![]() But then, it’s unclear what we should call Mary Ellen Barbera and Joseph M. Maybe we should just call him “Mack,” his middle name, which is what his extended family calls him. We can no longer call him Judge Bell, can we? And it wouldn’t be right to refer to him as Justice Bell - ex post facto and all that. Maybe the Courts of Appeal Building on Rowe Boulevard in Annapolis will need to be renamed the Courts of Supreme and Appeal Building to prevent confusion anew?Īnd what do we call the state’s retired Court of Appeals judges? Take former Chief Judge Robert M. Less confusing.īut there are ramifications - and unanswered questions - from even the most benign changes. It’s supremely simpler to be just like everyone else apparently. With the stroke of a pen, Maryland’s proud heritage of having its highest court named something other than “Supreme Court” was dashed, making it just like 48 other states, the last holdout being New York’s Court of Appeals. ![]() (R) signed a resolution making the rebrand official, and on Friday, the new Supreme Court of Maryland will sit for the first time. Along with the name changes, the highest court’s judges became justices, just like the big kids at the Supreme Court in Washington. So, after the question was put to the wisdom of the electorate in the November general election, these annoyingly confusing names were voted down and the new ones overwhelmingly approved. And who would deny a lawyer a decent wage for his or her time? In retrospect, is it any wonder why lawyers charge so much an hour? For the last 2 1/2 centuries they have spent so much of their time wandering from courthouse to courthouse wondering where to file their appeals. The key reason for the changes, as explained by the judiciary in the last legislative session, was that the names of the state’s two appellate courts were, well, just too darned confusing for attorneys trying to file an appeal in Maryland. The state finally has rebranded the Court of Appeals, established in the State of Maryland in 1776, and Court of Special Appeals, the intermediate appellate court created in 1966, with new names. Thanks to the wisdom of the Maryland General Assembly and the state’s voters - who rarely meet a ballot question they don’t like - the bench, bar and citizenry have been graced with a new Supreme Court of Maryland and a new Appellate Court of Maryland. After 246 years, they will no longer be confused about where to turn for the state’s final word on a point of law. Lawyers in Maryland - and those visiting the courts of the Free State - finally can breathe easy. What are Barbera and other former chief judges to be called now that members of the state’s newly branded Supreme Court are to be called justices? Photo by James Levin/Capital News Service. Larry Hogan (R) is sworn in by then-Maryland Chief Judge Mary Ellen Barbera in 2015.
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