Mobile Presiding Municipal Judge Carvine Adams to Lead Statewide Municipal Judges Association

MOBILE, Ala. — Mobile Presiding Municipal Judge Carvine Adams has been named president of the Alabama Municipal Judges Association, putting a Mobile jurist at the head of the statewide organization that supports judges in city courts across Alabama.

Adams will succeed the association’s current president, Judge James Sturdivant of Vestavia Hills. She had been serving as the group’s president-elect.

Mobile City Councilman Cory Penn shared the news, noting that Adams has served the community for several years and has deep roots in the Mobile area.

A decade on the Mobile bench

Adams has been part of Mobile Municipal Court for more than a decade. Then-Mayor Sandy Stimpson appointed her acting judge in 2014, and the Mobile City Council appointed her in May 2015 to a newly created full-time municipal judge position.

In 2022, Stimpson appointed her presiding judge of the court, a role that puts her in charge of the court’s administration in addition to hearing cases. Adams has described herself as the first woman appointed to the position.

Speaking at a District 4 community meeting earlier this fall, Adams told residents that the court has improved its ability to handle cases brought by the Mobile Police Department and to serve the public.

“I like to think that our community service and what we do for the community and how we provide access to justice and access to the courts have really improved over the years,” Adams said at the time. She noted that the court’s judges are located primarily on the second floor of Mobile Government Plaza downtown.

From Prichard to the bench

Adams grew up in Prichard and has lived in Mobile since 1999. She graduated from McGill-Toolen Catholic High School and earned a bachelor’s degree in English, with a minor in history, from Stillman College in 1993. She received her law degree from Miles Law School in 1996.

She began her legal career as a judicial law clerk in the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit, which covers Mobile County, working for the late Circuit Judge Robert G. Kendall and later as the first law clerk for the late Circuit Judge James C. Wood.

Her career has included both private practice and public service. She was an associate attorney at the Atchison Firm, P.C., from 2004 to 2007, representing clients in civil and criminal matters, and later served as of counsel in the Mobile office of The Cochran Firm. In the public sector, she worked as an assistant city attorney for the City of Mobile, as city attorney and prosecutor for the City of Prichard, and as legal counsel to the Mobile County School Board in personnel and employment hearings and arbitrations.

Adams is a member of the Alabama State Bar, the Mobile Bar Association and its Women Lawyers section, the Vernon Z. Crawford Bay Area Bar Association and the Paul W. Brock Inn of Court. She has served on the Mobile County Board of Human Resources and is a life member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.

About the Alabama Municipal Judges Association

The Alabama Municipal Judges Association was organized as a section of the Alabama League of Municipalities at the league’s annual meeting on Nov. 9, 2007. The league is the statewide association representing Alabama’s cities and towns.

The association was created to serve and benefit municipal judges throughout the state. Its goals are to foster communication and education among municipal judges in order to make Alabama’s municipal courts more efficient and effective.

All Alabama municipal judges, whether full-time or part-time, are eligible to join. Members receive reduced conference rates and access to the league’s legal department and updates on legislation and case law, and member dues help the association bring in national and regional experts to speak on topics of interest to judges.

Education is a central part of the group’s work. Under a 2010 order from the Alabama Supreme Court, municipal judges must complete at least six hours of continuing judicial education each year, including one hour on judicial ethics. Newly appointed judges must complete six hours within their first year on the bench.

The association’s leadership also includes Vice President K.C. Hairston of Mountain Brook, who served as president from 2022 to 2024.

What municipal courts do

Municipal courts are the level of Alabama’s court system that most residents are likely to encounter. They hear cases involving violations of city ordinances, traffic offenses and misdemeanors that occur within city limits. Municipal judges are appointed by their city’s governing body rather than elected.

In a city the size of Mobile, the municipal court handles a heavy volume of cases, from traffic tickets to misdemeanor charges filed by city police. The way those courts operate, from scheduling and fines to access for people without lawyers, can have a direct effect on residents’ daily lives.

As president of the statewide association, Adams will help shape the training and resources available to the judges who run those courts in cities and towns across Alabama.