Maryland Court Schedules
The typical schedule for Maryland courts is Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Some Maryland courts may also offer evening hours, which vary by location; when the courts are open to the public on weekends and holidays is also location-dependent. Though it is rare for the courts to be closed during standard business hours, something such as severe weather or unanticipated circumstances can prompt an unscheduled closing.
It is possible to verify if the court is open today, including whether or not it is open for evening or weekend hours. An official court schedule and list of closures can usually be found through the local circuit, district, or federal court. For example, the web pages for the State of Maryland’s District Courts list each court’s operating hours, any suspended operations, and closings or delayed openings . Courts in Maryland hold sessions in the morning and again in the early afternoon, but parties should check for changes to the schedule or special hours for specific cases.
The Maryland Judiciary provides such information as is available through its website, as do the various local courts’ websites, which are generally linked from the state’s Judiciary website. The following outlets also provide information regarding court operation status: ABC2 News, WBAL Radio, WBAL TV, USA Today, and Baltimore Sun (City/Regional) and (Statewide). While these outlets are not official relative to the Maryland courts, they are some of the most comprehensive sources available for information on court activity that is currently available.
Reasons for Court Closures
Even though we know the main factors that will close or delay court proceedings, nothing is as certain as the weather. And in the last decade, it has been more than the weather. Public holidays, extreme weather, heat advisories, freezes, hurricanes, and tornadoes have all contributed to closing the Maryland courts.
We’ve had more than one blizzard that resulted in court closings and delayed trials. There have been times when I had a trial set for January and I don’t believe any of the jurors showed up. We didn’t know whether they would have come if there had been a foot of snow or not. It was freezing and they had bad roads.
The recent heat wave was another reason. While there are no set rules about temperature, roofs collapse in extreme heat and electricity can fail. Last year, we had a hurricane that ended up being different than expected. And this winter, it was forecasted to be worse. There were two Fridays that were 1-hour delays. School openings were canceled and things were still not open until noon. This wasn’t the worst – but it was close. We have had some county courts that opened at noon, half hour delays, and early closings.
There was also the "Snow Jam of 2010" in late February which closed most of the state for a week, and in some cases up to ten days.
In Prince George’s County, the Supreme Court has its own building. They try not to close. If they can stay open in a hurricane, they will. Traffic Court is in a courthouse on US 1, and they tried to remain open during the last hurricane, but had to close. The Courthouse in Upper Marlboro is sometimes open and sometimes closed. But ten years ago, we had a snowstorm and I think we were closed for two or three weeks.
There is also flooding – low lying areas around rivers or close to the ocean can be flooded. Wicomico and Worcester counties are right on the bay, which can get flooded. They never close, but they did close for a couple of hours during Hurricane Isabel.
Occasionally we have a SARS type of thing – an anomaly like the swine flu. A judge said, "No! I will not meet in chambers with you." from his office in Montgomery County.
The court of appeals has satellite courts for district court, and they do whatever the district court does.
I have never seen any of the court closings caused by a health emergency, like the COVID-19 pandemic.
How to Learn of Court Openings
Virginia has made use of some of these online tools to quickly notify people of solvency issues with the Virginia Lawyers’ Fund. Take a look here to see what Virginia has done. I can’t help but wonder if some of these same notifications avenues could be put to use to let people know, when Maryland’s courts are open or closed for business. I would like to think so.
Fortunately we have a number of ways to check some of these things out. Check out the Maryland Judiciary’s online status updates here. The Judiciary is also providing information about "delays and cancellations" on their page. Information is also showing up on the Maryland Judiciary’s Facebook feed and on the Maryland Judiciary Twitter feed. The daily open/close court announcements are going out as usual. I should also mention that the Daily Record will Tweet out the day’s opening information.
What about news outlets? In my opinion, news outlets have been doing a pretty good job of giving up to the minute information about events. You have to pay attention and you cant rely on any single news source to get information and updates, you have seek out other news sources. In addition to television and radio, news crawl updates are a good source of information. As an example, the Baltimore Sun has been giving updates on a "rolling news crawl" which runs at the top of their website to provide information on weather, road and travel and statewide emergency updates, including court openings and closings.
Whenever information about closings or openings is being provided, it is important to make sure that you have your "local" notification system active. WTOP comes to mind, but I know there are other local news notification systems in other areas. I have WTOP’s app on my phone and receive updates on my smart phone. In case you do not know, Apple’s iPhone now has the ability to have notifications come right in directly to an App, rather than just having notifications show up on the "notification screen" on your smart phone. Some Apps, like WTOP, will allow you to set up notifications on your smart phone for various topics, including school closings, weather, news alerts, and more. While WTOP is a good way to keep up with things in the D.C. Maryland region, there are apps to receive notifications for weather, news and even traffic information. Again, it is an issue of knowing what’s out there and making sure your App notification settings are all set up and running to your liking.
There are websites and apps which encourage people to provide updates on information. I have found that these types of communities can be good at providing information, but you always have to worry about what information is accurate or if you are getting an update on old information.
Whenever and however you receive your information and updates, you need to be aware of the fact that things may change over time, so you should be checking things out as often as you can.
What to Do if Courts are Closed
If the Maryland Court System is closed today, you can still do a lot of business with them online. For instance, the Maryland District Court case management system is one of the best in the country. You can view case dockets, pleadings and even many documents on the Internet at their case search page. Also, you can view case information on the Maryland Circuit Courts case search page too. So, even if the Courthouses are closed, you can often get your Maryland case information online. In addition , most law firms today will have the ability to assist you with Internet based tools, so you can use them whether your normal office is closed, or even if it is normally open.
The options above likely won’t completely replace getting actual in person legal advice from a lawyer. That is still always a good idea prior to making a big legal decision. However, if you have a pressing need today that can’t wait, something is better than nothing.
Changes in the Way Courts Operate
The past few years have brought dramatic changes to Maryland’s court operations, including how cases are filed, the processing of criminal bench warrant cases, and how litigants communicate with the courts. Supported by financial resources from the General Assembly and federal grants, on July 1, 2015, the Maryland judiciary transitioned to financial electronic filing as the sole means of filing all civil, domestic and small claims cases in the Circuit Courts; this mandatory electronic filing program was implemented for the District Courts a year later . During 2015, Baltimore County began a pilot program to address the backlog of outstanding bench warrant cases; by July 1, 2016, the program was operational statewide. CourtConnect, an online application that provides parties and counsel a way to communicate similar to texting, was designed and implemented in Maryland’s Circuit Courts in 2016. These changes brought efficiency and improved customer service for both the public and the judiciary.