Alabama State Bar

There are two procurement laws in Alabama that apply to nearly every purchase made by county commissions and other local governmental entities. Commonly referred to as the Competitive Bid Law and the Public Works Law, these two sets of statutes contain several requirements that must be satisfied in order for local governmental entities to properly expend public funds on certain projects, goods, or services.

No matter which side of the fence you find yourself on in litigation involving a municipality and allegations of damages, there are some basics you need to first familiarize yourself with before you can appropriately advise your client.

Alabama has 463 incorporated municipalities located in 67 counties. These entities are designated by state law as either cities (population of more than 2,000) or towns (population of fewer than 2,000) and range in size from the state’s largest city, Birmingham (population 212,247) to the town of McMullen (population 10).

The pandemic of 2020 has certainly posed challenges for our Alabama court system and contributed to a backlog of cases. This backlog creates a hardship for litigants in civil matters seeking resolution to their legal matters. Private judging offers a means for litigants to have their day in court while avoiding a potentially lengthy period of time.

Applying to virtually all governmental bodies in Alabama (except the courts), the Open Meetings Act requires that the public be given notice of government meetings and that the meetings have minutes.

The Alabama appellate courts recently experienced the end of an era upon the retirement of Bilee Cauley as the reporter of decisions on December 31, 2020.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Alabama State Bar’s Volunteer Lawyers Program. As a way to thank all of our volunteers, we have selected 30 representatives and will be sharing their stories over the coming year.