Maryland Lawyer Blog

The Pro Bono Resource Center of Maryland is giving out four awards for pro bono work this June and the Maryland State Bar Convention. You can nominate someone you think is deserving here.

The new U.S. News and World Report law school rankings are out. University of Baltimore School of Law finished at No. 117.

It is a little bit confusing because U.S. News took out the tier system and now is ranking law schools in order. But this ranking is certainly a high for UB that reflects it is a law school on the rise. Breaking the top 100 is not impossible next year. This year, we were just 13 spots away (with ties). Wait until we get into our new building. UB could be in the top 50 in 3 years.

• University of Baltimore Law School Ranking Last Year
• UB's rank in 2009
• Law School Grade Inflation (UB goes the other way)

Maryland is finally seeing the light as it prepares to end a 38-year ban on fortune telling in Carroll County. Apparently, Harford County lifted its ban last week.

Raise you hand if you knew that fortune telling was banned in Carroll and Hartford Counties?

I wonder if any raised the "Ah, gee, this blatantly violates the 1st Amendment and is it incredibly paternalistic" argument when these lawyers were created some 30 odd years ago. If you told me was from 1905, it would make sense. But these laws were passed in the 70s.

MAJ is putting on a auto negligence seminar called "Maximizing Auto Negligence Damages at
Mediation, Arbitration and District Court Trials" on April 29th in Columbia.

Moderators:
John B. Bratt, Miller & Zois, LLC
Eric N. Schloss, Gordon, Feinblatt, Rothman, Hoffberger & Hollander, LLC

Speakers:
Judge Clifton J. Gordy, retired, Mediation
John Sandbower, The McCammon Group
Judge Carol E. Smith, retired, Creative Dispute Resolution
W. Scott Sonntag,The Law Office of W. Scott Sonntag, PA
Judge Philip N. Tirabassi, Baltimore County District Court

You don't need to be a member of the Maryland Association of Justice to attend. Get more information here.

The Maryland Rules Committee has proposed an amendment to Maryland Rule 2-311 that will require that when a hearing is requested on a motion, that the heading or title of the motion must indicate that a hearing is requested.

I would love to understand the rationale for this. If you file a Notice of Hearing in your motion, you would think that would be good enough.

I posted on the Maryland Injury Lawyer Blog a list of attorney written blogs in Maryland discussing legal issues which I am also posting here.

