Maryland: What To Expect With MDEC (Maryland Electronic Courts)

The Maryland Electronic Courts (MDEC) case management system is currently operational in Allegany, Anne Arundel, Calvert, Caroline, Cecil, Charles, Dorchester, Frederick, Garrett, Kent, Queen Anne’s, Somerset, St. Mary’s, Talbot, Washington, Wicomico, and Worcester Counties. Complete rollout was completed in 2018.

The launch of MDEC in a county makes electronic filing mandatory for attorneys representing clients in civil and criminal cases in District Court, Circuit Court, and any appellate filings that are initiated in that county.

MDEC supplies the case data to the participating county via electronic court feeds. This is imported into the Dialog database automatically. Thus, data entry is reduced, and your primary focus involves adding or modifying events, creating documents and collecting evidence files in the media tab, later used in Discovery. Initial data entry is completely done for you.

The merge feature in The Dialog allows you to create all necessary court documents; save the documents to a network or cloud-based drive; and upload them onto the state website, completing the e-filing task. The e-filing function from within JD was developed and completed in 2018. It will be modeled after the success of our flagship integration in Polk County, IA.