Our Areas of Practice

Barfoot & Schoettker is a small firm in Montgomery. Will Barfoot and Ben Schoettker founded it in 2004, and it has stayed small on purpose — the lawyer you talk to is the lawyer working your case. This page is the map: what the firm handles, and which page explains your kind of case.

Most of the work falls into two areas that have almost nothing in common. On one side are people hurt or killed by someone else's carelessness. On the other are people the State, a city or the United States has charged with a crime. Different courts, different deadlines, and a different way of paying for the work. The links below go to the page for each.

How to tell which kind of case you have

People call here unsure what they even have, which is normal. The question that sorts it fastest is not what happened to you. It is who is on the other side.

Somebody else’s carelessness hurt you. The other side is a person or a business, and in practice their insurance company. The case is civil and what you are asking a court for is money.

The State, a city or the federal government has charged you. The other side is a prosecutor, and what is at stake is liberty and a record rather than money.

An officer wrote you a ticket. Technically a criminal charge, practically its own animal — a fine, points against a license, and an insurance consequence that outlasts both.

The dispute is with a spouse, or over a child. Divorce, custody, support and the orders that come after a judgment are family law.

One event can make two (2) cases: a wreck can produce a traffic charge against one driver and an injury claim by the other, on separate clocks in separate courts.

Injury cases

It is important to understand that Alabama still applies contributory negligence, a rule only a handful of states kept, and it can bar an injury claim outright. Golden v. McCurry, 392 So. 2d 815 (Ala. 1980). It runs underneath every page in this section, and the personal injury page explains how. Most injury claims here carry a two (2) year deadline. Ala. Code § 6-2-38(l). Several are much shorter.

Personal injury is the overview: how a claim is built, what the deadlines are, what a lawyer costs, and which page below fits your facts. See personal injury claims in Alabama.

Car accidents are the firm’s most common case. A wreck claim turns less on the police report than on the fault rule and whatever insurance sits behind the other driver, which in Alabama can start at $25,000 for one person. See car accident claims in Alabama.

Truck accidents are not car wrecks with a bigger vehicle in them. A collision with a commercial truck is a claim against a business, governed by federal safety regulations and usually defended from the first day. See truck accident and 18-wheeler cases.

Wrongful death works differently here than anywhere else. Alabama measures the case by how wrong the defendant’s conduct was rather than by what the family lost, and only the personal representative of the estate may bring it. See Alabama wrongful death claims.

Medical malpractice is for patients and families harmed by a provider who did what similarly situated providers would not have done. A bad outcome is not malpractice, and the Alabama Medical Liability Act writes its own rules for these cases. See medical malpractice claims in Alabama.

Premises liability covers injuries on someone else’s property, from a fall in a store to a shooting in an unlit parking lot. What the owner owed you depends on why you were there. See premises liability claims in Alabama.

Slip and fall is the most common premises claim and the most commonly misunderstood. It turns on how long the hazard had been on the floor before you got to it. See slip and fall injury claims.

Defective products run under Alabama’s own doctrine, the AEMLD, rather than the no-fault strict liability most states adopted. That difference is usually what the case turns on. See defective product claims.

Insurance bad faith is for policyholders whose own company refused to pay a claim it owed, uninsured motorist disputes included. Alabama recognizes the tort and then sets a high bar for proving it. See insurance bad faith claims.

Criminal defense

The firm has defended charges in Alabama municipal, district and circuit courts and in federal court since its first year. Ben Schoettker began his career as an Assistant Deputy District Attorney in Montgomery County, so much of this work is done on the other side of a table he used to sit at. No lawyer can tell you how a charge will end.

Criminal representation is the state side: arrest, bond, preliminary hearing, indictment, arraignment, then a plea or a trial. Which of the three (3) courts has the case decides more than the name of the charge does. See criminal defense in Alabama courts.

Federal court is a separate practice, not the same case in a bigger courthouse. Detention comes first, sentencing is guideline-driven, and there is no parole. See federal criminal defense in the Middle District.

