Photo by Jon Anderson.
Tamara Forbes is the new Municipal Court director for Vestavia Hills.
Tamara Forbes has been a familiar face around Vestavia Hills Municipal Court for nine years, but she recently stepped into a new role and hopes to make a bigger difference.
Forbes was hired in late April to replace Umang Patel as the municipal court director after Patel was promoted to director of administration and innovation (essentially the city clerk’s role with an expanded scope).
Forbes has been employed with Vestavia Hills Municipal Court since 2017 — a job she took shortly after graduating from the University of Alabama. She started as a part-time administrative assistant but quickly was sent to magistrate school and promoted to a magistrate job the same year. In 2022, she was promoted to magistrate supervisor, overseeing three other magistrates. And now four years later, she’s overseeing the whole department.
Forbes said she never imagined when she started she would one day be court director. “I think all the stars aligned for this to work out.”
She enjoys working in criminal justice and getting to interact with so many people, she said.
“It’s something new every day. You rarely get the same day twice,” she said. “ I enjoy working with the community — the citizens of Vestavia Hills.”
Court magistrates are the ones who work with police detectives and the public to determine if there is probable cause for an arrest warrant in misdemeanor criminal cases, such as menacing or harassing communications. They also process all the traffic tickets. In total, Vestavia Hills Municipal Court handles about 10,000 cases a year, Forbes said.
One of her biggest initial goals is to make it easier for people to get suspended driver’s licenses reinstated, she said. Currently, if people want to get their license reinstated, they must come into Municipal Court in person. She is working with the city’s software provider to find a way so people can make necessary payments and handle paperwork online.
Patel said it has been a joy to watch Forbes grow in her role.
“When I started here, she had just started as a full-time employee,” Patel said. “She’s worked her way up. She does such a great job. … I think she’s going to do great. She has an incredible work ethic. … She knows the history. She’s been around here longer than I have. She’s a little bit younger, but she has the experience to be really good at it.”
Forbes has an incredible memory, he said.
“If she told me something about my family, I would believe her before I would believe myself,” Patel said. “She has a knack for paying attention to detail — finding where there may be issues with things or error and [being] able to correct those. She’s been great with judges and attorneys. She’s really learned how to navigate that world and really kind of just ebb and flow with all the personalities that inevitably happen in that court system.”
Forbes grew up in the North Smithfield community just north of Birmingham and graduated from Gardendale High School in 2012. She got her bachelor’s degree in speech pathology but decided just before graduating that that career was not suited for her.
She now lives in the McCalla community with her husband and 11-month-old daughter. She spends her time doing activities with her daughter and is trying to become a runner, having completed her first 5K in March. She gets up at 4 a.m. and works out in downtown Birmingham four days a week before coming to work at 8 a.m.
“I’m very appreciative I’ve been extended this opportunity to serve as court director,” Forbes said. “I want to continue to serve the city as well as I can.”
