery is ultimately for the statutory heirs identified by Alabama’s intestate-succession laws.

A will does not necessarily determine who receives Alabama wrongful-death proceeds.

The beneficiaries are determined under the applicable statute of distributions.

Who ultimately receives the money can therefore depend upon the decedent’s family structure—for example, whether there is a surviving spouse, children, parents, or other statutory heirs.

What If the Driver Who Caused the Death Has Only Minimum Insurance?

Then insurance coverage can become one of the most important practical issues in the case.

A wrongful-death claim may involve substantial legal exposure while the negligent driver has relatively little liability insurance and few personal assets.  That means the investigation should not stop after obtaining the at-fault driver’s declarations page.  Questions may include:

Is there another liability policy?

Was the driver working at the time?

Did an employer or business own the vehicle?

Was another person or entity legally responsible?

Does a commercial policy apply?

Does the deceased person’s household have uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage?

Available insurance does not determine the legal significance of the death, but it can dramatically affect the amount that can actually be recovered.

Can UM or UIM Coverage Apply to an Alabama Wrongful Death Claim?

Potentially, yes.

This is another area where Alabama’s unique punitive wrongful-death system creates an interesting insurance issue.  The Alabama Supreme Court held in Omni Insurance Co. v. Foreman that Alabama’s uninsured/underinsured motorist statute did not limit UM/UIM recovery to compensatory damages. The Court specifically recognized Alabama’s rule that the damages recoverable in a wrongful-death action are punitive.  So, when a family member is killed by an uninsured or underinsured driver, potential UM/UIM coverage should be investigated rather than assuming that only the at-fault driver’s liability limits matter.

Recommended Reading: What Is Uninsured and Underinsured Motorist Coverage in Alabama?

Recommended Reading: What If the Driver Who Hit Me Doesn’t Have Enough Insurance to Pay My Damages?

Does a Wrongful Death Recovery Go Through Probate Like Other Estate Property?

Not in the ordinary sense.

The personal representative is the person authorized to bring the § 6-5-410 action, but Alabama Supreme Court authority makes clear that wrongful-death proceeds are not ordinary assets of the decedent’s estate. They are distributed according to the statute of distributions rather than under the decedent’s will and are protected by § 6-5-410(c) from the decedent’s debts and liabilities.

That means it is important to separate two concepts: Administration of the estate and distribution of the wrongful-death recovery.  They are related because the personal representative brings the action, but they are not the same thing.

Is a Criminal Case Required Before I Can Bring a Wrongful Death Claim?

No.

Section 6-5-410 expressly provides that a wrongful-death action may be maintained regardless of whether there has been a prosecution, conviction, or acquittal of the defendant for the wrongful act, omission, or negligence.   The civil wrongful-death claim and any criminal prosecution are separate proceedings.

A driver therefore does not have to be criminally convicted—or even criminally charged—for a personal representative to pursue a civil wrongful-death claim when the evidence supports civil liability.

How Is an Alabama Wrongful Death Claim Different From a Regular Car Wreck Claim?

The difference is fundamental.  In an ordinary personal-injury claim, we may investigate:

medical expenses;

future medical treatment;

lost wages;

loss of earning capacity;

physical pain;

mental anguish;

permanent impairment;

and other compensatory losses.

Recommended Reading: What Damages Can I Recover After a Car Wreck in Alabama?

An Alabama wrongful-death claim asks a different damages question.

The jury does not add the decedent’s projected lifetime earnings to the family’s grief, medical expenses, and loss of companionship and call that the value of the case.  Instead, Alabama’s wrongful-death remedy focuses on the wrongfulness of the defendant’s conduct, punishment, deterrence, and the preservation of human life.

That is why trying to use an ordinary personal-injury “settlement calculator” to value an Alabama wrongful-death claim fundamentally misunderstands Alabama law.

What Should a Family Do After a Fatal Alabama Car Wreck?

The immediate aftermath of a fatal collision is obviously not a time when most families want to think about litigation, but several legal issues can become time-sensitive even while the family is grieving.

Someone may need to determine who should serve as the personal representative.

Evidence may need to be preserved.

Insurance coverage needs to be identified.

The vehicles may need to be inspected before they are repaired, sold, or destroyed.

Commercial records or electronic evidence may need to be preserved.

And because Alabama law gives the personal representative—not simply whichever family member acts first—the authority to bring an adult wrongful-death claim, the representative issue should be handled correctly from the beginning.

The Bottom Line

If your family member was killed because of another driver’s negligence or wrongful conduct, Alabama law may provide a wrongful-death claim, but Alabama wrongful-death law is unlike the law in most states.

For an adult decedent, the claim generally must be brought by the properly appointed personal representative.

The action under § 6-5-410 must be commenced within two years after death.

The damages are punitive rather than compensatory.

The jury does not place a dollar value on the deceased person’s life or calculate the family’s grief and lost financial support as wrongful-death compensatory damages.

The proceeds are distributed according to Alabama’s statute of distributions rather than simply becoming ordinary estate property.

And if the person survived the wreck for a period before dying, whether a personal-injury action was filed before death can become critically important under Alabama’s survival statute.

A fatal car wreck can also involve issues concerning contributory negligence, multiple defendants, commercial vehicles, liability insurance, UM/UIM coverage, and evidence that may disappear long before the two-year wrongful-death period expires.

At Powell & Denny, P.C., we represent individuals and families in serious Alabama injury matters. If a family member has unfortunately been killed in an Alabama car wreck — don’t hesitate to contact and speak with one of the experienced Alabama Car Wreck attorneys at Powell and Denny today for a free consultation. Appointments are available in person, or virtually via Zoom if more convenient.  Powell and Denny would appreciate the opportunity to help.  And remember, there is no fee unless you win.

Powell & Denny: We Work When You Can’t.