Kinship Care Resources

“Informal kinship care” means a living arrangement in which a relative of a child, who is not in the care, custody, or guardianship of the local department of social services, provides for the care and custody of the child due to a serious family hardship. (Md. EDUCATION Code Ann. §4-122.1 and Md. HEALTH GENERAL Code Ann.  §20-105)

A new page on the topic of  kinship care has been added to the AACPLL Self Help and Pro Bono WIKI .  Here you will find links to Maryland code sections and COMAR as well as information provided by various agencies.  The forms and information sheet handout available in the Anne Arundel County Family Self Help Center are also included.

National Inventory of Primary Legal Materials

The American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) believes that the public should have “no-fee, permanent public access to authentic online legal information on government Web sites” as stated in the Government Relations Office Issue Brief, AALL Working Groups to Ensure Access to Electronic Legal Information.

The Government Relations Office of AALL has coordinated a major project, the National Inventory of Primary Legal Materials, to collect information on the availability of all primary legal materials in the United States at every level of government from the judicial, legislative and executive branches.  Once information from all fifty states, D.C. and the Federal Government is collected, it “will be analyzed and used by experts working with  LAW.gov, the Law Library of Congress and AALL public policy committees according to the Issue Brief.  The data will provide a picture as to the availability of primary legal material.  The inventory collects such information as the availability of online and print versions and whether the material is copyrighted.  Other information collected for the inventory for online materials include provisions for authentication, preservation and permanent public access.

Authentication ensures that online  information is, in fact, the law.  This is done through the use of certifying marks and the establishment of chain of custody of the electronic document.  A more detailed description of authentication can be found in the Executive Summary of the AALL State-by-State Report on Authentication of Online Legal Resources Full Report.

It is important that electronic online legal materials be preserved by an appropriate government entity.  Print resources are easily preserved by court libraries and archives by storing the books in a proper environment.  Digital information presents a problem.  The technology for methods and media for accessing electronic information can change quickly.  Preservation would involve making sure that the digital information migrates to new platforms as technology changes.  The preserved information should remain accessible to the public permanently. The above principles were outlined in  the AALL policy paper, Principles and Core Values Concerning Pubic Information of Government Websites.

Maryland law librarians formed a Working Group to address the issues of authentication, preservation and permanent public access.  The Working Group has contributed to the National Inventory of Primary Legal Materials by collecting the information for Maryland primary legal materials.  The project was completed as of June 1, 2011.  All of the information was entered into a Google spreadsheet for the sate, county and municipal levels all of the  branches of Maryland government.  The Maryland Inventory Spreadsheet will be added to the information collected by other state working groups to form the National Inventory of Primary Legal Materials.

New Maryland law for traffic tickets in effect on January 1, 2011

The new law will require that trials must now be requested for payable traffic tickets.  Trial dates will no longer be automatically assigned.  Links to information follows:

Judiciary press release

Link to judiciary website information: New Traffic Ticket Process

Text of  CH 196 of the Laws of 2010 (HB 829)

Text of Transportation Article 26-201 and 26-204

New Maryland Cell Phone Law and More — effective October 1, 2010

Most laws passed during the Maryland legislature’s 2010 session will go into effect on October 1, 2010.   Just a few are highlighted below.

CELL PHONE USE WHILE DRIVING

The law prohibiting hand-held cell phone use while driving except to “initiate or terminate a wireless telephone call or to turn on or turn off the handheld telephone” has been getting a lot of press as the deadline nears.  The new law enacted per CH538/716 can be found at MD. CODE ANN., TRANSP.  § 21-1124.2.

NEW CHILD SUPPORT GUIDELINES

Child Support Guidelines have not had a major revision since being adopted in 1989.   The child support schedule found at MD. CODE ANN., FAM. LAW.  § 12-204 as enacted by CH262/263 now has a higher upper income  limit.  However, not all amounts have adjusted upwards.  Some at the lower income levels have actually decreased.

