Location: Judicial Center, Room 301
Phone: (240) 777-9100
Hours: 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.

General Information

The Administrative Office of the Montgomery County Circuit Court serves as a conduit for many judicial and non-judicial operations of the court. The Court Administrator’s role is to facilitate the administrative responsibilities of the court and develop policies to enhance systems performance while maintaining the independence of the judiciary.  The Circuit Court employs approximately 140 support staff who perform daily functions in the following departments and divisions:

Pamela Q. Harris, Court Administrator

Pamela Q. Harris has held the Court Administrator position for the Circuit Court for Montgomery County, Maryland since 1989. Ms. Harris is committed to infusing evaluation-based practices into every aspect of court administration so that quality initiatives achieve intended results while meeting the needs of the Court’s personnel and clientele.  Ms. Harris has completed the Court Executive Development Program of the National Center for State Courts’ Institute for Court Management and is certified as a Fellow. She has taught national programs on ethics, leadership, differentiated case management, and is certified as ICM faculty for caseflow management. She also has worked extensively in the field of differentiated case management and court administration both nationally and internationally.

In July 2012, Ms. Harris was elected President of the National Association for Court Management (NACM) and will serve in that capacity for one year.  Also in July, 2012, Ms. Harris was appointed to the Maryland Standing Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure as well as Vice President of Associations for the International Association for Court Administration.  Ms. Harris is also serving a 4 year term on the Board of Directors of the National Center for State Courts serving on their Programs Committee and International subcommittee.  She was also appointed as the NACM representative on a steering committee to revise the Conference of State Court Administrator’s (COSCA) Delay Reduction Standards which was recently adopted by the American Bar Association (ABA) House of Delegates, the Conference of Chief Justices (CCJ), NACM and the Conference of State Court Administrators (COSCA).  She currently serves as Member of the Maryland Conference of Circuit Court Judges; Member of the Maryland Technology Oversight Board; and member of the Maryland Integrated Statewide Case Management Committee.

She previously served as Chair of the NACM Conference Development Committee, Chair of the Code of Conduct Committee, Chair of the Membership Committee, Chair of the State Associations subcommittee and served on the Publications Committee and the Joint International subcommittee which helped establish the International Association of Court Administration (IACA).   She also served on the Professional Development Advisory Committee (PDAC) which developed the NACM Core Competencies and Curriculum Guidelines. 

She has been active internationally with rule of law initiatives and was elected to serve on the Board of the Russian American Rule of Law Consortium (RAROLC) from 2005-2011.  She worked for more than a decade promoting the rule of law and improving the capacity of local Russian legal institutions to implement reform. She also serves on the Board of the Maryland International Coordinating Council, Inc., (MICCI) and the Maryland Sister States Program Legal Affairs Committee within the office of the Maryland Secretary of State.

Essential Responsibilities of Court Administration*

Fiscal Administration - prepare and guide the court budgets through the local and state government review processes; administer the accounting, purchasing, payroll, and financial control functions of approximately a $10 million court budget; and processing and management of Grants.

Human Resources – advertise, interview and select candidates to fill court vacancies; administer wage, salary, and performance appraisal systems; and counsel court employees and facilitate personnel matters for judicial staff.  Click here to view Career Opportunities at the court.

Caseflow Management and Statistics - through data collection and analysis, evaluate pending caseloads, assist the Clerk of the Court in data validation, and develop systems that support effective case processing management.  For additional information, visit the court’s Differentiated Case Management/Quality Control page.

Technology Management (Information Systems) - based on caseflow management assessment, evaluate opportunities for technologies that expand the capacity of the court system, including the use of personal computers to navigate on-line information systems; provision for the electronic transmission of and access to data, images, and other files in automated records management and retrieval systems; assessment of emerging technologies for video and telecommunications systems, multimedia tools for education, training, and information delivery, and other computer-assisted systems that can improve the performance of the court.

Information Management - monitor system performance to milestones established by the court, informing court system employees of events that are outside the performance measures established by the court, and trigger the appropriate means of intervention.

Jury Management - oversee the court’s jury system to ensure efficient and cost-effective policies and procedures for managing juries. For additional information, visit Montgomery County Circuit Court's Jury Service page.

Space Management (Facilities) - manage physical space to assure access to all citizens, to provide adequate room for work and circulation, and to instill public confidence in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Intergovernmental Liaison - act as a liaison to other governmental agencies and departments to promote collaboration, integration of systems, and facilitation of change while maintaining the integrity of the court as a separate but equal branch of government.

Community Relations and Public Information - serve as a conduit for the release of information to the media and the public; collecting and publishing data on pending and completed judicial business and internal functions of the court system.

* These essential responsibilities have been derived from The Court Administrator, A Manual, a publication of the National Association for Court Management.

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Adjudication

Adjudication encompasses support staff for the judiciary.  Conceptually, judicial staff monitors case assignment (criminal, civil, family and juvenile cases); provides expedited case disposition for incarcerated offenders; and provides judicial supervision consistent with complexity of each case filed maintaining the integrity of Differentiated Case Management.

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Court Researchers

Montgomery County Circuit Court has two researchers on staff whose primary responsibility is to support its mission of administering justice in an honest, fair, and efficient manner. Through their data analysis, the researchers provide the Circuit Court executive team with insights on the court’s case processing performance, its use of available resources, and gaps in judicial and spatial needs. The researchers are also involved in developing the court’s annual report and its new web page. Maintaining the accuracy of the case information is of key interest to the court, and the researchers assist in efforts to track and analyze the quality of the data to ensure that information found in the court’s data system accurately reflects what is contained in the case files. In addition to working with Montgomery County Circuit Court, the researchers perform analyses for the Maryland State Judiciary related to the statewide Circuit and District Court caseflow assessments. To review some of the key products produced by the Court Researchers, please access the Court Reports/Statistics page.

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