Alabama Attorney General Opinions: How to Find, Read and Cite Them

Short answer: Alabama attorney general opinions are written answers from the state's chief lawyer to legal questions from public officers who must act on the answer. Two things set them apart. The year in the number follows the state's fiscal year (its twelve-month budget year), which starts October 1. So opinion 2026-0001 is dated October 9, 2025. And a statute protects an officer who follows an opinion, even though a court need not agree with it. The office posts its opinions online. A withdrawn one carries a notice.

TL;DR

• Who can ask: listed state officers, plus county and city officers and boards. Local bodies must send a signed resolution with the request. Private people cannot ask.
• The number: the first four digits are the fiscal year, which runs October 1 to September 30. A letter can look a year off.
• The weight: an opinion is advisory, meaning it gives advice and has no force of law. A statute shields the officer who follows it. The Alabama Supreme Court has said it is not binding on the court.
• Where: the office's search page, which shows what later happened to each opinion. A separate page lists shareable links.
• Still good? Look for a withdrawal stamp on the letter. Check the history column on the office's own site.

Who can ask for Alabama attorney general opinions

A statute is a law passed by the legislature. Alabama Code section 36-15-1 sets the rules. The attorney general gives an opinion "on any question of law connected with the interests of the state." The state officers who can ask include the governor, the secretary of state, the auditor and the treasurer.

County and city officers can ask too, but only about their own duties. The statute lists probate judges (who handle wills and estates), sheriffs, tax collectors, mayors, county commissions, city councils and school boards. It adds any officer who handles public money.

Two rules trip people up. First, a county or city body must attach a resolution, which is a written vote of the board. It must state the facts that make the answer "necessary to the present performance of some official act." Second, the office will not take "moot, private, or personal questions." A moot question is one that no longer matters because events moved on. The office also turns away questions "subject to ongoing litigation," meaning a court case that is still active.

The request form "MUST be printed, contain an original signature, and be mailed," says the office. Ryan W. Shaw signs its opinions as chief of the opinions division. In an article in The Alabama Lawyer dated August 7, 2023, he reported an average of 97 days from request to publication. The office got 82 to 87 requests a year in 2021 and 2022. It published 52 to 55 opinions a year.

Why the number starts with the fiscal year

Alabama's fiscal year runs from October 1 to September 30 (Code section 1-3-4). Opinion numbers appear to follow it. The office pages I read do not state this rule. The four examples below fit it.

Expect other quirks. The letters print a three-digit count, such as 2026-001. The search page lists four digits, such as 2026-0001. Older citations use a two-digit year and five digits, as in "A.G. No. 95-00299" (A.G. means attorney general).

Do they bind anyone?

No court has to follow one. The state's top court said so in Poe v. Grove Hill Memorial Hospital Board, 441 So. 2d 861 (Ala. 1983). It wrote that "opinions of the Attorney General are not binding on this Court." It still called the opinion in that case "persuasive," meaning it carried weight.

For the officer who asked, the law is more generous. Section 36-15-19 says the written opinion "shall protect" the officer or board "from liability." The protection covers acts "performed as directed or advised in such opinion." Liability means being held legally responsible. The statute protects the one who asked. It does not make the opinion law.

Where to find them

The office's opinions page is the main source. The statute requires it to post "searchable, electronic copies" online. You can filter by number, date, keyword and the kind of officer who asked. Results show the date, number and requester. A column called subsequent history records what later happened to the opinion. Some opinions have a short synopsis.

A second page lists shareable links by year and number. Early opinions of public interest ran in printed reports, every two years until 1935 and every quarter after that. The office says digitized, searchable copies of those reports cover 1894 to 1980. In 2023 Shaw wrote that the online opinions went back to 1979. The office gives out older copies at no cost.

How the office cites its own opinions

I found no published citation rule for outsiders. The office's letters follow one form. Opinion 2026-0042 cites an older one as "Opinion to Honorable Robert S. Presto, Escambia County Attorney, dated Aug. 24, 1995, A.G. No. 95-00299." That gives the person who asked, the title, the date and the number. Copy it and keep the date. The number alone can mislead you about the year.

