The default: the clock starts on the date of injury
Under Ala. Code § 6-2-38, Alabama's ordinary two-year deadline for personal injury claims normally begins running on the date the injury actually happened — not the date a claim is reported to an insurer, not the date negotiations start, and not the date a lawyer is finally hired. This is the default rule for the overwhelming majority of Alabama injury cases: car accidents, slip and falls, and most other sudden-event injuries are obvious the moment they occur, so there's no real discovery question to ask.
When the injury isn't obvious right away
The discovery rule exists specifically for the narrower set of cases where an injury genuinely isn't apparent at the time it occurs. Rather than starting the clock on a date the injured person had no way of knowing mattered, the deadline instead starts running from the date the injury was actually discovered, or reasonably should have been discovered through ordinary diligence. This matters most in cases involving gradual exposure, a condition that takes time to develop noticeable symptoms, or a defect that only becomes apparent well after the fact.
Product liability has its own, more detailed version
Alabama's product liability statute, Ala. Code § 6-5-502, builds a specific discovery-rule mechanism directly into its one-year deadline. The one-year clock can start from the date of discovery instead of the date of injury, but only when two things are both true: the injury developed over time from ingestion of, or exposure to, an injury-causing substance rather than from a sudden trauma, and the injury genuinely couldn't have been discovered earlier, even with reasonable care. Even when this discovery-based start date applies, a separate 10-year statute of repose under § 6-5-502(c) still caps the outer limit — measured from when the product was first put to use, not from when the injury was discovered, and it applies regardless of discovery date.
Negotiating with an insurer doesn't pause anything
A genuinely common and costly misunderstanding: actively negotiating a settlement with an insurance company does not toll or pause Alabama's filing deadline in any way. The two-year (or shorter) clock keeps running the entire time talks are ongoing. An injured person who spends a year and a half in good-faith settlement talks, only to have negotiations fall apart, may discover they have very little time left to actually file suit — or none at all.
Other tolling considerations
Minority (being under 18 at the time of injury) is a basis several states use to pause a filing deadline until the injured person reaches adulthood, and incapacity can sometimes have a similar effect. Because exactly how and when Alabama tolling applies depends heavily on the specific facts, this is an area worth confirming directly with a licensed Alabama attorney rather than assuming a general rule applies to a specific situation.