A friend of mine called one day last week and told me his daughter had been in an accident. It seems that she was riding in a car with her friend. The friend, who was driving, lost control of the vehicle. The car ran off the road and into a tree. My friend's daughter suffered severe injuries and the driver's insurance company was giving him trouble about paying even though the driver was clearly at fault. He asked me why the driver's insurance company was reluctant to pay his daughter's medical bills.

The answer probably lies in Alabama's “guest statute.”

A guest statute is law that makes it more difficult for a passenger in an automobile to recover damages from the driver for injuries received in an accident resulting from ordinary negligence. Under the guest statute, passengers are generally limited to suits against drivers based on gross negligence, recklessness, or intentional misconduct. In other words, in an automobile accident case, the person who caused the accident is usually legally “negligent” and therefore responsible for the injured party's damages. Under Alabama law, however, a passenger must prove the driver was not only negligent, but that he or she was grossly, or extremely, negligent or reckless in some way. Gross negligence is a much more difficult level of conduct to prove.

For example, a decision released recently by the Alabama Supreme Court held there was no evidence of gross negligence in a single-vehicle accident where the driver took her eyes off the road in order to wave to friends in another vehicle, and then lost control, injuring a passenger. The driver may have been negligent, but not grossly negligent or reckless.

Arguably, the purpose of the guest statute is both to protect drivers from frivolous litigation and to protect insurance companies from collusive and fraudulent suits. However, if my research is correct, every other state in the Union except Alabama has abolished its guest statute laws.

As with most other laws, there are some exceptions to Alabama's guest statute. It does not apply to passengers who are on a business trip. Also, it does not apply to young children due to their inability to consent to their status as a guest in the vehicle. Finally, the guest statute does not apply to guests who are paying their way or contributing to gas or maintenance of the vehicle.

Therefore, just because you or someone you know was injured in an accident does not automatically mean Alabama's guest statute prevents recovery for damages.  You should always speak with a lawyer when you have been in an accident. It is important that a lawyer conduct an investigation as quickly as possible after an accident in order to preserve evidence about the actions of the party at fault.