Traffic tickets

The payment link on the ticket is the trap. Under Rule 19(C) of the Alabama Rules of Judicial Administration, remitting the fine and costs by mail, by credit card or by bank transfer “constitutes a guilty plea and waiver of trial,” signed waiver or not. Paying is pleading. What comes out is a conviction, with points behind it. See Alabama traffic tickets and points.

Family law

Family law here covers divorce, child custody and visitation, child support, paternity, prenuptial and postnuptial agreements, and the modification, enforcement and contempt work that follows a judgment. Many resolve by agreement; the ones that do not are tried. See family law matters in Montgomery.

Where the practice runs deepest

A list of headings tells you nothing about where a firm spends its week, so here it is plainly. The steadiest work is injury and death claims out of vehicle wrecks, cars and commercial trucks both, with the premises, product and insurance cases that come off the same shelf. Criminal defense is the second real practice, state and federal, going back to the firms first year. While the firm handles family law and traffic matters too, those are a smaller share of the docket.

What a first conversation costs, and how the fee works

The first conversation is free. It costs nothing to find out where you stand, and sometimes the answer is that there is no claim, better heard in week one than in month eight.

Injury work is done on a contingency fee: an agreed share of what is recovered, set out in writing before anything begins, paid out of a recovery rather than out of your pocket along the way. There is never a fee for legal services, unless we collect for you.

Why does that matter for the rest of this page? Because a contingency fee cannot work where there is nothing to recover. A criminal charge, a traffic ticket and a divorce are quoted as a fee instead, and you should expect a number before you hire anybody.

The courts this firm practices in

Our office is on Taylor Circle, on the east side of Montgomery. A civil case filed in state court here goes to the Circuit Court for the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, at the Phelps-Price Justice Center on South Lawrence Street. Where the parties are citizens of different states and more than $75,000 is at stake, an out-of-state defendant can remove it to the Middle District of Alabama, Northern Division. 28 U.S.C. § 1332(a).

Criminal cases sort by where the charge came from: a city ordinance in municipal court, a state misdemeanor or a felony preliminary hearing in district court, a felony indictment in circuit court. Ultimately, sitting in the capital has meant working well outside Montgomery County.

Frequently asked questions

What kinds of cases does Barfoot & Schoettker handle?

Injury and wrongful death claims, criminal defense in state and federal court, traffic tickets, and family law.

Does one firm really handle both injury cases and criminal cases?

Yes. The firm has done civil and criminal litigation since 2004, and Ben Schoettker began as an Assistant Deputy District Attorney in Montgomery County.

How long do I have to bring an injury claim in Alabama?

Generally two (2) years. Ala. Code § 6-2-38(l). A wrongful death action must be brought by the personal representative of the estate within two (2) years of the death. Ala. Code § 6-5-410. Several deadlines are much shorter than that.

What does the first consultation cost?

Nothing. It is worth having even where the answer turns out to be that there is no claim.

How does a contingency fee work?

It is an agreed share of what is recovered, set out in writing before the work begins and paid out of the recovery. There is never a fee for legal services, unless we collect for you.

Is a criminal case or a divorce handled on contingency?

No. A contingency fee only works where there is a recovery to take a share of. Criminal, traffic and family matters are quoted as a fee.

Can I just pay my traffic ticket and be done with it?

Paying is pleading guilty. Under Rule 19(C) of the Alabama Rules of Judicial Administration, remitting the fine constitutes a guilty plea and waiver of trial whether or not the waiver on the back of the ticket is signed.

Does the firm take cases outside Montgomery?

Yes. Being in the capital has always meant working across central Alabama, and elsewhere in the state where a case warrants it.

Talk to a lawyer at Barfoot & Schoettker

If you are not sure whether you have a case, or which kind, contact us for a free case evaluation at (334) 834-3444 or send the contact form. For injury matters there is never a fee for legal services, unless we collect for you.