News and Updates

Jury Trials to Resume Next Month with New Safety Protocols

Some Alabamians will begin receiving jury summons as soon as this week, and for the first time ever, jurors will be able to go online, by computer or smart phone, to verify their information and answer qualifying questions.

A secure, dedicated juror website has been developed so that potential jurors can qualify for jury service in advance of their appearance date, avoiding the requirement of large numbers of jurors gathering on opening day of jury service for qualification and empaneling. Jurors who are at a heightened risk of contracting COVID-19 due to age or an underlying medical condition may use the online form to request excusal or deference to a later date. 

Circuit and District Courts will be posting additional information on the websites regarding heightened safety protocols that will be in place to make jury service and court attendance safer during the current pandemic. 

Those new procedures include sanitizing surfaces, temperature checks for fever, social distancing measures, contactless sanitizing stations, one-way travel staircases where applicable, limitations on the number of people permitted in an elevator, newly configured jury boxes to seat jurors at least six feet apart, jury deliberation rooms that permit jurors to maintain appropriate social distancing during deliberations and recesses.

You can read this story online here.

Ethics Commission Advisory Opinions

Attorney W. Chambers Waller IV compiles summaries of the Alabama Ethics Commission Advisory Opinions, and he has allowed us to make those available for all members of the Alabama State Bar. So far in 2020, the Ethics Commission has issued advisory opinions in June and August. You can read those here. The Commission will meet again on October 7, and we will once again share his summaries then.