News & Insights

Terry McCarthy Co-Authors Latest Edition of Gamble’s Alabama Rules of Evidence

October 31, 2024

Lightfoot Franklin & White LLC partner Terrence W. McCarthy has co-authored the updated Fourth Edition of Gamble’s Alabama Rules of Evidence. 

First published in 1996, Gamble’s Alabama Rules of Evidence is one of the leading authorities on Alabama evidence law and is a companion treatise to McElroy’s Alabama Evidence. The Fourth Edition covers several major evidentiary developments, including new authentication rules for electronic evidence, amendments to the statutory “child hearsay exception,” Alabama’s adoption of the Daubert standard for scientific evidence, updated notice requirements before prosecutors may offer “other bad acts” evidence against a criminal defendant and more. 

“While McElroy’s Alabama Evidence is an exhaustive three-volume treatise on Alabama evidence law, Gamble’s is a succinct, one-volume treatise that serves as a quick reference guide for lawyers to quickly refer to during the heat of trial or a hearing,” McCarthy said. 

McCarthy helped write the Fourth Edition alongside two of his longtime mentors, Dean Emeritus Charles W. Gamble from the University of Alabama School of Law and Professor Emeritus Robert J. Goodwin of Samford University’s Cumberland School of Law. McCarthy was a student in Gamble’s evidence class and his research assistant in law school. Gamble, Goodwin and McCarthy co-authored the Third Edition of Gamble’s Alabama Rules of Evidence (published in 2014). They also co-authored McElroy’s Alabama Evidence.

For the first time ever, the treatise is available in searchable electronic format in addition to the traditional hard copy. Both the hard copy and electronic access can be purchased here. 

McCarthy is a member of the firm's appellate and insurance law practices and is widely recognized as a leading authority on Alabama state evidence law. He is frequently called upon to consult on and argue evidence issues at trial and to preserve the appellate record on appeal. In addition to his diverse trial and appellate practice at Lightfoot, McCarthy has taught (and continues to teach) evidence and procedural courses at the University of Alabama School of Law, Birmingham School of Law and Cumberland School of Law. He also serves on the Alabama Supreme Court Advisory Committee to the Rules of Evidence and lectures on state evidence issues through various CLE courses.

McCarthy received the Cumberland School of Law “Outstanding Adjunct Professor Award” in 2019, and in 2016, he received the Judge Walter P. Gewin Award for his significant contributions to the development and presentation of CLE programs. He is also recognized by The Best Lawyers in America© (BL Rankings, LLC) for Appellate Practice, Insurance Litigation and Commercial Litigation.