Your state’s pack. New issues arrive periodically on Mondays. Bookmark it. I built this for the Alabama T&E solo who knows Title 43, Ch. 8 (Alabama’s own Probate Code) cold but still loses an afternoon a week hunting the current homestead-allowance number, the Medicaid (Alabama Medicaid Agency) LTC-waiver posture, whether the latest Alabama State Bar ethics opinion changes how you scope an engagement, or whether a recent Alabama Court of Civil Appeals decision just moved the law on capacity, undue influence, or a trustee’s duties. What’s below is what mattered in Alabama lately — the week’s developments and the recent rulings from the bench.
For licensed attorneys. This pack is general legal information and professional commentary for practicing attorneys — it is not legal advice, does not apply to any specific matter, and creates no attorney-client relationship. Verify every authority against the cited primary source before relying on it with a client. Published by Mike Moss, a Utah-admitted attorney, as an AI-enablement information product; it is not an offer of legal services and is not a representation that the author is admitted to practice in your jurisdiction.
Three developments from the last seven days that I think actually matter to a Alabama T&E solo. Each one has a read that lands on your practice specifically — and each one comes with the citation so you can verify the detail yourself before you use it with a client.
Per the enrolled bill, HB164 (2025; effective Oct. 1, 2025) raised Alabama’s summary-distribution threshold and tied it to the CPI-adjusted combined homestead + exempt-property + family allowance (a floating cap), added probate-court management of the process, and built in a mandatory Alabama Medicaid Agency notice plus a 30-day wait.
For an Alabama solo, this reshapes intake on small-estate matters directly: the qualifying threshold is no longer a fixed number you can memorize — it floats, so you re-derive it each year — and the new mandatory Medicaid-Agency notice with its 30-day wait is a step you build into the timeline before distribution, not after. Update your small-estate checklist and client-timeline boilerplate to reflect both.
Ala. HB164 (2025 Reg. Sess.), enrolled · alison.legislature.state.al.us · HB164-enr
Per the enrolled bill, SB41 (2026; effective Oct. 1, 2026) amends Ala. Code § 43-8-253 so a person convicted of elder abuse, neglect, or financial exploitation of the decedent is treated as having predeceased the decedent — cut off from taking under a will, by intestacy, by right of survivorship, or by beneficiary designation.
For an Alabama solo, this is a new tool and a new diligence point. When a contest or administration involves a caregiver-beneficiary with an abuse or exploitation conviction tied to the decedent, the bar operates like the slayer rule — the conviction, not a separate civil finding, drives disqualification across will, intestacy, survivorship, and beneficiary-designation channels. Flag the conviction question at intake on contested estates, because it can reorder who takes.
Ala. SB41 (2026 Reg. Sess.), enrolled · amending Ala. Code § 43-8-253 · alison.legislature.state.al.us · SB41-enr
Per the opinion, Alabama State Bar Formal Opinion 2026-01 (May 2026) is the state’s first formal ethics opinion on generative AI. It imposes no new duties but recontextualizes existing ones — competence (including technological competence), confidentiality, supervision, candor, reasonable fees, and client communication — for AI-assisted work, endorses ABA Formal Opinion 512, and confirms the lawyer remains fully responsible for AI work product.
For an Alabama solo using AI-assisted drafting or research, this is the controlling in-state ethics frame: you are fully accountable for AI output, so verification, confidentiality screening of inputs, and a fee basis you can explain are now the diligence baseline. If you have adopted any AI tool, read FO 2026-01 against your current intake, confidentiality, and billing practices and close any gap before it surfaces in a matter.
Ala. State Bar Formal Opinion 2026-01 (May 2026) · alabar.org · FO 2026-01
Decisions from the courts that bind an Alabama practitioner — the Supreme Court of Alabama and the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals, the U.S. District Courts for the Northern, Middle, and Southern Districts of Alabama, and the Eleventh Circuit — read for what actually changes how you draft, advise, and plan. Trusts and estates broadly, not Medicaid alone: wills and capacity, undue influence, fiduciary duty, trust construction, and estate recovery. One read, the holding, and the official cite.
Across the Alabama appellate courts and the federal courts covering Alabama, no qualifying trusts-and-estates or estate-recovery decision has been verified for this period. Per the lane’s no-invent rule, this row says so plainly rather than inflating a holding. The lane reads each opinion before it lands here, and reads-and-discards Medicaid program/provider litigation as not T&E.
Nothing to re-paper from the bench this period; controlling authority is unchanged.
Awaiting verified weekly signal — CourtListener used for discovery only, never cited as authority.
This slot holds the next significant trusts-and-estates or estate-recovery decision from Alabama’s appellate courts or the federal courts covering Alabama. When the trailing window has no new ruling, this row says so plainly rather than inventing one.
[Per-state “what this means today” paragraph lands here once a ruling is populated — otherwise: nothing to re-paper from the bench this period; controlling authority unchanged.]
Official reporter · court · date — never courtlistener.com
This week in Alabama for the T&E solo with Alabama Medicaid clients: the developments from the Alabama State Bar and the Alabama Medicaid Agency that actually moved your practice this period — each one primary-source verified.
Bar and Medicaid changes land on different schedules and aren't indexed by practice focus. Every item here was checked against its primary source, with the link, so you can verify before relying on it.