According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Alabama ranks fourth in the nation for the production of toxic wastes and thirteenth for total toxic releases. Alabama ranks tenth in the nation in the incidence of lung cancer and sixteenth in the incidence of all cancers, and it is estimated that every day 66 Alabamians are diagnosed with cancer and 27 Alabamians die from cancer. A substantial number of these cancer cases can be attributed to exposure to toxic substances, but most of these victims will find themselves locked out of Alabama courts.

Significantly, minorities comprise a disproportionate number of toxic tort victims because plants releasing toxic substances are more likely to be located in or near minority neighborhoods and because minorities in the workplace are often given the jobs with the greatest risk of exposure to toxic substances. See NOT IN MY BACKYARD: EXECUTIVE ORDER 12,898 AND TITLE VI AS TOOLS FOR ACHIEVING ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE, published in October 2003 by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Thus, the injustice resulting from existing Alabama law is peculiarly consistent with Alabama's tradition and history of denying due process to minorities, for most victims exposed to a toxic substance are never permitted to file a lawsuit in Alabama. The Alabama Supreme Court created this injustice through a bizarre interpretation of the statute of limitations:

The plain language of the statute of limitations requires a toxic tort case to be filed within two years after an "injury" occurs.

In some opinions, the Alabama Supreme Court has ruled that an "injury" occurs, for the purposes of the statute of limitations, when the victim is exposed to a toxic substance. Under those rulings, a victim must file a lawsuit within two years after his exposure to the toxic substance, even if he does not yet have a disease. Alabama is the only state in the union in which "injury" is deemed to have occurred, for the purposes of the statute of limitations, when a toxic tort victim is exposed.

In stark contrast, in other opinions, the Alabama Supreme Court has ruled that a toxic tort victim must have a "manifest present injury - a disease - before he is entitled to file a lawsuit.

Because death and disease caused by exposure to toxic substances typically occur only after the passage of 20, 30, or 40 years after exposure, most victims will find that their cases became time-barred long before they were entitled to file a lawsuit.

For most Alabama toxic tort victims, there is never a time under existing law when they are permitted to file a lawsuit in Alabama. For this reason, the Alabama Legal Reform Foundation is now promoting reforms that will open the courthouse doors to Alabama's toxic tort victims. A two-pronged strategy is the heart of this campaign:

First, we will petition the State Legislature to enact a bill - the TOXIC TORT VICTIMS' CIVIL JUSTICE REFORM ACT - that will correct the statute of limitations in toxic tort cases. Please sign our petition to the Alabama State Legislature.

Second, we will also ask the Alabama Supreme Court to reverse its decisions that have created this terrible injustice by filing "friend of the court" briefs in appropriate cases.

To learn more about this issue, you may download DENIAL OF DUE PROCESS: HOW ALABAMA CITIZENS ARE BARRED FROM RECOVERY FOR TOXIC TORTS, an article published in the Autumn 2004 issue of the Journal of the Alabama Trial Lawyers Association, and WITHHOLDING JUSTICE FROM TOXIC TORT VICTIMS, an article that was published in the Spring 2005 issue of the American Journal of Trial Advocacy.