Total Credits: 1.25 including 1.25 CLE
Generally, an appeal will lie only from a final judgment which ends the judicial task; that is, which determines the issues before the court and ascertains and declares the rights of the parties involved. See, e.g., Taylor v. Taylor, 398 So. 2d 267 (Ala. 1981). Orders which are not final judgments are “interlocutory” orders, stemming from the Latin for “to speak between.” Most interlocutory orders, being not “final judgments,” are not appealable as of right. However, various routes exist for appellate review of some interlocutory orders, either as of right or by discretionary review. The discussion is focused on Alabama interlocutory appellate practice, but notes on the related federal practice are provided where appropriate.
| Handout 1 (1.2 MB) | 42 Pages | Available after Purchase |
Scott Donaldson was a Judge on the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals from 2013 until retiring in 2021 and was a circuit judge from 2003-2013. Before taking office, he had an extensive trial and appellate law practice for 18 years. Donaldson was also the Chief Judge of the Court of the Judiciary (the court that adjudicates all complaints filed against Alabama judges). He served on the Alabama State Bar Commission and State Bar Disciplinary Commission and is a current or former chair or member of numerous other judicial and legal committees including the Evidence Committee, the Civil Pattern Jury Instructions Committee, and the Appellate Rules Committee. He has been an attorney or trial judge in approximately 180 jury trials and in hundreds of bench trials. After retiring from the bench, Donaldson had an active mediation, arbitration, trial and appellate law practice. He is currently the General Counsel for the DCH Health System.
Donaldson is a faculty member of the National Judicial College and has taught many four-day evidence courses to hundreds of trial judges across the country. He has also taught evidence courses for 13 state judicial associations, the ABA Tort, Trial & Insurance Practice Section, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and for the judges of the United States Patent Trial and Appeal Board. He teaches evidence and trial skills courses for the Alabama Circuit/District Judges Associations including new judge orientation sessions and for the Probate Judges Association. Donaldson taught Trial Advocacy at the University of Alabama School of Law each semester from 2006-2022 and was an instructor for the 40-hour Domestic Relations/Civil mediator training course for alabamamediationtraining.com. He is a frequent speaker at continuing legal education programs and has authored numerous legal articles as well as the Alabama Trial Notebook, published by the University of Alabama School of Law CLE program. He is a Fellow of the Alabama Law Foundation and Vice-President of the Board of Directors.
Marc James Ayers represents individual, corporate and governmental clients before state and federal appellate and trial courts throughout the country. Marc is listed in The Best Lawyers in America® and Mid-South Super Lawyers in the field of Appellate Law. He also has represented clients on petitions for certiorari and amicus curiae briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court. Marc has presented oral argument in the Fourth, Eighth, Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh, and D.C. circuits, and in various state appellate courts in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, New York, Maryland, Mississippi, Texas and Wyoming.
Marc’s accomplishments have been recognized by his election as a Fellow in the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers. Marc served as chair of the Appellate Practice Section of the Alabama State Bar from 2008-2010, and is board certified in appellate practice by the Florida Bar’s Board of Legal Specialization and Education. He is frequently invited to lecture on appellate practice and is the author of several articles on that subject, among others. He also was nominated by the Justices of the Alabama Supreme Court to serve on both the Alabama Pattern Jury Instructions Committee as well as the Standing Committee on the Alabama Rules of Appellate Procedure.
Prior to joining Bradley, Marc clerked for Alabama Supreme Court Associate Justice J. Gorman Houston, Jr. (1998-99), and later served as Justice Houston’s senior staff attorney (2001-2004). Between those positions, Marc was in private practice, specializing in appellate litigation and constitutional and administrative law. During that time, he also taught as an adjunct professor of law, teaching First Amendment Law, Administrative Law, Public Interest Law, and legal writing/appellate advocacy. His work on statutory interpretation was cited as one of the most pertinent sources that influenced Justice Antonin Scalia and Bryan Garner in their treatise Reading Law: The Interpretation of Legal Texts.
David G. Wirtes, Jr. is a member of Cunningham Bounds, LLC of Mobile, Alabama, where he focuses on strategic planning, motion practice and appeals. Mr. Wirtes is licensed in all state and federal courts in Alabama and Mississippi, the Fifth and Eleventh Circuit Courts of Appeals and the United States Supreme Court. He is active in numerous professional organizations, including as a member of the Alabama and Mississippi State Bar Associations, long-time member of the Alabama Supreme Court’s Standing Committee on the Rules of Appellate Procedure, Sustaining Member of the Alabama Association for Justice (and Member of its Board of Governors and Executive Committee (1990-present); Member and/or Chairman, Amicus Curiae Committee (1990-present); and co-editor, the Alabama Association for Justice Journal (1996-present)), and the American Association for Justice where he serves as a Member of its Amicus Curiae Committee (1999-present). Mr. Wirtes is a Sustaining Fellow, Trustee and Officer of the Pound Civil Justice Institute; a Senior Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America; a Founder and former Executive Director of the American Institute of Appellate Practice (and one of just fourteen persons certified nationwide by AIAP as an Appellate Specialist); and a Sustaining Member and the former Alabama Representative for Public Justice. He has published numerous journal articles and is a frequent lecturer at continuing legal education seminars, addressing topics such as Defeating Unlawful Discrimination in Jury Selection, Evidence, Examination of Witnesses, State Constitutional Protections, Immunity, Appellate Practice and Procedure, Electronic Discovery, and HIPAA and Ex parte Communications with Healthcare Providers.
