Pursuant to modified Rule 8-521(a)(2), effective August 1, 2020, cases in the Court of Special Appeals will be “assigned to successive sessions of the Court after the record is complete and the appellee’s brief has been filed” or the time for filing the appellee’s brief has expired. This modifies the prior practice of pre-scheduling cases for an available session in the future in the anticipation that the record would be complete and that all of the necessary briefs would be filed.

This change is intended to make the scheduling process more efficient, to permit cases that are “ready” for argument or submission on the briefs to be scheduled sooner, and to permit the parties some flexibility in the filing of briefs without impeding other cases that are ready for submission.

As part of this change, the parties’ opportunity to stipulate to extensions of time and request postponements has been modified. Please see the modified Rule 8-502(b)(2).

Also, if you are requesting oral argument, you now must state so in your brief. See modified Rule 8-504(a)(8). Requesting oral argument does not guarantee that the Court will hear oral argument. The Court still may direct that the case be submitted on the briefs filed. See Rule 8-523.

If your case is going to be scheduled for argument, within approximately three weeks after the receipt of the appellee’s brief (or after the time for appellee to file a brief has expired), you will receive a notice from the Clerk of the possible dates on which your argument may be scheduled. Within five days of receiving that notice, you must send notice to the Clerk and opposing counsel of any of the possible dates for which you have a conflict.

Note, this change relates to cases where the record is received after August 1, 2020. If you have already received a briefing notice, you will remain scheduled in the month indicated on your notice. If the Court has the capacity to accelerate cases for argument, you may be contacted by the Clerk to determine if you are available for argument in an earlier session.

NOTE: Although every effort is made to ensure that the following information is up-to-date, last minute changes to the schedule may be required. To confirm information listed on this schedule, please contact the Clerk's Office at 410-260-1450.