Maryland Law

• Maryland Practice: Civil Procedure Forms

  While I get up to blogging speed, I might throw a few no-brainers out there. This is not a bad thing. With the volume of legal information out there, occasionally you need a refresher course in the basics.
  
  I find one invaluable resource that I always rely upon when [...]
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  Posted: September 18, 2008, 4:33pm EDT
  

• PG County Added To Case Search

  For those of you that missed this, Prince George's County recently added their records to the Maryland Judiciary Case Search. The FAQ page shows that the system now has civil dockets back to 1986 and criminal dockets back to 1982. Following the successful addition of Montgomery County dockets,' [...]
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  Posted: September 12, 2008, 3:31pm EDT
  

• Pleading Causes of Action, Fourth Edition

  I just read that the Booker Prize Shortlist has been annouced and this reminded me of one book that really deserves a prize and that's Pleading Causes of Action in Maryland by James Archibald and the ubiquitous Paul Mark Sandler. We just got our brand, spanking new Fourth Edition from' [...]
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  Posted: September 12, 2008, 1:47pm EDT
  

• Researching Maryland Utility Companies

  The Maryland Public Service Commission regulates public utilities in Maryland. Their site provides access to a tremendous amount of information. To find a regulated utility provider in Maryland, see this page. You can also search filings submitted by a particular company, although only relatively few of these [...]
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  Posted: July 29, 2008, 9:58am EDT
  

• Searching Maryland Court Documents

  As most of us are now aware, searching for Maryland dockets is readily available through the Maryland Judiciary Case Search. However, what if you are searching for the actual documents (as opposed to simply the docket text) filed in a Maryland case (eg., complaints, motions, etc)? Is there a [...]
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  Posted: June 24, 2008, 5:22pm EDT
  

• Searching Maryland State & Federal Cases-For Free

  If you're looking to search 4th Circuit and Maryland State cases, consider using The Public Library of Law, or PLOL. Although Findlaw has offered the ability to search 4th Circuit cases both by party-name (select "4th Circuit" from the drop down menu) and by full-text for some' [...]
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  Posted: June 03, 2008, 12:16pm EDT
  

• Maryland Home Sales

  The Baltimore Sun recently added this mashup of Maryland home sales. The page allows you to view a map of recent home sales. You can limit by zip code, price range, home type, and time frame. After zooming in, you can click on an individual home sale for more [...]
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  Posted: May 21, 2008, 9:41am EDT
  

• Researching Maryland Legislative Histories

  The key to effectively researching Maryland legislative histories is to first read a couple of articles by Mike Miller, the former director of the Maryland State Law Library: "Ghost Hunting: Searching For Maryland Legislative History" and "Deciphering The Codes: Researching Legislative History In Maryland." For bills going back [...]
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  Posted: May 02, 2008, 10:17am EDT
  

• '08 Maryland Legislation

  Following on my last post, the 90 Day Report, your best option for a review of the legislative actions in the '08 session is now available. The report is organized into 12 subject areas and discusses, for each category, the majority of bills that passed as well as' [...]
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  Posted: April 16, 2008, 11:14am EDT
  

• Overview Of The '08 Session

  As of now, the 90 Report which provides the most comprehensive review what happened in a particular legislative session, is still waiting to be published for the '08 session. In the meantime, there are a number of useful resources to give you an overview of what passed and what didn't. [...]
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  Posted: April 11, 2008, 2:24pm EDT
  

• Report On Maryland's Real Estate Market

  A new report, "Trend Watch 2008: The Baltimore/Washington Commercial Real Estate Outlook,” a combined effort of the Johns Hopkins Carey School of Business and the Maryland chapter of the Appraisal Institute gives a surprisingly upbeat take on the region's real estate market. “Although the warning signs pointing to a downturn'" [...]
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  Posted: April 10, 2008, 12:26pm EDT
  

• Maryland Tech Tax Repealed

  I realize that by blogging standards, this is already "old news." Not surprisingly, a number of papers reported on this major event. See articles from the Sun and Daily Record. None of the articles that I saw, though, provided links to the bill. So, here it is. The [...]
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  Posted: April 08, 2008, 10:40am EDT
  

• Baltimore City Bans Trans Fats

  Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon signed into law City Council Bill 08-0034 which prohibits food service facilities from serving, storing, distributing, or holding food containing trans fat. The bill will take effect in the Fall of '09. See this BBJ article for more. Also see this City of Baltimore' [...]
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  Posted: March 27, 2008, 4:24pm EDT
  

