Today marks 100 years since Governor Thomas Kilby signed bill 26-1 into law thereby creating what is now known as the Alabama Workers’ Compensation Act.
Back then, it was known as the Alabama Workmen’s Compensation Act.  The law later went into effect on January 1, 1920.  Although there has
been some recent controversy as to the constitutionality of the Act in its current state, it remains a better alternative to employees having to prove
tort liability and tort liability exposure for the employer.  As the Honorable E.R. Mills so adeptly stated in his Singletary v. Mangham Construction,
418 So.2d 1138 (Fla. 1st DCA, 1982) opinion, “Workers’ compensation is a very important field of the law, if not the most important. It touches more
lives than any other field of the law. It involves the payments of huge sums of money. The welfare of human beings, the success of business, and the
pocketbooks of consumers are affected daily by it.”