Terms Used In Maryland Code, COURTS AND JUDICIAL PROCEEDINGS 1-201

  • Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
  • Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
  • including: means includes or including by way of illustration and not by way of limitation. See
  • Pleadings: Written statements of the parties in a civil case of their positions. In the federal courts, the principal pleadings are the complaint and the answer.
  • state: means :

    (1) a state, possession, territory, or commonwealth of the United States; or

    (2) the District of Columbia. See
(a) The power of the Court of Appeals to make rules and regulations to govern the practice and procedure and judicial administration in that court and in the other courts of the State shall be liberally construed. Without intending to limit the comprehensive application of the term “practice and procedure,” the term includes the forms of process; writs; pleadings; motions; parties; depositions; discovery; trials; judgments; new trials; provisional and final remedies; appeals; unification of practice and procedure in actions at law and suits in equity, so as to secure one form of civil action and procedure for both; and regulation of the form and method of taking and the admissibility of evidence in all cases, including criminal cases.

(b) Except for the District Court, other courts may by rule regulate terms of court for purposes other than the return of process and may make other rules of practice and procedure subject to and not inconsistent with any rule of the Court of Appeals. However, except for a rule regulating terms of court, every rule shall be adopted pursuant to the limitations and procedures prescribed by the Maryland Rules, unless authority to adopt rules is expressly granted by public general law.