Fro those interested between public and private for the purposes of enforcing laws, private property such as a parking lot or mall can be considered public if it is a place that the public is commonly invited on and allowed to go on and used. However, that is highly open to interpretation by whatever judge the issue is before. I've seen them consider a parking lot public and other times I've seen them say no to a ticket written on the property because it is private. The seriousness of the offense seems to matter to them when they rule on this, it shouldn't but it does to many I've seen in action.

A reminder before trying to defend yourself from a parking lot ticket, DUI and Reckless Driving are the only two traffic offenses for which Alabama law allows you to be cited for on private property. The unintended consequences of this is that an officer sees a person speeding at a high rate of speed across the WalMart parking lot. He would like very much to just write a speeding ticket for going over a safe and prudent speed (that is one of the subsections in Title 32's speeding law to cover it when a speed is not posted), but since he is not sure the judge will consider the parking lot as public, he just writes for Reckless Driving instead which is a bad deal for the driver. I'm not talking about a little over the speed limit, but a lot and we've all seen it in parking lots.

Then there is the whole can of worms to consider when someone thinks they can't be arrested for DUI on a four wheeler on their own property. Not my own property, but I admit to being guilty of this a time or two on the property I hunt on while scouting. I always found more good sign and racoons after a beer or three. .