A separate, much shorter set of deadlines
Suing a city, town, or county in Alabama is not like suing a private driver or business. Government entities generally enjoy sovereign immunity, and where that immunity has been waived, it usually comes with strict pre-suit notice requirements attached — deadlines that run out long before Alabama's ordinary two-year statute of limitations ever would.
Cities and towns: six months, and it must be sworn
For a personal injury claim against a city or town, Alabama law requires a sworn statement filed with the city or town clerk within six months of the injury, under Ala. Code § 11-47-192 and § 11-47-23. That statement has to cover the manner in which the injury occurred, along with the date, time, and place it happened. Six months passes quickly, especially for someone still in active medical treatment who hasn't yet thought about a formal legal deadline running against a government entity specifically.
Non-personal-injury claims against a city get more time
Worth noting directly: this short six-month window is specific to personal injury claims against a city or town. Other kinds of claims against a city or town — property damage alone, for example — generally get two years for pre-suit notice under § 11-47-23 instead, a meaningfully longer window than the personal injury rule.
Counties: twelve months to present the claim
A claim against an Alabama county follows a different, slightly longer timeline: it must be presented for allowance by the county within 12 months of the date the cause of action accrues, under Ala. Code §§ 6-5-20 and 11-12-8. Like the city deadline, this 12-month window runs well ahead of the ordinary two-year statute of limitations that would apply to a private defendant.
This notice comes in addition to the lawsuit deadline, not instead of it
It's worth being clear about how these two requirements relate to each other: satisfying the government notice deadline doesn't replace the underlying statute of limitations — it's an earlier, separate pre-suit step that has to happen first. Missing the six-month or 12-month notice window can end a claim against a government entity well before the ordinary two-year filing deadline would otherwise have mattered at all.
The rule this interacts with
See our Alabama statute of limitations calculator for how this shorter government-claim clock compares to the ordinary two-year deadline for a private defendant, and to work out both dates side by side for a specific injury date.