Gary L. “Gar” Blume

Gary L. “Gar” Blume began practicing law in 1978. After working for other firms, he opened his own firm in 1984 in Tuscaloosa.  His wife, Nettie Cohen Blume, joined him in 1988, forming Blume & Blume. Mr. Blume’s practice primarily focuses on trials and appeals of Criminal Defense, Juvenile Court matters, Social Security Disability, and Worker’s Compensation cases. He is a frequent Continuing Legal Education presenter on criminal defense and juvenile court matters.

In June of 2015, the Alabama Criminal Defense Lawyers Association presented Gar with the Roderick Beddow, Sr. Award for Lifetime Achievement in Criminal Defense.

In October of 2017, the National Juvenile Defender Center presented Gar with the Robert E. Shepherd, Jr. Award for Leadership and Excellence in Juvenile Defense, the first lawyer in private practice to receive that honor.

Gar is a longtime member of the Advisory Board of the Southern Juvenile Defender Center. He has participated in the “invitation only” National Juvenile Defense Conference every year since 2007 (except for 2011 due to tornado recovery), frequently presenting on various topics. Gar was the lone juvenile defense representative on the 2016-2017 Alabama Juvenile Justice Task Force and previously chaired the Alabama State Bar Task Force on Juvenile Law, Child and Adolescent Rights.  He is the long-time chair of the Tuscaloosa County Bar Association’s Juvenile Bar Committee.  Mr. Blume is well-known as a passionate advocate for accused, neglected and abused children and their families.  He is a certified Guardian ad Litem.  A substantial portion of Gar’s practice is dedicated to representing children in juvenile court.

On October 26, 2021, Gar was a part of the team seeking long-overdue expungement of the 1955 juvenile conviction of then-15-year-old Claudette Colvin. 9 months before Rosa Parks, young Ms. Colvin was the first person of color to refuse to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus for a white person. The now 82-year-old Ms. Colvin has long been troubled by her conviction. For the Motion, including Ms. Colvin’s Affidavit, click here: Claudette Colvin Expungement Motion & Affidavit

Gar was presented with the Merit Award by the Alabama Criminal Defense Lawyer’s Association in 2012 for “outstanding representation and performance in a criminal case.” That particular case took over 6 years to resolve. The 16-year-old Defendant’s sex-offense charges started in Juvenile Court, but were “automatically” transferred to adult court. After numerous hearings, jurisdictional challenges and disputes over the Defendant’s competency, the Defendant was granted Youthful Offender status and found not guilty on all charges.  Gar received that award again in 2014 for what was then the fasted not-guilty verdict in Tuscaloosa County – 6 minutes in a case where the drugs were found in a car between his client’s feet.  He broke that record in 2018 with a 3 minute not guilty verdict in a heroin sale case. A substantial portion of Gar’s practice consists of defending those accused of breaking the law.

Mr. Blume has long been dedicated to alleviating the plight of disabled workers. There is nothing more devastating to a person who is accustomed to working and contributing to their household than the loss of his/her ability to earn a living due to injury, disease or chronic condition. Not only does the disabled worker suffer the symptoms associated with their medical condition(s); but those problems are almost always compounded by secondary depression over the loss of capabilities and anxiety over an uncertain future. That the disabled worker is then left to attempt to navigate the quagmire of Social Security Disability regulations and procedures for years is nothing short of a tragedy. A substantial portion of Gar’s practice consists of championing the cause of the disabled worker against the federal bureaucracy, one case at a time.

When a worker suffers an on-the-job injury, the employer has unlimited resources through their insurance companies, lawyers, nurse-case-managers and investigators that immediately spring into action, working to deny the worker the benefits he/she deserves. Mr. Blume has always championed the cause of the injured worker. As the result of one of Gar’s cases, there is an established legal principal in Alabama that a worker can be totally disabled as a result of pain, in and of itself. Jim Walter Resources, Inc. v. Budnick, 619 So.2d 926 (1993). A portion of Gar’s practice involves representing injured employees in worker’s compensation cases.

Mr. Blume received his B.S. (1974) and J.D. (1978) degrees from the University of Alabama. While in law school, he served as Research Editor of The Law and Psychology Review.

Mr. Blume is a member of the Alabama State Bar (1978) and is admitted to practice in the Northern District of Alabama (1978), Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals (1979), Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals (1981) and the United States Supreme Court (1981).

He is married to his law partner, Nettie Cohen Blume. They have two children, Zack (a math teacher at Southside High School – married to Tiffany) and Rachel (also a lawyer with the firm – married to Curry Robertson, also a lawyer with B&B).