What are Maryland Civil Court Records?

Maryland Civil Court Records comprises court papers and documents recorded during the state’s civil court actions. These documents include exhibits, notices, orders, motions, docket entries, or other similar records written on paper or recorded electronically as part of the civil court’s judicial process. Following the establishment of Maryland’s Public Information Act (PIA), court records are public records and may be accessed, viewed, and copied by the public upon request. Interested members of the public may find Maryland civil court records in the jurisdiction where the case was heard. However, some case records are rendered confidential by statute or court rule and hence not subject to public inspection.

Cases Heard by Maryland’s Civil Court

Maryland civil courts oversee various non-criminal legal actions. They are involved in the resolution of person-person, person-entity, and entity-entity disputes. Civil cases may border on breach of contracts, disputes involving negligence that lead to injury or death, tort, family-related disputes, landlord-occupant cases, cases pertaining to Maryland liens, and more.

Who can access Civil Court Records in the State of Maryland?

Under the rules governing access to Maryland’s judicial records, the general public has the right to inspect, view, and copy most civil records in the state. These records are filed and managed in the specific courthouse of the case and can be retrieved by interested parties. Furthermore, expunged and statutorily sealed confidential records are not available for public inspection. Requests for such records typically yield a “No such records exist” result. The clerk of the court functions as the official custodian whose due diligence is to attend to all requests for case-related information within the court’s jurisdiction. Also, the clerk of each court may make local policies in connection with the inspection of civil records.

What information is contained in a Maryland Civil Court Record?

The information contained in a Maryland civil court record depends primarily on the nature and actions of the case. However, all civil case records share similar headers which may include:

• Name and personal information of parties involved
• Assigned Attorney(s) information
• Case information (court type, court location, case number, case type, case status)
• Case filing date
• Hearing dates, time, and location
• Events
• Claims and counterclaims
• Financial summary
• Findings/Sentence information
• Judge and division assigned to the case

Understanding Maryland’s Court Structure

The state of Maryland operates a four-level court system in which there are two appellate and two trial courts. The appellate courts are the Supreme Court and the Court of Special Appeals while the trial courts are the District and Circuit Courts. Also, there are other judicial and administrative courts that maintain special jurisdictions throughout the state.

• Supreme Court: Otherwise known as the court of appeals, the Supreme court is the highest court in the state. As the name implies, the court has sovereign jurisdiction over reviewable decisions of the trial courts especially those as regards death penalty cases, legislative duties, removal of government officials, and other cases related to questions of law. The supreme court is located at Annapolis with 7 sitting judges who exclusively decide which cases to hear.
• Court of Special Appeals: This is the intermediate appellate court that has jurisdiction over trial courts’ actions. Created in 1966, the court of special appeals currently has 15 judges who sit in panels of three to review the judgment and decrees of the lower courts. Sometimes, all the judges sit together to hear the case.

• Circuit Court: The circuit court constitutes the courts of general jurisdiction over major civil and criminal cases. They also review cases appealed from the district and orphans’ courts, as well as certain administrative agencies that require jury trials. Furthermore, the court shares overlapping jurisdiction with the district court if the decided penalties of the district court are greater than or equal to 3 years in jail, greater than or equal to a fine of $2500, or both. There are 24 circuit courts located in each county and Baltimore City.

• District Court: The district courts are courts of limited jurisdiction; hearing criminal and civil cases including monetary claims up to $30,000, domestic relation cases, landlord-tenant disputes, and reclaim of wrongly confiscated goods of less than $5,000. There are 34 district courts located in 12 districts throughout the state.

Are Maryland Civil Court Records Open to the Public?