• Computer Service Tax Draft Regulations

  Up until now, no one knew how the computer services tax (Section 3 of SB2), adopted as part of the 2007 Maryland General Assembly special session legislation, was intended to be implemented. The Comptroller's office just today released draft regulations implementing the law. The Comptroller's office also released [...]
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  Posted: March 14, 2008, 3:24pm EDT
  

• Baltimore City Green Bills

  Today's Daily Record article, "Proposals Before City Council Would Offer Big Tax Breaks To 'Green' Buildings," (subscription) reports on two bills introduced into the Baltimore City Council which would provide tax incentives for green buildings. One bill, Bill 57, would provide a 100% property tax incentive for the' [...]
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  Posted: March 05, 2008, 9:57am EST
  

• Advanced Medical Directives

  The Maryland Attorney General's site contains a 17 page brochure entitled "Maryland Advance Directive: Planning For Future Health Care Decisions." In addition to providing background information, the brochure also includes an 8-page form which can be used in Maryland. For resources on making medical decisions for someone else, see' [...]
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  Posted: March 04, 2008, 5:31pm EST
  

• Bioscience Companies In Maryland

  MdBio, part of the Tech Council of Maryland, provides some very useful information on the bioscience industry in Maryland. Part of it's report provides a listing of all the bioscience companies in Maryland. Another part (see page 57) of its report lists the publicly traded Maryland' [...]
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  Posted: February 25, 2008, 5:22pm EST
  

• Judgments & Liens Search

  The Maryland Judiciary Case Search recently (apparently in December) added additional content to it's database: the ability to search for judgments and liens. Once you sign into the main screen there's a link at the top of the page for Circuit Court Judgments and Liens. Search options are [...]
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  Posted: February 19, 2008, 2:40pm EST
  

• Maryland Smoking Ban Law

  Maryland's new law (The Clean Indoor Act of 2007) banning smoking in indoor public areas goes into effect this Friday. See articles from the Sun, the Baltimore Business Journal, and the Gazette.' [...]
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  Posted: January 31, 2008, 3:48pm EST
  

• Report On Identity Theft

  The Maryland Task Force to study Identity Theft recent published it's report. Over 230 pages, the report recommends, among other things, that the penalties for felony identity theft be increased, that the State ban credit card skimming devices, and that the State should enact legislation to enable a court' [...]
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  Posted: January 31, 2008, 3:38pm EST
  

• New Maryland Rules Now Free Online

  As an update to my previous post, both the Lexis and West free versions of the Maryland Rules are now fully up to date to reflect the most recent changes. (Thanks to Andy Zimmerman for this catch). [...]
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  Posted: January 31, 2008, 9:42am EST
  

• Monitoring New Maryland Bills

  One option for keeping current with legislation introduced into the ’08 Session is by reading blogs which cover the Session. There are at least four blogs dedicated to legal coverage of this year’s legislative session: The Maryland Chamber Blog, The Daily Record: Eye On Annapolis Blog, The Baltimore [...]
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  Posted: January 28, 2008, 2:41pm EST
  

• MD Code Annotations Free Online?

  Many of you know that one of the major benefits of commercial publications of state statutes is the inclusion of case annotations which help clarify the statutory text. I was recently on the site for the Oregon State Legislature and noticed something I've never seen elsewhere: annotations to' [...]
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  Posted: January 23, 2008, 12:04pm EST
  

• Technology Transfer Database

  InvenioIP, developed by the University of Maryland with a grant from the Maryland Technology Development Corp., provides a database of technologies created in the academic sphere and available for commercialization. You can search either by institution or by keyword. The site currently has 4 institutions signed up listing [...]
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  Posted: January 16, 2008, 10:52am EST
  

• New Maryland Rules

  If you've received new volumes of the Maryland Rules, you might think you're using the most current version of the Rules. You're not. The Rules were modified subsequent to the books being published. As a result, the volumes are only current through Nov. 1, '07 and don't include the [...]
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  Posted: January 11, 2008, 11:57am EST
  

• Maryland Legal Blogs

  If you're looking for a listing of Maryland law blogs, try the ABA's Blawg Directory. From the main tabs select "Region," and then "Maryland" or simply click here. The ABA's list includes 14 Maryland legal blogs. Included in the list is The Maryland Intellectual Property Law Blog. [...]
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  Posted: December 04, 2007, 1:40pm EST
  

• Searching For Maryland Donors

  Until recently, if you wanted to find a donor for your Maryland non-profit, you would have had to turn to Foundation Directory—a well established, well organized, but expensive list of potential donors. Enter Noza. Using this free online database, you can search either by company/donor name (and then [...]
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  Posted: October 08, 2007, 5:12pm EDT
  

• Access to district court case files in question?

