State and Local Legal Blog

Attorney General’s Opinions

If you are new to Mississippi municipal government, you may hear comments about “getting an Attorney General’s opinion”.  What does that mean?

The Attorney General of Mississippi and his staff “shall give his opinion in writing, without fee” at the request of the mayor or council or board of aldermen of any municipality of the state, when requested in writing, upon any question of law relating to their respective offices.  The authority for Attorney General’s opinions is found in Mississippi Code section 7-5-25.

With all due respect to the current Attorney General and Attorneys General past and future, an Attorney General’s opinion may not be right. Remember that Attorneys General are, after all, lawyers who have been elected to political office.  They become, upon election, the supreme civil law enforcement authority in the state, but sometimes even they get it wrong.

However, an Attorney General’s Opinion is valuable because if the municipality seeks a written opinion, receives one, and follows it, even if a court ultimately declares that opinion to be patently incorrect, there will be insulation from civil liability if the municipality has relied on the opinion and acted consistently therewith.

There are several caveats about Attorney General’s Opinions:

• They must be prospective in nature.
• Interpretations of current city ordinances are “best left to local authorities.”
• Be careful what you ask for….

Past Attorney General’s Opinions are available for perusal on the Attorney General’s website and are also available on Lexis-Nexis and Westlaw, as well as in the annotations of state statutes about which they refer.  It is often instructive to look for existing Attorney General’s opinions on various subjects that may confront your municipality.