Pursuant to Maryland Public Records Act, non-confidential civil court records are public records and may be publicly accessible for viewing, inspection, and copying by anyone. Typically, the publicly accessible information may include general case information such as the case style, case number, the presiding judge’s name, attending parties and attorneys, the major events in the case, the case history events, and record information. However, some records may be exempted in part or fully from public view because the safety of the case parties outweighs the need for public access, hence limiting access to such cases to only authorized individuals allowed by the special provisions of the law or court order. Some of such records include:

• Adoption and paternity proceedings
• Termination of parental rights cases
• Juvenile delinquency cases
• Child in need of assistance cases (CINA)
• Mental health evaluations cases
• Tax returns from income
• Financial statements filed in a case about child/spousal support
• Some marriage license information
• Reports filed by a physician concerning the medical condition of an alleged disabled adult
• Reports filed by a guardian regarding the property of an alleged disabled adult

How to Find Civil Court Records in Maryland

Depending on the discretion of the requesters, Maryland Civil Court Records can be obtained by any four methods. Interested members of the public can opt to obtain records:

• By submitting a record request in person
• By searching the state’s online court website
• By requesting for records via mail
• Through third party aggregate sites like CourtRecords.us

How to Obtain Maryland Civil Court Records in Person

Step 1. Gather Relevant Case Information

To adequately render a record request, the case information of the sought record must be known. This narrows the search and enables the custodian to locate and release the record. Such information includes; the case number, the name of parties to the record, filing date range, and the name of the presiding judge. Also, appropriate identification of the court where the hearing or trial was conducted is necessary to prevent wasting time and resources on the wrong court.

Step 2. Locate and Visit the Courthouse

Depending on the local court guidelines, requesters can conduct a search by submitting a written request to the clerk of court or record custodian for the court. Some courts provide online request forms that can be printed from the court website and filled before visiting the court to simplify the process. Other courts may provide this request form in paper format which makes pre-completion before visit impossible. The use of a known case number provides the quickest path to obtaining records. If the case number is not known, some court clerks may require additional fees to access these records. Also, most courts maintain a self-help computer terminal or kiosks where cases can be searched by name allowing physical requesters the advantage of viewing and inspecting records before requesting copies (if needed). Locate the specific court clerk by clicking on this Portal.

Step 3. Pay the Required Fees and Obtain Copies of Records

As expressed by law, there may be no charge for inspection of court records with fewer than two hours of effort by the record custodian or any other court employee. However, if a record search lingers for more than two hours of effort, a reasonable amount is required before the record is provided. Also, persons who wish to obtain copies of civil records may be required to pay a fee for this service. The payment method and requirement varies from court to court and depends on the number of pages intended to be copied. Additional fees may apply if certified copies are also requested.

How Do I Obtain Civil Court Records by Mail?

Before requesting court records by mail, the requestor must be sure the court offers mail-in services. Visit the Clerks’ contact directory to confirm if the court of interest offers the option of requesting criminal court records by mail. The clerk of court generally provides the mailing address and specific steps required for obtaining records. Some courts may provide a downloadable form to facilitate the search.

How to Obtain Maryland Civil Court Records Online

The Maryland judiciary maintains a central E-service Case search portal that contains information generated during the appellate and trial court hearings in the state. In compliance with the provisions made by the Maryland public access to court records, the information available by remote searches are limited to the party names involved in the case, case information such as case number, case judge, scheduled date, time and location of court proceedings, orders and decrees, judgment and relevant report. In sharp contrast, some information which specifically identifies jurors, victims, witnesses, and impartial parties are excluded from the web portal. This additional information usually requires in-person or mail-in requests to be retrieved from the court clerk. All information available on the web portal may be accessed for free. Furthermore, the amount of historic data available on the portal varies by jurisdiction and is solely based on when the automated case management system was deployed by the court. Also, with the exception of Montgomery County which is delayed by about 10 minutes, the case information is reflected in the case search almost immediately upon entry.

Note that the case search has been programmed to time out after 2 minutes of inactivity and that telephone requests are not acceptable by all the clerks in the state.

Publicly available records are accessible from some third-party websites. These websites offer the benefit of not being limited by geographical record availability and can often serve as a starting point when researching specific or multiple records. To find a record using the search engines on these sites, interested parties must provide:

• The name of someone involved, providing it is not a juvenile
• The assumed location of the record in question such as a city, county, or state name

Third party sites are not government sponsored websites, and record availability may differ from official channels.

Are all Maryland Civil Court Records Online?

No, not all Maryland civil court records are online. Recent civil court cases are maintained in the case search portal while older records of filed cases may be unavailable in digitized format. This asserts that such records can only be viewed in paper print form by walk-in visits and cannot be viewed online until they are imaged and uploaded by the court clerk. Also, online access to confidential civil court cases, such as records of domestic-related cases among many others is protected from public inspection or view.