In 2001, Court Administration established the Quality Control Department to be in charge of one of its key functions at the court – maintaining the integrity of the information that the court generates and improving the quality of the data it collects. Specifically, the Department is in charge of data quality control for Civil, Criminal, Family, and Juvenile cases. One of the Department’s main responsibilities is to investigate and resolve data-related discrepancies found in these cases.

Currently, the Quality Control Department reviews over 30 different daily or weekly reports on cases that have one or more potential data issues or problems. Based on the reports, the Department determines if a given case has the problem as indicated by the report, and after detecting the problem, identifies its source(s) and reports to the responsible department(s) to correct the discrepancies. To solve these problems, the staff uses various information sources, ranging from actual case files to recorded court hearings. The Department also monitors the trend of cases with these problems and reports any unusual changes. The other major task of the Department is the auditing of closed criminal and miscellaneous petition cases. The Department verifies the information in these cases against the court’s database for accuracy and proper closures. All of these responsibilities fall upon the staff of the Department who are not only familiar with the details of case processing and legal procedures, but also are conversant with data codes.

Because of its frequent contacts with various departments of the court, the Quality Control Department also performs as an informational liaison between these various departments and the Data Processing Department that maintains the court’s case-related data. In this capacity, the Quality Control Department also engages in continuous communications with other departments on quality control issues and, with their assistance, strives to continue improving the quality of the data at the court.

Weekly data quality and data assurance activities performed by the Quality Control Department:

• Analyze cases without future events to determine if it is necessary for an event to be scheduled or if the case can be closed.
• Investigate the cases with hearings or trials scheduled on the dates beyond the prescribed time standards to determine reasons for the over-standard scheduling.
• Resolve conflicts or discrepancies in data entered independently by the Clerk’s Office, Assignment Office, and Courtroom Clerks; identify the source(s) of the problem, and notify appropriate department(s) for correcting discrepancies.
• Monitor and verify the status of outstanding body attachments, bench warrants, stays, stets, and bankruptcies and notify appropriate departments for proper action.
• Check the automated scheduling orders for civil and criminal cases to ensure that newly filed cases will have key events scheduled within appropriate time standards.
• Contact parties and their counsel to determine the status of an order to be submitted following a court hearing or trial.
• Monitor cases with an under advisement status and notify judges assigned to the case for guidance so appropriate action (such as submitting an order or scheduling a hearing) may be taken.
• Review cases with outstanding motions and forward them to the judges/masters, the Differentiated Case Management Special Master, the Family Division Case Managers, or the Administrative Aides for review. Quality Control does not review the content of the motions.
• Review civil cases to determine if they are in proper posture to issue the “No Answer” or “No Default” notices if an Answer or a motion has not been filed with the Clerk of the Court. Motions for Default are ruled on by the Administrative Judge’s Administrative Aides.
• Review civil cases to determine if a 2-507 Notice of Contemplated Dismissal should be issued against individual parties or an entire case pursuant to Maryland Rule 2-507 in the Civil Procedures.
• Review indictments and information before they are filed and determine if they have been assigned to the correct case track according to the court’s Criminal Differentiated Case Management Plan.
• Review Foreclosure cases with inactivity and issue a notice that is sent to the plaintiff to proceed with the case.

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