Last revised: August, 2009
Maryland Reports and Maryland Appellate Reports
Maryland Reports officially publishes the decisions of the Court of Appeals of Maryland. Maryland Appellate Reports officially publishes the decisions of the Court of Special Appeals of Maryland. The Court of Appeals is the highest court in Maryland. The Court of Special Appeals is an intermediate appellate court which handles cases on appeal from the trial courts before the cases reach the court of last resort.
Email the subject area specialist at Marylandia & Rare Books Dept. or call 301-405-9213 for more information.
Table of Contents
Access
Maryland Appellate Court Opinions since 1995 are available online at the Maryland Judiciary Website: http://www.courts.state.md.us/opinions.html
Online access to Maryland cases is available at LexisNexis Academic
UM only Access through Research Port; choose Sources>Publication type>United States>Maryland>Cases.
Online access is also available at Westlaw Campus Research
UM only Access through Research Port; choose Law>Cases>State Cases>Maryland.
Maryland Reports are located in the Maryland Room in Hornbake Library and in McKeldin Library Periodical Stacks.
UMCP HBK Maryland Room Maryland Reference KFM 1245.A2, v. 1 (1851)-present; also in UMCP McKeldin Library Periodical Stacks v. 228 (1962)-present)
Maryland Appellate Reports are also located in the Maryland Room of Hornbake and in McKeldin Library Periodical Stacks.
UMCP HBK Maryland Room Maryland Reference KFM 1248.M35 v. 1 (1967)-present; also in UMCP McKeldin Library Periodical Stacks.
Cases reported in both of these publications appear also in the Atlantic Reporter, second series (UMCP McKeldin Library Periodical Stacks KF135.A71).
Use Maryland Reports and Maryland Appellate Reports to Find:
- The full text of a Maryland appellate court decision in a specific case. The largest part of the text consists of the reasons why the court decided the case the way it did and the legal authority it used in arriving at its decision.
- The facts in a specific case.
- A summary of the points of law decided in a case.
- The names of the presiding judges and counsel in a specific case.
- The decision reached in a specific case.
- The date a case was decided.
- Cases decided by each court in any one year on a specific subject. This, however, is not the best way to conduct a subject search.
- Names of other cases which discussed points of law related to the published case.
Arrangement
Within each year, cases are arranged chronologically by the date of the court's decision. Consequently, one would usually refer to the either Report only after having found a complete citation with volume, title, and page number (e.g. 204 MD 92) in another source such as law encyclopedia or one of the sets in the West's American Digest System.
Indexes
There is an annual index in the last volume of each year's cumulation. References are to page numbers in that cumulation. However, the Maryland Digest and its parent publication West's American Digest provide a much more detailed subject index cumulated back to the earliest period. The same subject headings and key numbers are used in both.
Updates
The weekly Maryland Advance Reports updates both the Maryland Reports and Maryland Appellate Reports. Current issues are located in the Maryland Room at UMCP HBK Maryland Room Maryland Reference KFM 1245.A2. The weekly publications are cumulated into annual hard cover volumes.
Maryland Appellate Court Opinions since 1995 are available online at the Maryland Judiciary Website: http://www.courts.state.md.us/opinions.html
Citations
Maryland Reports is abbreviated Md.
Maryland Appellate Reports is abbreviated Md. App.
