What is an Appeal? | How Do I Start my Appeal to the Supreme Court of Maryland?
In November 2022, Marylanders voted to adopt a constitutional amendment to change the names of Maryland’s two highest courts. The Court of Special Appeals is now the Appellate Court of Maryland. The Court of Appeals is now the Supreme Court of Maryland.
What is an appeal?
If you disagree with the outcome of your court case, you may be able to appeal. When you appeal a case you are asking a higher court to review the outcome. Most cases decided in the District Court may be appealed to circuit court, and most cases decided in circuit court may be appealed to the Appellate Court of Maryland.
Can I appeal my case to the Supreme Court of Maryland?
Usually, you can only seek further review of your case by the Supreme Court of Maryland after you have appealed your case once before in a lower court. If you appealed your case from the District Court to a circuit court, you will need to submit a request to the Supreme Court for further review. Likewise, if you appealed your circuit court case to the Appellate Court of Maryland, you will need to submit a request to the Supreme Court for further review.
A request to the Supreme Court for further review is called a petition for writ of certiorari. The Supreme Court is not required to accept your case for review. The Supreme Court will accept your case for review if the Court finds a review to be necessary and in the public interest. If it does not accept your case, your petition for writ of certiorari will be denied.
On this page, you will find information on asking to submit a petition for writ of certiorari to the Supreme Court only. This page does not cover the very limited instances where you can appeal directly to the Supreme Court.
Read more about appealing to the Supreme Court on the Supreme Court of Maryland’s page for self-represented litigants.
When must I file an appeal?
The deadline to submit a request for review to the Supreme Court depends on the details of your case. If you are appealing a case from the Appellate Court of Maryland, you must file your request no later than 15 days after the Appellate Court issues its mandate. If you are requesting review after an appeal to the circuit court from the District Court, you must file your request for review in the Supreme Court within 30 days from when the circuit court issued its judgment. For more information, review Maryland Rule 8-302.
How does the Supreme Court hear appeals?
Most appeals, including those to the Supreme Court of Maryland, are heard “on the record.” This means the Supreme Court of Maryland will review the lower court’s decision. You will not have a new trial and cannot introduce new facts or evidence that you did not show the lower court.
The parties must explain why they agree or disagree with the lower court. Both sides will have the opportunity to explain their argument in writing and, in some cases, in person before the justices of the Supreme Court. The person who appealed, called the appellant, must write a “brief.” In the brief, they explain why they agree or disagree with the lower court’s decision. Other parties involved in the case, called appellees, will file briefs as well. If the appellant does not file a written brief, the appeal will be dismissed.
The court may hold a hearing called oral argument. At oral argument, each party will explain the legal reasoning in their brief and answer questions from the justices.
How Do I Start My Appeal to the Supreme Court of Maryland?
First: File a request to the Supreme Court to review your case (Informal Petition).
Appeals to the Supreme Court of Maryland can be complicated for unrepresented parties. This page provides a basic overview of appeals to the Supreme Court of Maryland. Whenever possible, hire a lawyer to help you with your appeal.
To start an appeal with the Supreme Court of Maryland, you must first file a petition for writ of certiorari. This is a request for the Supreme Court to review your case. Follow these steps to file a petition.
- Fill out a petition for writ of certiorari.
The petition for writ of certiorari can be formal or informal. A formal petition must fully comply with the rules and requires certain documents to be attached. If you file an informal petition, you are not required to fully comply with the rules and attach particular documents. Read the law on the requirements. If you are representing yourself, it is best to file an informal petition. You can find the form for an informal petition on the Supreme Court’s page. - Serve copies of your petition.
Make copies of your informal petition. Mail one copy to each party in the case. You will fill out a certificate of service stating that you have mailed out copies, when you mailed them, and to whom you mailed them. The certificate is included in the informal petition paperwork. If you do not include the certificate of service, the clerk will not accept your papers for filing and will return them to you. - File your petition.