COUNTY CODES WILL CONTINUE TO BE PRESERVED IN PRINT

Print copies of county codes will no longer have to be distributed to the county’s legislative delegation if an electronic version is available.  However, print copies will still have to be distributed to the Maryland State Archives, the Maryland State Law Library and the State Department of Legislative Services.  This was a great relief to Maryland librarians as the bill, as first introduced, would not have required the distribution of any print copies.  It is hoped that print versions of important sources of primary law not be eliminated unless the online version can be authenticated and provisions are made for permanent public access.  Changes to  Art. 25A,  §7 and  Art. 25B,  §12 were enacted by CH 654.

MARYLAND LEGAL SERVICES CORPORATION FUNDING

CH. 486 made changes to MD. CODE ANN., CTS. & JUD. PROC. §7-202 and §7-301 as well as to MD. COD ANN., HUM. SERV. §11-208 . The law increases the maximum filing fee in civil cases used to fund the Maryland Legal Services Corporation.  As the funding from IOLTA funds has dropped dramatically for the MLSC the demand for MLSC funded services has risen at a great rate as well.  This increase in the filing fee surcharge is intended to address the shortfall.

MORE 2010 SESSION INFORMATION

These laws are obviously just a few of the many laws passed this last session.  The 90 Day Report – A Review of the 2010 Legislative Session prepared by Karl S. Aro, the Executive Director of the Department of Legislative Services, provides a detailed overview of the last session including a discussion of the legislation that passed and the bills that did not.  Additional information can be found at the Maryland General Assembly website: http://mlis.state.md.us/

New Maryland Foreclosure Laws and Rules

HB472/CH. 485, Residential Property Foreclosure Procedures – Foreclosure Mediation, makes changes to MD. CODE ANN., REAL PROP.  7-105.1 (2009). Changes include requirements for notice of intent to foreclose and mediation.  These changes are effective July 1, 2010.

There are new corresponding rules that will go into effect on July 1 as well.  The 164th report of the Court’s Standing Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure was submitted on May 21, 2010 and the order was filed on June 7, 2010.  The Rules order with amendments to Rules 14-102, 12-202, 14-205, 14-206, 14-207, 14-208, 14-211, 14-212, and 14-214 will take effect on July 1, 2010.   The new rules were published in the June 18, 2010 issue of the Maryland Register (37:13 Md. R. 840-847 (June 18, 2010)).  They can also be found at the Rules Committee website.  They should be available on Lexis by July 1 – but the history should be checked before relying on them.

Other foreclosure laws passed were SB562/CH. 322 (crossfiled with HB633/CH. 323) Real Property – Mortgages and Deeds of Trust – Authority to exercise a Power of Sale, SB654/CH. 587 (crossfiled with HB711/CH. 588) Real Property – Tenants in Foreclosure – Conforming to Federal Law, and SB784/Ch. 611 Maryland Statutory Trust Act.  All of these are effective June 1, 2010.

A notebook containing printouts of these new laws and rules is available in the law library.  Copies will also be on the LAN @ J:\Lawlib\Foreclosure 2010 changes.

Maryland Code receives updates

Most new Maryland laws go into effect October 1 so it is important that the 2009 pocket parts and supplements are received in time.  Both of the library’s sets, published by Thomson/West or LexisNexis/Michie have been received and filed.

For a review of what has gone into effect the 90 Day Report – A Review of the 2009 Legislative Session, published by the Department of Legislative Services, provides a comprehensive discussion of  the new laws.  The report is  broken into 12 subject areas.  Each section contains a discussion of the majority of related bills passed.  It includes a table of major issues and an index of new bills.

There have also been some news reports on the new laws with the no texting while driving law getting a lot of press.  Here are just two links.

From WJZ: New Laws in Maryland Focus on Road Safety and in the Baltimore Sun: New Laws take effect Thursday: Drivers, gun owners among those affected