Alabama Civil Appeals judge, former lawmaker in intensive care after massive heart attack

Matt Fridy, a former lawmaker from Shelby County who is now a judge on the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals, suffered a heart attack and was in intensive care Wednesday afternoon, state Rep. Jim Hill said.

Hill, chairman of the Alabama House Judiciary Committee, said a prayer for Fridy to open Wednesday’s committee meeting.

“When you have a massive heart attack and you’re in intensive care, that trumps every single thing we’re doing in here this afternoon,” Hill said.

“We just love Matt. We’ve known him for so long. We think so much of him. He’s such a value to this state. He was a value to this state when he was in this Legislature. He is a value to this state on the Court of Civil Appeals,” Hill said.

Fridy was elected in 2014 to the House of Representatives in District 73, which included parts of Montevallo, Alabaster, Pelham, and Helena.

Voters reelected Fridy, a Republican, in 2018. He resigned from the House when he was elected to the Court of Civil Appeals in 2020.

Fridy graduated from the Cumberland School of Law at Samford University in 2001. After graduating from Cumberland, Fridy served a one-year federal clerkship for U.S. District Judge Edwin Nelson.

He graduated from the University of Montevallo with a degree in history in 1998 and was appointed by Gov. Kay Ivey to the board of trustees in 2023.

He was a lawyer with Wallace, Jordan, Ratliff & Brandt.

Judge Fridy and his wife, Kimberly, have five children. They live in Pelham.