How to tell if an opinion is still good

Shaw's 2023 article explains the system. A new law, a court case or a new opinion can change an old one. Then the office adds a box to the upper right corner of the letter, or a note. He warned that legal search engines "do not go back and check for updates." Check the office's own site for any opinion you plan to rely on.

Opinion 2008-135 shows what withdrawal looks like. It said a private club's own employees could run a bingo center in Houston County. A one-page letter dated February 11, 2011 now sits in front of it. The letter says the opinion "is hereby withdrawn and revoked." The old opinion is stamped too: "THIS OPINION WAS WITHDRAWN AND REVOKED BY ATTORNEY GENERAL LUTHER STRANGE ON FEBRUARY 11, 2011."

A real recent opinion: can a county force direct deposit?

On March 4, 2026, the office issued opinion 2026-016 to the lawyer for the Calhoun County Commission. You can open it from the shareable-links page under 2026. The commission asked a plain question. Could it make employees take their pay only by direct deposit, if each worker picked the bank?

The answer was no. A property interest is a legal right to money or things you own, and the office treated earned pay as one. In its words: "County employees have a property interest in their earned pay. Accordingly, a county commission may not require county employees to receive their pay solely by direct deposit." No statute gives counties that power. The opinion says "the Legislature has not authorized Calhoun County, or any county," to require it.

A county payroll manager can use this today. A commission may offer direct deposit. It may not make it the only choice. Before changing a payroll policy, check whether a newer statute or opinion changed the answer.

An older opinion that is still cited

That 2026 opinion leans on opinion 2002-276, dated June 28, 2002. The City of Gadsden had asked about doing the same for city workers. The office said a city may not require workers to "acquire or maintain an account at a financial institution."

The 2026 opinion traces what came next. The legislature answered the 2002 opinion with a new statute for cities, section 11-47-26. A 2020 opinion held that counties still lacked the power. Opinion 2026-016 reaffirmed that. So an old opinion can stay useful while the law around it moves. Read the newer opinions that cite it.

Mistakes people make in Alabama

• Reading 2026-0001 as a 2026 letter. The date on it is October 2025.
• Skipping the resolution. The statute says local bodies "shall submit" one.
• Asking about a case already in court. The statute bars it.
• Trusting a copy from a legal database. It may not show a withdrawal.
• Treating the shield as binding law. The statute protects the officer who asked. It does not bind a judge.

This guide is part of US Law Data: The Complete Guide. For how Alabama's statutes and rules are numbered, see how to find and cite Alabama law. The national guide compares other states. The Mississippi guide covers another state that shields officials.

FAQ

Who can ask for an Alabama attorney general opinion? Listed state officers can ask. So can county and city officers, boards and councils, about their own duties. Local bodies attach a signed resolution. Private citizens cannot ask.

Is an Alabama attorney general opinion binding? No court has to follow it. The state's top court said so in 1983. Section 36-15-19 does protect the officer who followed the advice.

Why is opinion 2026-0001 dated October 2025? The year in the number is the state fiscal year, which starts October 1. The first opinion of fiscal year 2026 came out on October 9, 2025.

How long does the office take? In 2023 the opinions chief reported an average of 97 days from request to publication. Your wait may differ.

How do I find out if an opinion was withdrawn? Open it on the office's site. Look for a box in the upper right corner or a stamp on the letter. Also check the subsequent history column in the search results.

How do I cite one? Follow the office's own letters: "Opinion to Honorable [name], [title], dated [date], A.G. No. 2026-016." Keep the date.

Can a private person get an opinion? No. A private person can read any posted opinion. An official can ask a question on the same issue.

To read Alabama opinions next to the statutes they apply, see the Vaquill AI US primary law data API. Primary law means the official texts, such as statutes and attorney general opinions. An API is a feed that lets software look them up.

Priyansh Khodiyar

Co-Founder & CTO

Priyansh leads engineering and AI at Vaquill AI: the pipelines that pull statutes, regulations and court rules from every US jurisdiction's official publisher, and the REST API, MCP server and open dataset that serve them.