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Alabama Appellate Lawyer on Facebook

by William L. Pfeifer, Jr. June 12, 2013

We have now launched an appellate law page on Facebook called Alabama Appellate Lawyer. On this page, we will be sharing a variety of information related to Alabama law with a particular focus on issues related to appeals. If you are a frequent user of Facebook, you can easily know when we’ve posted new information [...]

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Alabama Criminal Appeal Forms – How to File a Criminal Appeal in Alabama

by William L. Pfeifer, Jr. May 25, 2013

What forms do you need to file a criminal appeal in Alabama? A Google search on this question will lead to a lot of appellate lawyer websites, but a list of which forms to file to start the appellate process is hard to find online. We are fixing that problem by providing information about the [...]

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Appellate Lawyer Website Plagiary – Hire the Original Rather than the Imitation

by William L. Pfeifer, Jr. May 24, 2013

Appellate lawyer website plagiary – sometimes it is done by lawyers and sometimes it is done by website designers working for lawyers. Either way, those who do it demonstrate both a lack of originality as well as a lack of ethics. It has come to our attention that some other appellate law firms have been [...]

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Alabama Appeals Issues – Ruling on Motions for Mistrials in Criminal Cases

by William L. Pfeifer, Jr. March 27, 2013

A somewhat common issue in Alabama appeals of criminal cases is whether the trial judge should have granted or denied a mistrial. When a criminal defendant moves for a mistrial, he or she is asking the judge to declare the trial so flawed that it has to be stopped and started over again with a [...]

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Alabama Legal Forms Available Online in Word or Wordperfect Format

by William L. Pfeifer, Jr. March 27, 2013

Although we have a focus on appellate law, we still get frequent client inquiries about preparing various Alabama legal forms. While this was a part of our law practice in the past and we do have a large library of legal forms available, we are no longer engaged in that area of law practice. However, rather [...]

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Chief Justice Roy Moore orders clerks offices to close on Wednesdays

by William L. Pfeifer, Jr. March 8, 2013

In an effort to deal with the severe underfunding of the judicial system in Alabama, Chief Justice Roy Moore has ordered all circuit and district clerks to close their offices to the public on Wednesdays. This move is designed to enable the clerks offices to handle their workload while dealing with their staff shortages. In [...]

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Alabama Rules of Civil Procedure Available Online

by William L. Pfeifer, Jr. February 15, 2013

The Alabama Rules of Civil Procedure are now available online on our website at this link. The addition of these rules is part of our effort to provide free legal information to the public so that people can understand what is going on in their trial court cases. Our firm only handles appellate court cases, [...]

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Alabama Rules of Evidence Available Online

by William L. Pfeifer, Jr. February 4, 2013

The Alabama Rules of Evidence are now available online through our website under our Law Links Directory. The evidentiary rulings of trial courts on issues during a trial are a common basis for appeals in Alabama, so it is helpful for litigants to make themselves familiar with the rules that govern a judge’s decisions. Otherwise, [...]

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Alabama Rules of Criminal Procedure now available online through our website

by William L. Pfeifer, Jr. January 11, 2013

The Alabama Rules of Criminal Procedure govern criminal court procedures in Alabama. Because we handle a significant number of criminal appeals, we decided to make the full text of the Alabama Rules of Criminal Procedure available on our website. These rules are often important in appellate court briefs in criminal cases, especially when it can [...]

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Lauderdale County Appeal Reverses Civil Judgments Over Irrelevant Highly Prejudicial Evidence

by William L. Pfeifer, Jr. November 13, 2012

Earlier this year, our office handled an appeal out of Lauderdale County involving the Alabama Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act (AUFTA). At issue in the appeal was the trial court’s admission of irrelevant and highly prejudicial evidence that should have been excluded from trial. Our clients were accused of having participated in the fraudulent transfer of [...]

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Improper Closing Arguments – Part 2 – Personal Opinions and Beliefs

by William L. Pfeifer, Jr. May 3, 2012

In the second installment of our series on improper closing arguments in Alabama trials, we look at the problem of arguing personal opinions and beliefs. While attorneys are certainly free to talk about the evidence and draw logical inferences and conclusions from it, it is improper for a lawyer to express his or her personal [...]

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Improper Closing Arguments – Part 1 – Facts Not in Evidence

by William L. Pfeifer, Jr. May 1, 2012

Improper closing arguments can provide a good basis for overturning a trial court verdict on appeal, if the issue has been properly preserved for appellate review. This is the first in a series of posts on the issue of improper closing arguments during trial. In Part 1 of this series, we take a look at [...]

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Health Reimbursement Accounts (HRA) – A Way for Small Business Owners to Deduct Personal Medical Bills as Business Expenses

by William L. Pfeifer, Jr. January 20, 2012

A Health Reimbursement Account (HRA) is a special account that businesses can provide as an employee benefit to qualifying employees (with the employer generally setting the rules for how one qualifies for coverage). Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Code Section 105 authorizes businesses to create HRAs as a benefit of employment. The HRA allows the employer to pay the [...]

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New Book Discusses Case Won by Our Alabama Appellate Law Firm

by William L. Pfeifer, Jr. January 6, 2012

In his new book Criminal Defense Lawyer by my friend and former business partner Richard D. Jensen, a  case I handled last year is discussed as an example of the importance of understanding subject matter jurisdiction in criminal defense cases. In that case, a man charged with a sex offense allowed his court-appointed lawyer to talk [...]

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Alabama Default Judgments – How to Set Aside a Default Judgment in Alabama

by William L. Pfeifer, Jr. November 10, 2011

If a default judgment has been entered against you in Alabama, there is a procedure for having that judgment set aside. Rule 55(c) of the Alabama Rules of Civil Procedure gives trial court judges the discretionary authority to set aside default judgments. The starting point in having the default judgment vacated or set aside is, [...]

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