Alabama Legislature votes to extend time crime victims can file claims

The Alabama Legislature Tuesday gave final approval to a bill extending the deadline for crime victims to file a claim with the Alabama Crime Victims Compensation Commission.

HB 255, sponsored by Rep. Russell Bedsole, R-Alabaster, increases the time for victims of violent crimes to apply for compensation for injuries and suffering from one year to two years after the incident.

“What today shows, the Legislature of the state of Alabama does want to care and invest in the victims of our state by expanding this time period from one year to two years to apply for these funds,” Bedsole said shortly after the Senate passed the bill. “It sends a clear message to citizens and to the victims of our state.”

A similar version of the bill passed the House in 2025 but stalled in the Senate.

Everette Johnson, executive director of the Alabama Crime Victims Compensation Commission (ACVCC), said the agency is “ecstatic.”

“This is something we have been working on for a little over a year now, trying to get the increase in the application process,” he said. “We are hoping this will be able to benefit more victims that, based on their trauma or their lack of knowledge about our agency, they have more time now to complete the application and get it back to us.”

Darlene Hutchinson Biehl, one the ACVCC board members, said she was excited.

“These dollars can be such a lifeline for crime victims,” she said. “And I found that out in the 1980s when I was first a crime victim, and filed, and got a few hundred dollars that was able to keep me in college.”

ACVCC has seen significant changes over the past four years.  In 2023, crime victims and their families protested at ACVCC offices over application backlogs that had some victims waiting months or years for help. The waits were driven by a lack of staffing, which was also driven by declining revenues from fines and fees, the commission’s major sources of revenue at the time.

The Legislature in 2023 began directly appropriating money to the commission, which helped cut the backlog.  Lawmakers have approved another $1.6 million to ACVCC in the coming year.

The bill goes to Gov. Kay Ivey for signature.

The story was updated to include comments from Darlene Hutchinson Biehl, one of the board members for the Alabama Crime Victims Compensation Commission.