  [Another guest post from Andy Zimmerman, Director of Library Services at Gordon, Feinblatt, Hoffberger, and Hollander]
  
  On August 24th, The Gazette reported that the Maryland court administrator "told clerks they could require people to fill out a form seeking access and then return 24 hours later for [...]
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  Posted: September 07, 2007, 10:34am EDT
  by Trevor Rosen

• Daily Record Blog

  In case you haven't heard, the Daily Record recently began publishing a blog entitled, appropriately, On The Record. From what I can see, the content appears to be a mix of serious and not-so-serious articles--some of which are related to articles published in the Daily Record and some [...]
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  Posted: August 17, 2007, 10:16am EDT
  by Trevor Rosen

• Maryland Case Search

  This is an update to a posting by Andy Zimmerman from March of '06 on the Maryland Judiciary Case Search. Since that posting, the system has undergone a number of improvements. First, at that time we mentioned that the system provided only skeletal information about a case. That [...]
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  Posted: July 06, 2007, 10:20am EDT
  by Trevor Rosen

• Office of Foreign Assets Control Search

  The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), a part of the US Teasury, enforces sanctions against countries and individuals involved in terrorism and drugs. Following 9/11, it has become increasingly common for businesses doing deals with foreign nationals to run an "OFAC Search." Generally, this involves checking whether the [...]
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  Posted: July 03, 2007, 6:16pm EDT
  by Trevor Rosen

• Mapping Baltimore Homicides

  Yesterday's beSpacific reports on a mashup developed by the Baltimore Sun to map homicides in Baltimore City. The mashup combines Google's map technology along with data from the City to document the locations and types of homicides in Baltimore City. [...]
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  Posted: June 29, 2007, 11:39am EDT
  by Trevor Rosen

• Biotech In Maryland Report

  Today's Daily Record ("Study: To Better Compete, Baltimore Should Think Regional") [subscription] and today's Sun ("Bioscience 1st") both contained articles on a new report entitled "Biosciences In Greater Baltimore" from The Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore (the report is a free PDF, but you must register [...]
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  Posted: June 29, 2007, 11:28am EDT
  by Trevor Rosen

• Baltimore City Green Building Law

  Today's Daily Record ("New plan for Legg headquarters, green building requirements OK’d"; subscription) reports that Baltimore City Council bill number 07-0602 (the "Baltimore City Green Building Law") was recently approved by the Baltimore Planning Commission. The bill would require commercial developers who receive loans, tax credits or [...]
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  Posted: May 04, 2007, 12:18pm EDT
  by Trevor Rosen

• An Overview Of The Maryland Legislative Session

  Published by the Department of Legislative Services, the 90 Day Report for the '07 legislative session provides a "discussion of the majority of bills passed in [a particular] policy area, including comparisons with previous sessions and current law, background information, and a discussion of significant bills that did [...]
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  Posted: April 27, 2007, 3:45pm EDT
  by Trevor Rosen

• Finding Environmental Problem Sites

  If you're interested in finding Maryland (or any state, for that matter) sites which may have been cited for enviornmental violations, your best bet is a number of databases from the EPA. The EPA's Superfund Program designates specific sites around the country as being contaminated with hazardous waste. [...]
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  Posted: April 20, 2007, 1:46pm EDT
  by Trevor Rosen

• An Overview of The Maryland Judicial System

  A couple of years ago, I created a document entitled "Going To Court In Maryland" while working as an intern at the Maryland State Law Library. It took us a while to get the document reviewed, edited, and formatted for the web, but we finally got it up. [...]
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  Posted: April 16, 2007, 10:25am EDT
  by Trevor Rosen

• New Maryland Law Blogs

  A number of Maryland legal blogs have sprung up in the past year or so. If you haven't heard of these sites, you may be interested in checking out the following: Maryland Employment Law, Maryland Accident Law blog, Maryland Injury Lawyer blog, and the Maryland Family [...]
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  Posted: April 06, 2007, 3:54pm EDT
  by Trevor Rosen

• Structure of State Courts

  Legal practitioners often need to know the structure of other state's court structure. Where do you go for this information? The National Center for State Courts has a great page on this. Simply choose your state from the map and the site gives you a visual overview of [...]
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  Posted: March 30, 2007, 3:11pm EDT
  by Trevor Rosen

