Birmingham Personal Injury Lawyer

Trusted a Birmingham Personal Injury Lawyer from Cross & Smith, LLC

The Birmingham personal injury attorneys at Cross & Smith have helped many victims injured by negligence. Our dedicated and experienced attorneys work to investigate all liable parties to help ensure you receive full compensation for your injury. Located in the historic Landmark Center, our Birmingham office is proud to serve personal injury victims in Alabama and beyond.

Injury from Preventable Accidents

Accidents happen every day in Birmingham and other cities across Alabama. Under personal injury law, preventable accidents caused by careless conduct result in liability. Unlike criminal law, intent to cause the harm is not required. Any person, entity, or combination of forces is capable of acting carelessly to injure another. This is because every party is under a legal duty to act with reasonable care. Failure to meet this standard makes breaching parties liable for any harm arising out of their negligence. Common accidents and injury involving negligence include:

• Car, truck accidents
• Medical malpractice
• Construction accidents
• Workers’ compensation
• Nursing home abuse and neglect
• Defective goods, product liability
• Dangerous conditions on property
• Permanent injury or wrongful death

Proving a Claim with the Help of Our Birmingham Personal Injury Lawyer

Personal injury law allows victims to recover compensation from parties that caused their injury. Proving liability requires showing the at-fault party breached a legal duty, causing the victim’s injury. In a car accident, for example, an intoxicated motorist breaches a legal duty to safely operate a vehicle. By choosing to get behind the wheel while impaired, the driver endangers the lives of others. Motorists similarly fail to act reasonably when they speed through traffic, swerve between lanes, or drive while distracted. When these reckless mistakes cause an accident, the negligent drivers are liable for any injuries or damage that result. A Birmingham personal injury lawyer will identify these wrongdoings and present them to the judge and jury.

Liability for Accidental Injuries

Although a monetary award can never make up for a victim’s loss, it is the closest form of relief the law allows and a Birmingham personal injury lawyer will fight for this form of justice. In personal injury cases involving accidents, medical malpractice, premises and product liability, damages may include:

• Medical expenses
• Lost income, earning impairment
• Physical pain and suffering
• Mental anguish and/or emotional distress
• Permanent injuries and disabilities
• Disfigurement
• Aggravation of pre-existing condition
• Injury aggravated by disease or other cause
• Punitive damages

Damages and Types of Claims Our Birmingham Accident Attorneys Will Handle

While most personal injury cases involve compensation for medical expenses, lost income, and non-economic damages for negligent conduct, punitive damages are recoverable if the at-fault party’s conduct was wanton, reckless, willful or intentional or if the at-fault party consciously or deliberately acted toward the injured person with oppression, fraud or malice. Punitive damages in Birmingham and throughout Alabama must be proven by clear and convincing evidence. As an experienced Birmingham personal injury lawyer can tell you, the purpose of punitive damages is to punish the defendant for wrongful conduct and to protect the public by deterring or discouraging the defendant and others from doing the same or similar wrongs in the future.

Compensatory or nominal damages must be awarded before punitive damages are allowed. For example, in product liability cases, courts may award punitive damages to deter future harmful behavior. This is common where manufacturers knew of the danger to consumers, but sacrificed consumer safety to cut costs or increase profit. If negligence resulted in a wrongful death, under Alabama law, the only damages recoverable are punitive damages. The purpose of punitive damages for wrongful death in Alabama is to preserve human life as well as to punish wrongful conduct and deter or discourage the same or similar wrongs in the future. A spouse is allowed to make a claim for loss of consortium if the injured party suffered physical injuries. Consortium is the spouse’s right to the love, company, fellowship, cooperation, assistance, society, affection, services and comfort of the injured party and the right to continuation of the normal marital relationship.

Experienced Birmingham Personal Injury Lawyer Dedicated to Your Case

If you were injured in an accident caused by negligence, the Birmingham accident attorneys of Cross & Smith can help. Our attorneys have prevailed in all types of accident and injury cases, recovering millions of dollars for injured victims in Birmingham and throughout Alabama. At Cross & Smith, we know that accidents are life-changing and difficult to face. That is why we are dedicated to protecting your rights and helping you get back on your feet. Let a Birmingham personal injury lawyer help you maximize your recovery and obtain the compensation you deserve. Call us today at (877) 791-0618 for a free consultation or contact us online.

Personal Injury Claims We Handle:

Birmingham Car Accidents

Birmingham Construction Site Accidents and Injuries

Birmingham Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect

Birmingham On-the-Job Injuries and Workers’ Compensation

Birmingham Truck and 18 Wheeler Accidents

About Birmingham

The City of Birmingham is located in Jefferson County and is the state’s largest city. Birmingham has a population of approximately 212,000. The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area is home to approximately 1,213,000 people, accounting for nearly one-fourth of the state’s population.

Birmingham was founded in 1871. It was named after Birmingham, England because many early settlers were of British descent. For the first 100 years of its history, Birmingham rapidly grew into an industrial giant based on its mining, iron, steel and railroad industries. Birmingham grew so quickly that it became known as “The Magic City” and “The Pittsburgh of the South.” As the industrial center of the South, Birmingham’s major industries were iron and steel production and rapid development of a railway industry. Rails and railroad cars were made in the city. Over the past few decades, Birmingham’s economy diversified into other areas. With exception of coal mining, mining is no longer a major industry in the area. Although manufacturing remains a key industry, other business development and industries such as banking, telecommunications, transportation, electrical power transmission, health care, college education and insurance are the primary sectors of the city’s economy today. In fact, Birmingham is one of the most successful business centers in the South today and is one of the largest banking centers in the country. Over the past 25 years, the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), including University Hospital, has transformed Birmingham’s economy. UAB is now the largest employer in the State of Alabama with employment of over 20,000 people.

Birmingham has one of the most extensive networks of highways and roadways in the Southeast. There are four interstate highways, 20, 59, 65, and 22. Interstate 459 is a southern bypass expressway which connects to three of the other interstate highways as well as to U.S. Highways 31 and 280.

The Tenth Judicial Circuit serves the citizens of Birmingham. The Jefferson County Courthouse, Birmingham Division is located at 801 Richard Arrington Boulevard, Birmingham, Alabama 35203 and houses the District, Circuit and Family Courts. Birmingham’s Municipal Court is located at 801 17th Street North, Birmingham, Alabama 35203 and hears cases that pertain to criminal misdemeanors and traffic violations that occur within Birmingham’s police jurisdiction. There are two federal courthouses in Birmingham. The Hugo Black Courthouse is located at 1729 5th Avenue North, Birmingham, Alabama 35203. The courthouse was constructed in a post modern fashion in 1987 to house the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama. The Robert S. Vance Federal Building and Courthouse is located at 1800 5th Avenue North, Birmingham, Alabama 35203 and houses the Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Alabama.

Our Birmingham personal injury lawyers handle personal injury, truck wreck and car wreck cases in the district and circuit courts of Jefferson County and in federal court.

Our office is located at 907 17th Avenue, Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35401. We have successfully handled a broad range of personal injury cases in Birmingham, Alabama.