Maryland's High Courts Get New Names: The Supreme Court of Maryland, Explained
If you searched Maryland court decisions last week, you may have noticed something strange: the state's highest court has a new name. As of December 14, 2022, the Court of Appeals of Maryland is officially the Supreme Court of Maryland, and the intermediate Court of Special Appeals is now the Appellate Court of Maryland. The seven members of the high court are no longer "judges" but "Justices."
The change comes from Maryland's voters. On November 8, they ratified a constitutional amendment renaming both appellate courts by a wide margin — roughly three to one — and the new names took effect last Wednesday.
Why rename courts that worked fine?
Because the old names confused nearly everyone. In 48 states, the "supreme court" is the highest court. Maryland (with New York) was the holdout: its top court was the "Court of Appeals," a name that sounds — to clients, journalists, out-of-state lawyers, and more than a few judges elsewhere — like a mid-level tribunal. Meanwhile "Court of Special Appeals" suggested some special, narrow docket, when it is in fact the ordinary intermediate appellate court that hears the great bulk of Maryland appeals.
We have watched clients' faces during this explanation for years: "Your case was decided by the Court of Appeals, which is higher than the Court of Special Appeals, which is not special..." The new names say what the courts are.
The confusion had real costs beyond awkward conversations. Out-of-state insurers and national law departments routinely misjudged the finality of Maryland rulings; researchers misfiled Maryland's highest-court decisions among intermediate-court opinions; and litigants sometimes believed a "Court of Appeals" loss left another rung on the ladder when it did not. For a court system that depends on public understanding for its legitimacy, names that require a decoder ring were a genuine problem — one the voters have now solved. New York, for the record, remains the last state whose highest court is a "Court of Appeals" (and whose "Supreme Court" is a trial court, to compound the fun). Maryland has left that club.
| Before Dec. 14, 2022 | Now | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Court of Appeals of Maryland | Supreme Court of Maryland | The state's highest court (seven Justices) |
| Court of Special Appeals of Maryland | Appellate Court of Maryland | The intermediate appellate court |
| "Judge" (high court) | "Justice" | Title of the high court's members |
What does NOT change
Everything that matters, structurally: the courts' jurisdiction, composition, and authority are untouched. The renaming is exactly that — a renaming. Three practical points for anyone following Maryland injury law:
- Old precedent is fully intact. Coleman v. Soccer Association (contributory negligence), Kiriakos v. Phillips (social host liability), Rochkind v. Stevenson (the Daubert expert standard), this summer's Gambrill v. Board of Education — every decision of the Court of Appeals of Maryland is now precedent of the Supreme Court of Maryland, with no change in force.
- Citations will look era-specific. Decisions issued before December 14, 2022 will forever bear the old court names; decisions from now on will say "Supreme Court of Maryland" and "Appellate Court of Maryland." When you see both names in one brief, nothing is wrong — the date tells you which era you are reading.
- Pending cases carry on. Appeals in progress simply continue under the new letterhead.
One transition-era quirk worth knowing: for a while, you will see the seam everywhere. Briefs filed this month cite "Court of Appeals" decisions to a court now called the Supreme Court; legal databases are relabeling headings; and Maryland's own opinions will spend years citing predecessor-named cases. None of this affects the substance of any authority. When in doubt, check the decision date against December 14, 2022 — the name follows the date, and the law follows neither.
What this means for injured people in Maryland
Practically, very little — and that is the point worth making. No deadline, damages cap, procedural rule, or substantive doctrine changed on December 14. If you read a news story about Maryland's "new Supreme Court," your pending case is not affected, and the law governing your claim is the same as it was the week before. What has changed is clarity: when Marylanders now hear that their case could go "all the way to the Supreme Court of Maryland," those words finally mean what they sound like.
For our part, we will keep citing the old names where history requires and the new ones where the calendar does — and we will keep explaining, in plain English, what the courts deciding our clients' cases actually do.
If you or a loved one has been hurt, call Posey Lebowitz at (202) 524-0123 or send us a message for a free consultation.
Part of our DMV case law archive, compiled in 2026 to reflect the archive of some of the most important decisions in injury law.