The Maryland Judiciary website – it’s not just for opinions!

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Barely a day has gone by since I’ve been practicing that I have not visited the Internet home of the Maryland state court system. For those attorneys who think the Judiciary’s homepage is of utility limited only to checking out newly reported opinions, think again.

Here are but a handful of ways in which you, too, may find the online home of the Maryland court system of utility to your practice:

Are you interested in learning about those issues within your area of practice that may soon be evolving after consideration by the Court of Appeals? Are you a bit of a law nerd and have an interest in observing trends in the types of cases in which the Court of Appeals grants certiorari? Check out the certiorari petitions landing page, which provides a monthly listing of cert petitions that have been granted and the legal issues in each case which will be presented to the Court of Appeals.

Once you learn of a case that will be argued, check out when the case will be argued by visiting the Court of Appeals schedule of oral arguments, typically updated about two months ahead. You can watch the streaming argument live online from the comfort of your office.  Alternatively, if you’re interested in watching a past argument, either because you are interested in how the case was presented to the Court or because you want to give good-natured grief to your friend who presented the argument, visit the archives of oral arguments to find and download video arguments dating back to the 2006 term.

Want to be the smart person on the MSBA listserv or the go-to person at your firm who knows about the new Maryland Rules under consideration (or soon-to-be implemented)? Interested in giving feedback on these new rules after you consider how they may impact your practice or your clients?  View the reports of the rules committee which explain new proposed rules, learn when the public hearing is scheduled on these new rules and review the Court of Appeals order implementing the new rules. You’ll know about the new rules before you get your annual Lexis or Westlaw hard-copy tome of the Maryland Rules.

Interested in seeing judicial vacancies as they open and learning who has applied for a judgeship? Interested in finding out who made the first cut from the nominating commission and who will get to interview for the governor (perhaps so that you can make amends to the nominee long before their investiture)? Follow the judicial vacancies page for information on these vacancies and nominations as they roll out.

There are countless other tools for your practice which can be found by exploring the Maryland courts website. Take some time and bookmark some pages which you might find useful.

Finally, as a point of personal privilege, I would be remiss if I did not say goodbye to Danny Jacobs, legal editor at The Daily Record, and our collective Generation J.D. godfather. He is our muse, he is our editor, he is our friend. After rising through the ranks at The Daily Record, he is leaving this week for gainful employment working with Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures. Danny, I’ll miss you. I won’t miss being humbled by your 10K run at the MSBA Annual Meeting. See you at Tanterra.

Jeremy Rachlin is a principal at Bulman, Dunie, Burke & Feld Chtd. in Bethesda, where he practices estates and trusts and civil litigation.