In recent weeks, our office has been contacted more and more by people looking for information about filing a claim against their attorney under Rule 32 of the Alabama Rules of Criminal Procedure. Not to be confused with Rule 32 of the Alabama Rules of Judicial Administration which deals with child support, Rule 32 of the Alabama Rules of Criminal Procedure provides a method for defendants to challenge their conviction in a trial court. It is normally filed after a defendant has already lost his or her direct appeal of a conviction, though appealing a conviction is not mandatory before filing a Rule 32 petition in most cases.

We have posted several articles about Rule 32 petitions on this blog, but we have not previously posted a copy of Rule 32 itself. Since so many people seem to be looking for information about Rule 32 petitions, we thought it would be useful to place a copy of the rule itself on our website.

The following is a copy of Rule 32 in it’s entirety, including all of the subsections of the Rule and the committee comments issued concerning the Rule. The general form which the rules say a petition should follow is also included in an appendix to the rule. For more information about filing a Rule 32 petition in your own case, please call me at (800) 737-3702 Extension 1 or fill out the Contact form on our site to send me an email message online.