How does Alabama's contributory-negligence rule change the way a civil case should be mediated?

It changes everything about leverage. Alabama is one of the few remaining jurisdictions that still follows pure contributory negligence: if the defense can show the plaintiff was even slightly at fault in causing the injury, the plaintiff can be barred from recovering anything at all. That all-or-nothing reality sits over every injury and liability mediation in this state. For a plaintiff, it means a genuine fault question isn't a discount on the claim — it's a risk of walking away with zero, which is a powerful reason to resolve rather than gamble on a jury. For a defendant, it's real leverage, but a jury that dislikes the conduct can still find no contributory fault, so it's not a guarantee. A good mediation session puts that shared risk on the table honestly and lets both sides price it, rather than each side privately assuming the rule breaks its way.