Maryland Court Docket Search

A Maryland court docket search allows users to review all the documents filed with the courts, including documents relating to criminal proceedings, civil cases, and other legal matters. It can also be used to find details about past hearings, rulings, opinions, and decisions related to a specific case.

Maryland court dockets are a schedule of upcoming case proceedings at a particular court. A docket number, often referred to as a case number, is given to each legal action when it is filed in a Maryland state court. This number is used to identify the case and add it to the court docket. Maryland court dockets contain basic information about court cases. These include and are not limited to the names of the parties involved, the case number, the judge's name, the courtroom number, and the scheduled hearing time. Most state courts maintain Maryland court records as well as daily court dockets online on their official websites.

Are Court Dockets Public Record in Maryland?

Under Maryland Code and Court Rules “Rule 16-904”, judicial records are presumed public. Except as prohibited by federal or state law, state procedural rules, a court order, or case law. Judiciary records include case records, and in accordance with Rule 16-903, a case record also includes court docket entries. As a result, the majority of court records are regarded as public records in Maryland.

However, MD Rules, Rule 16-914 restricts public access to some cases' court dockets. These include, but are not limited to, guardianship and adoption cases, as well as those shielded by state laws like Family Law Article, § 4-512. In such cases, only litigants, their attornies, and court staff may be allowed to access the case’s court docket.

Where to Find a Court Docket in Maryland

Court dockets in Maryland are classified judicial records and are maintained by the clerk offices of courthouses in the state. Thus, anyone interested in finding a case’s court docket is advised to begin their search at the clerk's office of the courthouse where the case was filed.

Many Maryland courts also provide daily court dockets they generate and maintain online on their official county or court website. Looking through these websites is a good alternative for finding court dockets in Maryland for out-of-state inquirers and those who can not visit the court in person.

How to Conduct a Maryland Court Docket Search

A Maryland court docket search can be done by interested parties through the state court where the case that is the focus of their inquiry was filed. In Maryland, the majority of court dockets are made available to the public both electronically and physically at state courthouses.

Anyone looking for a physical record of a case's court docket can go to the state court where the case was filed and ask for the relevant court docket in the court clerk's office. When requesting a case's record (court docket), the requester is required to give sufficient information about the case in accordance with MD Rules, Rule 16-922. By doing this, the custodian will be better able to locate the basic case information.

Most Maryland circuit courts also publish daily court dockets of cases expected to be heard the following day on their respective county administrative office, or court website. These court dockets are updated every weekday between 4 pm to 5 pm and are subject to last minutes changes. Some examples of these daily dockets include the Washington county circuit court daily docket webpage, Frederick county circuit court daily docket webpage, and Carroll county circuit court daily docket webpage. Litigants can also view their case’s court docket on the day of their scheduled hearing through docket monitors provided in most Maryland courthouses. Interested persons can use the circuit court clerk directory on the state judiciary website to find the contact information, address, and official website of circuit courts in Maryland.

Weekly court dockets are also published online by Maryland district courts. These weekly dockets are available on each district court's webpage. Interested persons can find the webpages of each Maryland district court through the District Court Locations Directory provided on the Maryland judiciary website. On the directory, inquirers can access a district court webpage by using the county map or clicking on the direct links provided on the page. On the right side of each district court webpage, there is a “weekly docket” button inquirers can click to access the weekly docket of a district court. On the weekly docket, inquirers can view court cases scheduled for the following week in a particular district court. These weekly dockets are updated each Friday afternoon every week and are also subject to unexpected changes. Some examples of these web pages include the Garrett County district court webpage and the Washington County district court webpage.

Interested persons can also search and access the docket sheet of a particular case online through PACER. Meanwhile, Maryland Tax Court dockets are accessible online on the tax court’s hearing docket webpage.

What is the Purpose of a Court Docket in Maryland

In a nutshell, a Maryland court docket provides the time and date of hearings for different court cases in the form of a single, brief log. Maryland courts use their court docket as their official calendar of hearings and events to notify the court of impending actions. Additionally, Maryland courts employ their court dockets as essential case management tools to make sure that court cases are heard promptly and are appropriately tracked.

Although Maryland court dockets are less detailed than those in other jurisdictions, they nonetheless give the basic details regarding each case's progress. Litigants, their attorneys, and the general public can utilize these details to learn more about a court case. Such as a case’s hearing date, start time, type of hearing (for example pleas, sentence, and trial), and outcome, amongst other pertinent information about the case.

What Do Court Dockets Contain Maryland?

Contents of court dockets in Maryland include and are not limited to the following:

The case title
The case number
Case category; family, criminal, juvenile, and civil.
The type of hearing.
Names of litigants
Attorney names
The courthouse location and facility description. This includes the number of the courtroom where the cases would be or were heard.
The name of the case judge/magistrate
Hearing comments
The case charges and the jail location where the defendant is being held (if relevant)
The next hearing date

It should be noted that the content of court dockets in Maryland may differ by court. While some court dockets are comprehensive, others could be brief and simply include the facts the court considered relevant. As a result, some court dockets may not contain all of the case information mentioned above. whilst others could offer more details.

What is a Court Docket Number in Maryland?

A court docket number in Maryland is essentially a unique string of characters that is allocated to file of a case and used by the court to keep track of it on their court docket. By extension, a case's docket number is appended to each document filed in the case to allow the court to readily track and link files to cases throughout the state judiciary system. As a result, anyone looking for court records can locate a case by using the court docket number assigned to it.

Despite the name, the characters in a court docket number are not confined to numerical numbers alone. A court docket number format can include alphabets and special characters such as hyphens (in certain cases). The following are some of the formats that various Maryland court types use in assigning a court docket number:

XXX-XXX-0000-0000 for appellate cases
C-00-XX-00-000000 or 10-C-00-000000 for circuit court cases
D-000-CR-00-000000 or a seven to ten letter and number string combination such as 0000VQ0, 0XD0XX0, or 0X00000000 for district court cases.

Certain information regarding the case is frequently incorporated in the docket number when assigning a docket number to a case. A few of these include:

The cases filing date
An identifier of the court where the case was filed
The type of case
A string of numbers assigned to the case.

How to Conduct a Court Docket Number Lookup in Maryland

Anyone interested in conducting a court docket number lookup in Maryland can query the clerk's office of the court where the case was filed. Depending on what the court permits, interested parties may submit a lookup request via mail, phone, or in-person visitation to the courthouse. Note that in order to look up a case, the inquirer must supply sufficient information, such as the name of the litigant, in accordance with MD Rules, Rule 16-922. With this information, a record seeker can call, write to, or visit a court clerk’s office to request a court docket number lookup.

Interested persons can also inspect court case records to find a case’s court docket number, as a case’s docket number is usually included in every court document related to the case. Fortunately, Maryland courts allow remote access to court records through the Maryland Judiciary Case Search portal. The portal includes cases from all types of Maryland courts (trial and appellate). On the portal, record seekers can search for a case’s records by providing the name of a case’s party (person or company). Other details about the cases can also be provided to filter down results such as the case type (civil, criminal, traffic, or civil citation), the court system types, county, and filing date. Search results typically provide users a case number (court docket number) and other details about the case.