http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/06/05/alabama.teacher.sex.salary/index.html

Falls under Civil Procedure... or Criminal Procedure? In which case I haven't studied it, and in any event Alabama law applies and the last place I'll be practicing law in 2 years is Alabama unless God decides he wants me working with death row inmates.

Still, Kudos to the lady's lawyer. I hope he's getting at least 1/3 of that 50K salary she'll be drawing in jail for the next five years. It may not seem like much, but times are tough, and I doubt he/she'll have to do that much work to earn it; it is decidedly not difficult to drag things through the court system, if that is your goal.

A case like this can go to the Supreme Court because the criminal charge operates under Federal Law. The quickest way this can be over (and the woman in jail with no more salary) is probably for the full judges panel to hear the case and for the civil case to be dropped; I presume the civil case is proceeding in the state court system under state law, in which case there is no appeal to the SC (they won't hear it anyways, the issue is too trivial here). I doubt the families of the victims would be able to squeeze much from the accused here anyways.