Alabama Code 12-20-50. Establishment or restoration of lost, etc., records of state, county, or municipality
Terms Used In Alabama Code 12-20-50
- Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
- Appellate: About appeals; an appellate court has the power to review the judgement of another lower court or tribunal.
- circuit: means judicial circuit. See Alabama Code 1-1-1
- Common law: The legal system that originated in England and is now in use in the United States. It is based on judicial decisions rather than legislative action.
- Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
- Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
- state: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Alabama Code 1-1-1
- Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
- Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
- Transcript: A written, word-for-word record of what was said, either in a proceeding such as a trial or during some other conversation, as in a transcript of a hearing or oral deposition.
The circuit courts of this state shall have jurisdiction of an action by the state, a county or municipality or any citizen who will give security for the costs of the proceeding to establish or restore any lost, mislaid, destroyed or mutilated records of the state, county or municipality, or of any department, agency or instrumentality thereof. Such courts shall have jurisdiction and power to prescribe all necessary rules, regulations and proceedings proper or necessary to establish or restore lost, mislaid, destroyed or mutilated records and, when so established or restored, to declare them to be the proper and legal records as the original which was so lost, mislaid, destroyed or mutilated. The proceedings shall be ex parte, and any citizen of the state who will give security for the costs of the appeal may appeal from the order, judgment or decision of the circuit court establishing or restoring or refusing to establish or restore such records to the appropriate appellate court of the state. The evidence on the hearing in the circuit court may be by depositions or affidavits, and witnesses may be examined orally and their testimony taken down by the court stenographer and transcribed and certified by him as being true and correct. On appeal to the appropriate appellate court, the transcript of the record, proceedings, and all testimony shall be certified by the circuit court; and, upon the hearing in the appropriate appellate court, such court may affirm or reverse the judgment or order of the circuit court or may enter such judgment, order or decision as the circuit court should have entered on the record and evidence so certified. The proceeding under this section shall not be deemed exclusive, but additional or supplementary to any other remedy given by common law or statute.
