James A. Abernathy, II


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Jim Abernathy is a native of Tuscaloosa and a graduate of the University of Alabama. In 1996 he graduated from the University of Alabama School of Law. He is a member of the Alabama Trial Lawyers Association, the National Organization for Social Security Claimants Representatives. He is admitted to practice before all Alabama state courts, the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and the United States District Courts for the Southern, Middle, and Northern Districts of Alabama. He has served as an officer of the Alabama Workers Compensation Law Section of the Alabama State Bar and has taught Workers’ Compensation at the University of Alabama School of Law. He was appointed to serve as a Special Assistant Attorney General for the State of Alabama from May 2001 through May 2003, and he served as Prosecutor for the City of Centreville, Alabama from January 2001 through November 2002. He has two children. Areas of practice include:

  • Social security disability
  • Workers’ compensation

Publications

Contributing Author, Alabama Workers’ Compensation Law and Handbook (2nd ed. 2004)

Author, “HIPAA Does Not Apply to Workers’ Compensation, Right?” Alabama Trial Lawyers Journal, Spring 2004.

Co-Author, “Historical Development of Alabama’s Workers’ Compensation Law” Alabama Lawyer, January 2000.

Author, “Social Security Disability Claims: A Path to Productivity for the Young Lawyer”Alabama Trial Lawyers Journal, Spring 1998.

Lectures

National Business Institute, Handling a Social Security Disability Case, November, 2004.

National Business Institute, Handling a Social Security Disability Case, July 2004.

National Business Institute, Advanced Workers’ Compensation in Alabama, June 2004.

Lorman Education Services, HIPAA Privacy Regulations and Workers’ Compensation Seminar, June 2004.

Alabama Bar Institute for Continuing Legal Education’s Workers’ Compensation Law Seminar: Tools of the Trade, March 2004.

Cumberland School of Law at Samford University 17th Annual Workers’ Compensation Seminar, November 2003.

Lorman Education Services, HIPAA Privacy Regulations and Workers’ Compensation Seminar, April 2003.

Alabama Bar Institute for Continuing Legal Education’s Workers’ Compensation Law Seminar: Tools of the Trade, March 2003.

Cumberland School of Law Continuing Legal Education, 15th Annual Workers’ Compensation Seminar, November 2001.

Workmen’s Compensation Section, Alabama Trial Lawyers Association 47th Annual Mid-Winter Conference, January 1999.

Reported Decisions

Fry v. Massanari, 209 F. Supp. 2d 1246 (N.D. Ala. 2001)

This case held that the Social Security Administration had to consider new evidence submitted to the Appeals Council, when that evidence contradicted the findings of the Administrative Law Judge and when that evidence did not exist prior to the Administrative Law Judge’s decision.