• Maryland Residency

  What establishes whether or not you're considered a Maryland resident? The answer seems to depend on what the issue is. The Maryland MVA requires you to obtain a MD drivers license 60 days after you become a resident of the State. So, when are you a resident of the [...]
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  Posted: March 26, 2007, 3:30pm EDT
  by Trevor Rosen

• Free Index To The MD Code & Rules

  (UPDATE: Since this posting, the index seems to have disappeared from the site. If anyone knows why Lexis may have pulled this, please feel free to post comments). Lexis recently revamped their online version of the Maryland Code and Rules. As far as I can tell, most of the [...]
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  Posted: March 16, 2007, 4:59pm EDT
  by Trevor Rosen

• Uniform Laws

  If you're interested in finding out which states (including Maryland) have adopted a particular uniform law, check out the following page from the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws. For example, to find out which states adopted the Uniform Trade Secrets Act, select this Act [...]
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  Posted: March 14, 2007, 6:45pm EDT
  by Trevor Rosen

• Researching Maryland Regulations

  The University of Baltimore Law Library recently posted this document, entitled "Research Guide For Maryland Regulations," on their site. This publication is also available from the MD State Law Library's "Sources of Maryland Laws" page. The Guide provides a history of MD regulations and an overview of how [...]
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  Posted: March 05, 2007, 5:57pm EST
  by Trevor Rosen

• Baltimore City Bills & Ordinances

  Following up on an old post from Jan. 23, 2006, on Baltimore City's Legislative Information Center, there's one more point worth mentioning. The site allows you to search Baltimore City bills and ordinances. In Baltimore City, an item of legislation is referred to as a "bill" from the [...]
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  Posted: February 16, 2007, 1:38pm EST
  by Trevor Rosen

• Justia Federal District Court Search

  Today's beSpacific reports on a new database from Justia. The database allows you to search for cases filed in federal district courts, with the option to limit by state and by nature of suit. For example, you can search for all franchise cases litigated in Maryland federal [...]
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  Posted: February 13, 2007, 10:36am EST
  by Trevor Rosen

• MD Court Rules On Quick Take

  In a significant opinion published Thursday, Mayor and City Council of Baltimore City v. George Valsamaki, et al., the Maryland Court of Appeals severly limited Baltimore City's streamlined eminent domain procedure known as "Quick-Take." The Baltimore City Quick-take statute, located at Section 21-16 of the Code of Public [...]
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  Posted: February 09, 2007, 10:54am EST
  by Trevor Rosen

• MD Bill To Curb Excessive Compensation

  Today's Daily Record features an article entitled "Bill Would Tax Md. Firms On ‘Excessive’ Exec Pay" (subscription) on Senate Bill 395. The bill would require a corporation to pay income taxes on compensation that exceeds 30 times the annual salary of the company’s lowest paid worker. The debate [...]
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  Posted: February 07, 2007, 9:26am EST
  by Trevor Rosen

• Changes To The FTC Franchise Rule

  Following on my post from Dec. 23, 2005, the FTC recently amended the so-called Franchise Rule (16 CFR 436) which governs disclosure obligations in the sale of franchises. The new rule becomes fully effective July 1, 2008. From July 1, 2007 until July 1, 2008 you have the [...]
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  Posted: January 24, 2007, 10:19am EST
  by Trevor Rosen

• New Federal Cases Filed In Maryland

  Most of us use Pacer to find information about a particular federal case. To do so, you simply register with Pacer, log-in through the US Party/Case Index, and then search for docket information and/or full text documents related to a particular federal case. But what if you're not [...]
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  Posted: January 22, 2007, 1:45pm EST
  by Trevor Rosen

• Monitoring New MD Legislation

  With the new legislative session about to begin tomorrow, January 10, you may be interested in ways of monitoring bills on specific subjects. If you're a real estate attorney, for example, you may be interested in keeping up to date with new bills affecting your practice area. So, how do [...]
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  Posted: January 09, 2007, 4:56pm EST
  by Trevor Rosen

• New Blog On Maryland Law

  If you're looking for a way to stay updated on new Maryland case law developments, you should check out the newly published Maryland Courts Watcher Blog. Authored by Stuart Levine (of Tax & Business Law Commentary fame) and a team of talented writers, the blog reports on newly [...]
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  Posted: January 04, 2007, 9:59am EST
  by Trevor Rosen