You can file your complete petition by mail, hand delivery, or through e-filing. Visit www.mdcourts.gov/mdec/efiling for e-filing information. For mail and hand delivery, the address is included on the first page of the informal petition.
You will need to pay a filing fee. If you cannot afford the filing fee, you can file a request to waive the fee. Use form Request for Waiver of Pre-Paid Appellate Costs (CC-DC-092). You can file the waiver request with your petition. Check the Supreme Court of Maryland fee schedule for current cost information.
If your request to waive the fee is denied, you must pay the fee within 10 days of the denial. Otherwise, the court will dismiss your appeal.
Second: The Supreme Court will decide whether or not to review your case.
The Supreme Court will review your petition for writ of certiorari and decide whether to review your case. If the Supreme Court of Maryland agrees to review your case, the Supreme Court will issue a writ of certiorari. The writ of certiorari directs the lower court to give the Supreme Court the record of your case. The Supreme Court will also set filing dates for briefs and arguments.
Third: Order a transcript.
You need to order a transcript of the previous court hearings, if not already in the case file with the Supreme Court. If you asked the Supreme Court to hear a circuit court decision that was either appealed from the District Court or was on appeal from certain administrative decisions regarding drivers’ licenses, you have 10 days from the date the Supreme Court agreed to review your case (issued Writ of Certiorari) to request the transcript. For most other cases, you have ten days from the filing of the notice of appeal. Some cases may have earlier deadlines so check with a lawyer or review Maryland Rule 8-411.
A transcript should include:
- A written copy of all testimony in the case, or a portion of the testimony if you and the other party agree in writing to what parts of the testimony is necessary to include for the appeal.
- A written copy of any court hearing that is necessary to consider your appeal.
- A written copy of any audio or video recording used at a hearing or trial.
Keep in mind that you will have to pay a fee to obtain the transcripts, and that fee can be costly. You must request transcripts through the court.
Fourth: File a brief and prepare for oral arguments.
If the Supreme Court agrees to review your case, your next step is to file a brief with the Supreme Court and prepare for oral arguments. A brief is a written document where you explain why you think the lower court has committed an error in its decision.
When to file a brief
The Supreme Court will mail a notice to each party stating the deadline to file briefs. The person who filed the appeal, called the appellant, must file a brief by the date set by the Supreme Court. The other parties who did not appeal, called the appellees, must file their briefs within 30 days after the filing of the appellant’s brief.
Style and content of a brief
Briefs must follow specific formatting, style, and legal writing rules. You can find the requirements for the format and content of briefs in the Maryland Rules. Read the rules.
Unless you filed a record extract in the Appellate Court, you will need to file a record extract along with your brief. The record extract is a collection of documents from the case record, including transcripts from your case that are necessary to help the Supreme Court decide the issues you identify in your brief.
If your case was before the Appellate Court of Maryland, you can file with the Supreme Court eight copies of the record extract filed in the Appellate Court. If you did not have a record extract at the Appellate Court of Maryland, you will need to make one and file it with your brief. Failure to file a record extract may result in your appeal being dismissed.
A record extract should include circuit court docket entries, the judgment (court order) you want to be reviewed, and other items from the case record that you or the other party wish to include. The record extract should include all parts of the court record that are necessary to consider the questions you would like the Supreme Court to review.
Oral arguments
The Court may hold a hearing called oral argument. At oral argument, each party will explain the legal reasoning in their brief and answer questions from the judges. Oral argument is not an opportunity to introduce new facts or evidence.
Fifth: The Supreme Court will issue a decision on your case.
In most cases, the Supreme Court decides cases it has chosen to review by issuing an opinion that gives its decision and explains why it has decided that way. The Supreme Court may agree with (affirm) the judgment of the lower court, disagree with (vacate or reverse) the judgment, modify the judgment, send the case back to the lower court (remand) to hold additional court proceedings, or a combination of these decisions.
The Supreme Court hears and decides cases based on a time period called a term. A term runs from September 1 to August 30. A case will normally be decided in the same term that it has been briefed and argued.