On Monday, May 8, 2017, Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge Pat Ballard unexpectedly ruled that the Alabama Workers’ Compensation Act is unconstitutional. Specifically, Judge Ballard found the $220 per week cap on workers’ compensation benefits unconstitutional because the cap was below the poverty level and equal to just over twenty-five percent of the state’s average weekly wage. Judge Ballard also found the statute’s fifteen percent cap on attorneys’ fees unconstitutional because the cap “fails to afford due process of the law.” He also concluded that a cap on attorneys’ fees is a function of the judiciary, not legislative, branch.