Alabama Legal Overview Alabama has one of the oldest Unified Judicial Systems in the nation, with the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama and the Administrative Office of Courts overseeing the appellate court and a network of state trial courts. The Appellate Courts have two different divisions with separate judges for criminal and civil appeals. The state trial courts are divided into limited and general jurisdiction courts. The limited jurisdiction courts take up probate, small claims, juvenile, district and municipal matters, while the circuit courts have general jurisdiction over all other legal and criminal matters. Judges are elected every six years.
Top metro Alabama areas for Legal Issues: Birmingham-Hoover-Cullman
1. Capital punishment is legal in Alabama for intentional murder convictions. Trial judges are allowed to overrule jury decisions. Alabama's justice system was severely tested by the Civil Rights Movement, starting with the arrest of Rosa Parks on Dec 1, 1955 to the landmark Browder v. Gayle decision in December 1956 which made segregation on public transport illegal in Montgomery. The verdict was appealed against but upheld by the Supreme Court, which ordered complete desegregation of public transport in Alabama. Alabama has the nation's strictest anti-immigration laws under Alabama HB 56, a bill approved and signed into law in June 2011. 2. The daughter of Nick Saban, the football coach at the University of Alabama, is facing a lawsuit by his daughter's sorority sister who claims the two got into a fight over a Facebook post after a night of partying. 3. A horrific accident in Alabama claimed the lives of two teenangers from Harrison. Alabama State police report that the teenagerswere driving a 1995 Mazda and was involved in an accident with a 2001 Freightliner. The accident occurred on near Winfield, Alabama on US Highway 78.
Trending Alabama Legal Topics: The Alabama State Bar (ASB) was established as a voluntary body in 1879, and became an integrated bar association for Alabama in 1923. All attorneys in Alabama must pass the Alabama Bar exam and become members of the state bar. ASB now has more than 15,700 members with another 2,500 out of state members who are allowed to practice law in Alabama. Judges may be reviewed and investigated by the Judicial Inquiry Commission, and resulting complaints will be heard by the Court of the Judiciary. |