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Reviewed 15 November 2009 See also Legal Research and Assistance, below.  E-mail: Administrator@LawSource.com

Alabama Court Decisions

Supreme Court (Ala.) * Court of Civil Appeals (Ala. Civ. App.) * Court of Criminal Appeals (Ala. Crim. App.) * ————— U.S. District Court—Middle District (M.D. Ala.) * U.S. District Court—Northern District (N.D. Ala.) U.S. District Court—Southern District (S.D. Ala.) * —————  * Not available — Browse for information.

Appellate cases can be retrieved by citation (e.g., “687 So. 2d 197”) from a LEXIS database (free searching goes back five years only). There is also a text-search function. (Registration is required but is free.)

Additional Resources
¶  Opinions of the Supreme Court ... [Wallace, Jordan, Ratliff & Brandt, L.L.C (Ala.)] — Opinions from April 1998 forward.
¶  Opinions of the Supreme Court ... [Birmingham Bar Ass'n] — Slip opinions and summaries of decisions for one year.
¶  Recent opinions of the Supreme Court, Court of Civil Appeals, and Court of Criminal Appeals ... Subscription service offering bulletin-board access to court opinions.

Alabama Constitution and Legislation

Constitution (Ala. Const.)
Additional Resources
¶  Alabama Constitutions 1819–1901 ... [Ala. Leg.] — Texts of the six constitutions that have governed Alabama, along with historical commentary. This is an alternative source for the text of the 1901 constitution (the current one), including a search form.
Bills ♦ Resolutions
While legislative business is not adequately documented on the legislature's web site, bills and resolutions can be viewed by the method outlined below.
1. ALISON Web Site
   The Alabama Legislative Information Service Online (ALISON) provides available information, but using the web site is not easy. Follow the steps below to identify a bill or resolution of interest. Then use the “Bills and Resolutions by Number” drop-down list, below, to find the text of that bill or resolution.
   1. On the ALISON web site, click on the “Session” label, top left corner of the screen, for a drop-down list of all legislative sessions back through 2000. Select a session and click the “Set” button.
   2. For a list of all enacted bills in the session (with topical summaries), on the menu select “Bills” and “By Selected Status.” Then:
      Select “House & Senate” [Which Bills]
      Select “Enacted” [Instrument Status]
      Click the “Get Bills Status” button
   3. For a similar list of adopted resolutions, follow the preceding steps but replace “Bills” with “Resolutions.”
   4. For a list of all bills in the session, on the menu select “Bills” and “By Selected Matter Transaction.” Then:
      Select “House & Senate” [Which Bills]
      Select “{All}” [Instrument Matter Transaction]
      Select “{All}” [Legislative Day]
      Click the “Get Bills by Transaction” button
   5. For lists of bills or resolutions meeting other criteria, make appropriate selections, in the manner described above, using the menus and drop-down lists on the ALISON web site.
2. Bills and Resolutions by Number
   2009 Regular Session 2008 1st Special Session 2008 Regular Session 2007 1st Special Session 2007 Regular Session 2006 Regular Session 2005 1st Special Session 2005 Regular Session 2004 1st Special Session 2004 Regular Session 2003 2nd Special Session 2003 1st Special Session 2003 Regular Session 2002 Regular Session 2001 4th Special Session 2001 3rd Special Session 2001 2nd Special Session 2001 1st Special Session 2001 Regular Session 2000 Regular Session 1999 2nd Special Session 1999 Regular Session 1998 Regular Session
   To view the text of a bill or resolution, first select a legislative session in this drop-down list, and click the “Browse” button to see links to the texts of all bills for that session, grouped as fiscal notes (FN), house bills (HB), and senate bills (SB), and sorted alphabetically (therefore, bill numbers are not in strictly numerical order). Find the bill of interest, and click on its link. To find resolutions from the same session, click on the link “[To Parent Directory]” at the top of the bill-list page, then click on “Resolutions.”
Acts of Alabama (Ala. Acts)
2000 Enrolled Acts — Regular Session 1999 Enrolled Acts — Second Special Session 1999 Enrolled Acts — Regular Session 1998 Enrolled Acts
Code of Alabama (Ala. Code)
See also uniform laws.
Additional Resources
¶  Code of Alabama ... This is an alternative source for the text of the code, including a search form.
¶  Code of Alabama ... [Onecle, Inc. (Cal.)] — This version is browsable only (there is no search form), with no indication of whether the content is current.

Alabama Rules of Procedure and Practice

Court Rules ♦ Rules of Procedure
Alabama Child Support Guidelines ————— U.S. District Court Rules—Middle District (M.D. Ala. R.)     —Northern District (N.D. Ala. R.)     —Southern District (S.D. Ala. R.) U.S. Bankruptcy Court Rules—Middle District (M.D. Ala. Bankr. R.)     —Northern District (N.D. Ala. Bankr. R.)     —Southern District (S.D. Ala. Bankr. R.)
1. Rules of Practice ♦ Professional Ethics Decisions
   Judicial Inquiry Commission Advisory Opinions
   Additional Resources
   ¶  U.S. District Court for the Northern District

   Alternative Dispute Resolution Plan Guidelines for Conduct of Trials Jury Selection Plan

Alabama Administrative Law Sources

1. Regulations
   Alabama Administrative Code (Ala. Admin. Code)
   Alabama Administrative Monthly
   Revenue Department — Rules
   Opinions ♦ Decisions ♦ Orders ♦ Rulings
   Attorney General Opinions (Ops. Ala. Att'y Gen.) Revenue Department—Administrative Law Judge Rulings     —Revenue Procedures     —Revenue Rulings
   Additional Resources
   ¶  Revenue Department Assessment Procedures ... Diagram of the assessment process; a description of preliminary assessment appeal rights; and a description of final assessment appeal rights.