• Maryland Injury Lawyer Blog
• Maryland Accident Lawyer Blog (Miller & Zois)
• Maryland Medical Malpractice Attorney Blog (Miller & Zois)
• Baltimore Injury Lawyer Blog (Miller & Zois)
• Maryland Accident Attorney Blog (Silverman | Thompson | Slutkin | White, which has a number of blogs on here)
• Maryland Accident Lawyers Blog (Saiontz & Kirk)
• Maryland Personal Injury Lawyer (Price Benowitz)
• Maryland Divorce Attorney Blog (Robert Flanagan who was in the House of Delegates and is a former Maryland Secretary of Transportation)
• Maryland Medical Malpractice Lawyer Blog (Silverman | Thompson | Slutkin | White)
• Baltimore Criminal Defense Attorney Blog (Law Offices of Todd K. Mohink)
• Maryland Car Accident Attorney Blog (Lebowitz & Mzhen, who have been blogging for some time now)
• Maryland Injury Lawyers Blog (Goldberg, Finnegan & Mester)
• Maryland Personal Injury Attorney Blog (Joseph, Greenwald & Laake)
• Maryland Injury and Disability Law (Greenberg & Bederman – last post March 3, 2011)
• Medical Malpractice & Patient Safety Blog (Patrick A. Malone - Maryland/D.C. blog)
• Maryland Personal Injury Attorney (Steven H. Heisler)
• Trucking Accident Lawyer Blog (Lebowitz & Mzhen)
• Maryland DUI Lawyer Blog (Bruce M. Robinson, who has a number of blogs)
• Maryland Criminal Attorney Blog (Silverman | Thompson | Slutkin | White)
• Maryland Nursing Home Lawyer (Dever & Feldstein)
• Maryland Criminal Law Lawyer Blog (Law Offices of Richard P. Arnold)
• Maryland Intellectual Property Law Blog (Brian Wm. Higgins)
• Maryland Divorce Legal Crier (Thyden Gross & Callahan)
• Maryland Employment Law Developments (Mary Keating)
• Baltimore Criminal Law Attorneys Blog (Law Offices of James E. Crawford, Jr. & Associates)
• Maryland Law Blog (Alpert Schreyer)
• Maryland Injury Attorney Blog (Jeff Butschky)
• Maryland Injury Attorneys Blog (Brassel Law Group – last post February 23, 2011)
• Maryland Nursing Home Lawyer Blog (Lebowitz & Mzhen – last post February 23, 2011)
• Maryland Personal Injury Lawyer Blog (Joseph H. Ostad)
• Pharmacy Error Injury Lawyer Blog (Lebowitz & Mzhen)
• Maryland Construction Law Blog (Karen McGagh)
• Maryland Accident Law Blog (Lebowitz & Mzhen – last post February 27, 2011)
• Maryland Malpractice Lawyer (Alan J. Belsky)
• The Maryland Bankruptcy Lawyer (M.W. Fisher)
• Maryland Criminal Lawyer (Jonathan Portner)
• Maryland Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog ( – last post February 25, 2011)
• Maryland Family Law (Heather Sunderman )
• Maryland Employment Law (James Edward Rubin)
• Maryland Divorce Lawyer Blog (Silverman | Thompson | Slutkin | White)
• Maryland Auto Accident Lawyer Blog (me - February 22, 2011)
• Maryland Elder Law (William M. Gatesman)
• Maryland Law Blogger (Raymond McKenzie)
• Maryland DUI Defense Lawyer Blog (James Guillory )
• Maryland DUI Lawyer (Price Benowitz)
• Maryland Employment Lawyer Blog (Andrew M. Dansicker)
• Money Law Blog (Edward Gonzalez)
• Maryland Family Lawyer Blog (Katharine Linzer)
• Maryland DUI Attorney Blog (Silverman | Thompson | Slutkin | White)
• DC, Virginia and Maryland Immigration Lawyer Blog (Schaefer Law Firm)
• Maryland Criminal, Traffic and Injury Blog (David R. Waranch – last post October 7, 2010)
• Maryland Accident Lawyer Blog (Me – last post July 30, 2010)
• Maryland Personal Injury Blog (Foran & Foran)
• Maryland Foreclosure Lawyer Blog (Jerry Solomon)
• Maryland Injury Blog (Foran & Foran)
• Maryland Law (J Cannan)
• Maryland Malpractice Lawyer Blog (Dever & Feldstein)
• Maryland Lawyer Blog (Carey & Associates)
• Maryland Injury Lawyers (Maryland Injury Lawyers)
• Maryland Lawyer Online (Alan J. Belsky)

I deleted a few of the blogs from the original list that clearly never got off the ground or were not put out by a lawyer but are written by some SEO law firm company hoping to sell the website and/or sell leads.

I should probably make another list at some point of these blogs that I actually use which is obviously a smaller list that deletes the pure marketing blogs that don't add to the conversation.

It is funny how painfully some of these blogs fit in their keywords. "Coming from the perspective of a Maryland car accident lawyer" or "Given our experience as Maryland medical malpractice lawyers..." Geez, guys, can you make it a little more subtle? (Like I just did.)

I think there is a very understandable hesitation for lawyers to link to fellow lawyers because you don't want to give your competitors a leg up. But I think in 2011, hiding information is not going to get you very far. Prospective clients know from their Google search there is more than one lawyer that can handle their case and I think they realize that the best lawyers are not going to be afraid to alert them to that fact.

• Encompass Insurance: Claims and Settlements (M&Z)
• Corrections department suspends Facebook policy (Delmarva Now). Maryland's Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services has stopped its practice of asking prospective employees to voluntarily divulge their user names and passwords to social media websites. The thinking was it is a good idea to know if your prison guards have gang affiliations, are prejudiced towards any protected class, etc.
• Owners of Maryland Auto Repair Shop, 17 Police Officers Charged in Extortion Scheme (The Space). What is the craziest scheme going on right under my nose? I'd really like to know.
• Court of Appeals: Jewish man's trial should have been delayed for holiday (Washington Examiner). I also write about this here.
• Red Bull row: 5 sued for unfair trade practice (Journal Online). Speaking of crazy schemes, this one sounds pretty crazy.
• New Maryland Malpractice Expert CSA Opinion (Maryland Injury Lawyer Blog)
• The Maryland Medical Malpractice Lawyer Blog(Silverman | Thompson | Slutkin | White) writes about a malpractice verdict in Montana. I write about the same verdict here.