Queen Anne's Cnty. Cir. Ct. Juvenile DCM Plan II

A. GENERALLY

A party who desires a change of the time of any trial, hearing or conference shall

immediately obtain several possible alternate times from the Assignment Commissioner and,

within 5 days thereafter:

(1) Attempt to secure the agreement of all other parties to one of those alternate times;

and

(2) File with the Clerk a written request for change to one of those alternate times.

On its own initiative, or if all parties are not agreed, the county administrative judge or

his designee may act upon the request ex parte or submit the matter to conference under Md.

Rule 2-504.1(b). Whether or not the parties have discussed and/or agreed upon an alternate date,

any existing Notice of Trial, Scheduling Order or Pretrial Order remains in full effect until the

change has been approved in writing by the administrative judge or his designee. If a change of

date is approved, all instructions or provisions of the original Notice or Order so modified remain

fully applicable to the new date.

In considering all postponement or continuance requests, the court shall carefully apply

all relevant sections of the Maryland Annotated Code and the Maryland Rules of Procedure,

review possible effects of a postponement or continuance on the parties and witnesses in the

case, and evaluate future scheduling issues. The court shall also consider Maryland Circuit

Court Time Standards for processing cases.

B. JUVENILE CAUSES

When a child is detained or sheltered, except under extraordinary circumstances and as

justice so requires, no postponement of the adjudicatory hearing will be granted due to conflict

with the attorney’s schedule if the postponement will result in a violation of statutory time

requirements. It is expected that attorneys confirm their availability to attend all scheduled

adjudicatory hearings prior to agreeing to represent a detained or sheltered child.

All other juvenile postponement requests shall be handled in accordance with the general

postponement policy.

C. OTHER

The Circuit Court for Queen Anne’s County schedules the vast majority of the juvenile

cases in open court with either a judge or magistrate presiding and in the presence of the parties

and/or their counsel; therefore, postponements and continuances are granted only in

extraordinary circumstances. Great care is taken during the scheduling process to select

reasonable dates and to confirm that all parties and counsel are available on those dates. In order

to facilitate the timely disposition of cases, it is the policy of the court to grant

postponements/continuances in these types of matter only sparingly.