Alabama Local Law Sources

Charters
Note that a charter could be included in a collection of ordinances (see below) instead of being separately accessible.
County Ordinances
1. Municipal Ordinances

Alabama Law-Related Periodicals

1. Addendum ... [Alabama State Bar] — Official newsletter of the state bar. The current issue is on-line.
2. Alabama Law Review (Ala. L. Rev.)

Other Alabama Commentary

1. Annual Eleventh Circuit Survey ... [Mercer Univ. Sch. of Law] — The Mercer Law Review publishes the Eleventh Circuit survey as the summer issue each year. The most-recent survey issue usually is available on-line.

2. General Summary of State Taxes (1997) ... [Revenue Dep't] — This is a PDF file (578KB).

3. Doing Business in Alabama. Maynard, Cooper & Gale, P.C. ... [Lex Mundi]

Alabama Law-Related Topical Web Sites

Alabama Court Information

Web Sites
Cullman County Courts ————— U.S. District Court—Middle District     —Northern District     —Southern District U.S. Bankruptcy Court—Middle District     —Northern District     —Southern District
Addresses ♦ Names ♦ Numbers
Jefferson County Circuit Court ————— Jefferson County District Court ————— Probate Court—Jefferson County

Alabama Forms

1. Ethics Commission — Forms ... Forms are in PDF files.
   Revenue Department Forms
   Business Privilege Tax Forms Corporation Income Tax Forms Partnership, Fiduciary, and Estate Tax Forms Financial Institutions Excise Tax Forms Individual Income Tax Forms and Information Property Tax Forms Sales and Use Tax Forms Subchapter-K-Entity/Partnership Income Tax Forms Withholding Tax Forms
   Forms may be in PDF files. Some forms for the current year (and some past years) can be completeed on-line.

2. Business Entity Forms ... [Paracorp, Inc. (Cal.)] — Convenient interface to view and print in-blank official state forms (in PDF files) for filing by business entities. A JavaScript-enabled browser is required.

Other Alabama Resources

Government-Related Web Sites
Legislature Alabama Law Institute ————— Attorney General ————— Revenue Department Secretary of State Taxpayer Advocacy Office
See also the Piper Resources list of sites.
Additional Resources
¶  Vital Records — Contact Information ... [Elizabeth Orsay (Ind.)]
¶  Workers' Compensation — Agency Contact and Staff Contact Information ... [Robert W. McDowell / North Carolina Industrial Commission]
Bar Associations ♦ Law-Related Organizations
Alabama State Bar Alabama Association for Justice [formerly: Trial Lawyers Association] Alabama Defense Lawyers Association Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Program ————— Birmingham Bar Association Mobile Bar Association
See the National Federation of Paralegal Associations for links to websites of member organizations.
Law Schools ♦ Admission to Practice ♦ Continuing Legal Education
Continuing Legal Education—Alabama State Bar ————— Admission to the Alabama State Bar ————— Birmingham School of Law Cumberland School of Law (Samford University) Thomas Goode Jones School of Law (Faulkner University) University of Alabama School of Law

Legal Research and Assistance

Law Libraries
Alabama State Law Library Jefferson County Faulkner University: George H. Jones, Jr. Law Library Samford University: Lucille Stewart Beeson Law Library (Cumberland Sch. of Law) University of Alabama: Bounds Law Library
See also links to web sites of public law libraries and catalogs of academic law libraries, maintained by the library at Washburn University School of Law; and the LibrarySites.Info database of library web sites (“Libcat”).
Research Guides ... [Cumberland School of Law]
A Legacy of Confusion: The Nominative Reports CFR and the Federal Register: What's the Difference? Finding Federal Legislative History Guide to Form Books Instructions to Juries Location Guide to Basic Research Tools Overview of Alabama Legal Treatises The Digest System: An Index to Case Law Updating Federal Regulations
1. Alabama State Bar Brochures ... Brochures on legal topics of interest to the general public.

2. Bankruptcy Law and Procedures for Alabama Residents ... [Calicchia & Kinast LLP (Ohio)] — This web site, presented by a Cleveland bankruptcy law firm, covers basic information about the bankruptcy process, describes debt consolidation and credit counseling as alternatives to bankruptcy, lists the property that an individual is allowed to keep (with citations to governing provisions of Alabama law), and gives information about the bankruptcy courts and how to contact bankruptcy attorneys in Alabama.

3. Low-Cost Legal Aid ... See also the web site for LawHelp.org and the web site for SelfHelpSupport.org.
   1. Alabama Legal Help for the Poor ... [Am. Bar Ass'n] — Contact information for statewide and local legal-aid programs, from the ABA's Directory of Pro Bono Programs. The ABA also provides a page of links to pro bono programs' web sites.
   2. WomensLaw.org — Sources of Legal Help ... [WomensLaw.org (N.Y.)] — Sources of legal help (not limited to legal help for women) include statewide domestic-violence resources, local domestic-violence resources listed by city or town, free or low-cost legal services, and lawyer referral services.