Md. Admin. Order of 2024-10-31 (Administration and Expansion of Maryland Electronic Courts ...)

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF MARYLAND

ADMINISTRATIVE ORDER ON THE ADMINISTRATION AND

EXPANSION OF MARYLAND ELECTRONIC COURTS STATEWIDE

Whereas, The Maryland Judiciary has undertaken the Maryland Electronic Courts

project (MDEC) to create a single, Judiciary- wide, integrated case management system

that will be used by all of the State appellate and trial courts; and

Whereas, Following a successful pilot implementation of MDEC in the fall of 2014

in Anne Arundel County, MDEC has been implemented statewide in phases, on a

geographic basis; and

Whereas, The statewide implementation of MDEC is complete with the adoption of

MDEC in Baltimore City on May 6, 2024; and

Whereas, MDEC drives efficiencies in monitoring, managing, and maintaining the

systems critical to the Judiciary and helps achieve consistency in business processes and

data management for Maryland courts; and

Whereas, Centralized and unified systems are critical to short- and long-term

reliability, responsiveness, communication, uniformity of processes, and data compilation;

and

Whereas, Access to the centralized MDEC system from desktops and other user

devices residing on non-Judiciary maintained networks would reduce application

performance by requiring communication to traverse multiple security systems, increase

risk to system compromise, and create inconsistencies with system maintenance and

upgrades, thereby increasing costs and threatening the effectiveness of MDEC to function

as a fully integrated system serving one Judiciary,

Now, therefore, pursuant to the authority conferred by Article IV, § 18 of the

Maryland Constitution, it is this 31st day of October 2024, ordered as follows:

(a) All appellate and trial courts shall utilize MDEC as their integrated case

management system; and

(b) For purposes of Maryland Rule 20- 101(n) and consistent with Maryland Rule 20-

102, the courts utilizing MDEC are as follows:

i. The Supreme Court of Maryland;

ii. The Appellate Court of Maryland;

iii. All 24 circuit courts;

iv. The District Court of Maryland; and

(c) Effective immediately, all courts utilizing MDEC as described in (b) shall further:

(1) transition to the Judicial Information Systems Department (JIS) maintained

network and utilize JIS supported devices and system services for MDEC and

related ancillary functions including, but not limited to, email and remote access,

all of which are necessary for efficient and effective functions; and

(2) transition from any stand-alone or legacy case management systems to the JIS

systems and infrastructure supporting MDEC; and

(3) the transitions under (c)(1) and (c)(2) shall be implemented no later than thirty

days after the go-live date and completed no later than 6 months after the go-live

date.

(d) Exemptions

(1) Landlord/tenant failure to pay rent cases may, but are not required to, utilize

MDEC;

(2) Asbestos cases, where the action is for personal injury or death allegedly caused

by exposure to asbestos or asbestos-containing products, subject to the Asbestos

Case Management Program in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City are exempted

from the requirement to use MDEC; and

(3) Criminal indictments and informations, juvenile delinquency petitions, and

petitions for:

(i) civil orders of protection from domestic violence;

(ii) peace orders; and

(iii) extreme risk protective orders

are exempted from the electronic filing requirement pending development and

implementation of interfaces to facilitate such filing.

(e) Units of the Judiciary

(1) The Commission on Judicial Disabilities shall file electronically through MDEC

any disciplinary action against a judge.

(2) The Attorney Grievance Commission shall file electronically through MDEC

any disciplinary action against an attorney, where all or any part of the action

results in a filing in any Maryland court.

(i) Upon the entry of an order designating a judge of a circuit court to hear a

disciplinary or remedial action pursuant to Maryland Rule 19-722,

transmittal of the action shall be via MDEC.

(f) The Administrative Order on the Administration and Expansion of Maryland

Electronic Courts Statewide, filed May 8, 2024, is hereby rescinded, effective

immediately.

/s/ Matthew J. Fader

Matthew J. Fader

Chief Justice

Supreme Court of Maryland

Filed: October 31, 2024 Pursuant to the Maryland Uniform Electronic Legal

Materials Act (§§ 10-1601 et seq. of the State

Government Article) this document is authentic.

2024.10.31

/s/ Greg Hilton

Greg Hilton 08:36:11-04'00'

Clerk Gregory Hilton, Clerk

Supreme Court of Maryland