Maryland Lawyer Blog

People like to imagine that authority and legitimacy are connected to correctness. We want to believe that the person with the power to decide is also the person who is right. That laws command obedience because they are just. That court decisions carry force because judges have carefully examined the facts, correctly applied the law, and reached the proper result. …
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It is 2026. We carry computers in our pockets. We transmit documents across the planet in seconds. Lawyers can search thousands of judicial opinions without leaving their desks. Artificial intelligence can analyze information, summarize documents, and assist with complex research faster than most humans could have imagined a generation ago. And yet, somehow, grown adults still believe the optimal way …
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Maryland’s debt collection statutes contain a trap that many debt buyers either overlooked or hoped courts would overlook for them. The problem is deceptively simple. If a company purchases consumer debt that was already in default when acquired, and then attempts to collect that debt in Maryland, the company generally must be licensed as a collection agency under the Maryland …
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Every litigator eventually encounters one. The hostile judge. The impatient judge. The judge who interrupts before you finish a sentence, rolls his eyes at your argument, lectures counsel from the bench, or speaks with such exaggerated certainty that anyone unfamiliar with the law would assume wisdom must be radiating from the robe itself. Young lawyers often make the same mistake …
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Most people enter the legal system believing courts exist primarily to determine what happened and reach the right result. That is not entirely wrong. But it is incomplete in a way that shocks many litigants the first time they encounter it. Because much of modern litigation is not actually about truth. It is about procedure. Deadlines. Jurisdiction. Preservation. Finality. Waiver. …
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People often assume that if something is legal, it must be fair—and if something is illegal, it must be wrong. That assumption feels intuitive. It’s how most of us were raised to think about rules, authority, and consequences. It’s also not how the legal system actually works. The Intuition Trap From a young age, we are taught that rules exist …
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If you’ve never been involved in a court case before, one of the first assumptions is this: you’re going to have to take time off work, sit in a courtroom for hours, and wait for your case to be called. That used to be true. It’s no longer always the case. Many Hearings Are Now Remote Courts increasingly allow certain …
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Public debate about prostitution law often collapses distinct issues into one moral argument. But criminal law is ultimately a tool designed to produce outcomes: reduced violence, improved reporting of serious crimes, and enforcement resources aimed at coercion and exploitation rather than ambiguity. This article does not ask the reader to endorse any particular lifestyle or social norm. It asks a …
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Sex trafficking involving force, fraud, or coercion is a serious crime and a major human rights concern. Preventing exploitation is a goal shared across political and moral perspectives. That common ground is important. But legal clarity requires recognizing that trafficking and prostitution statutes do not operate identically. Treating them as the same problem may feel morally decisive, yet it raises …
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Two adults are talking. No threats. No force. No coercion. Just conversation. They discuss attraction. Maybe boundaries. Maybe curiosity. Nothing illegal has happened. Then one word appears. Money. And in that moment, the legal category can flip—not because of what occurred, but because of how the conversation is later interpreted. The Legal Switch Pornography is legal. Casual sex between consenting …
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