Maryland Appellate Rules Amendments: Paper Copies and Images in Briefs

By Steve Klepper (Bluesky @mdappeal)

On Thursday, the Supreme Court of Maryland adopted a Rules Order (Feb. 19, 2026) containing several changes to Title 8 (Appellate Rules) and related provisions of Title 20 (electronic filing). These amendments “shall take effect and apply to all actions commenced on or after July 1, 2026 and, insofar as practicable, to all actions then pending.”

Below are the descriptions as they appeared in the Rules Committee’s 227th Report recommending these amendments. But first I will highlight the two most likely to have a practical impact on the average appeal.

First, in the Appellate Court, the number of paper copies of briefs and record extracts to be filed is reduced from eight to five, and the number to be served is reduced from two to one. The amended Rule 8-502 expressly allows parties to agree to waive service of paper copies on one another (as they often do already).

Second, the new Rule 8-503(d)(5) addresses a question that I have asked and been asked many times over the years: Do words in images count toward word limits? The new subsection (5) provides: “Images shall be used in a brief only for demonstrative purposes and not to avoid any word count limits.” For example, if your appeal involves a contract, you can’t evade word limits by pasting an image of the contract into the document. If there is something significant about visual cues in the contract, like indents or font sizes, the safe bet is to quote the language in the brief’s body (which counts toward the word limit) and then paste relevant parts of the image.

Summaries from the 227th Rules Report:

Proposed New Rule 8-306
At the request of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and the Clerk of the Supreme Court, the Committee considered and recommends adoption of new Rule 8-306 (Direct Appeal to Supreme Court). The Rule has at its aim, clarifying the procedures governing direct appeals to the Supreme Court. In an effort to provide guidance to litigants, a cross reference provides examples, not designed to be all-inclusive, of statutes permitting direct appeal to the Supreme Court.

Rules 8-301, 8-504, 8-523, and 16-406
Should the Court adopt proposed new Rule 8-306, the Rules Committee proposes amending Rule 8-301 to provide a reference to that Rule. The Committee also recommends conforming amendments to Rules 8-504 and 8-523 to guide individuals to new Rule 8-306. Additionally, as to Rule 16-406, a new section is proposed, to add to the list of filings a notice of appeal to the Supreme Court. The amendment also seeks to clarify that the provision pertaining to Information Reports remains applicable only to appeals to the Appellate Court.

Rule 8-111
The proposed amendment to Rule 8-111 is a housekeeping amendment designed to conform section (c) to the current version of Code, Criminal Procedure, § 11-103(b), as amended in 2013, to permit a victim to appeal from a final order, without leave from the Appellate Court. Additionally, as a matter of style, the Committee recommends removing the reference to Rule 8-204, since having the reference may lead a reader to believe the Appellate Court still must grant leave.

Rule 8-305
Proposed amendments to Rule 8-305 result from a request from the Clerk of the Supreme Court. The amendments are designed to conform the Rule to a Memorandum of Understanding between the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland and the Supreme Court of Maryland, and to outline the procedures to be followed by the Clerk where the District Court seeks a certification order.

Rules 8-502, 20-403, and 20-404
Proposed amendments to 8-502, which would reduce from eight to five the number of copies of briefs parties are required to file in the Appellate Court, and from two to one the number of copies parties are required to serve on other parties, is offered as a cost-cutting measure. Proposed amendments to Rules 20-403 and 20-404 conform the Rules to amended Rule 8-502.

Rule 8-503
The first proposed amendment to Rule 8-503 emanates from a discrepancy between the 3900-word limit in Rule 8-503 (d)(4)(B) for an amicus curiae supporting or opposing a petition for certiorari or other extraordinary writ and the word count provision in Rule 8-511 (e)(4) of 1900 words.

Additionally, new subsection (d)(5) is proposed in an effort to clarify that, while an image may be used in a brief for demonstrative purposes, a party may not use an image to circumvent word count restrictions. The Committee considered whether words appearing on images should be included within the word count. Having learned that current technology does not allow words within the image to be counted easily, the Committee opted to emphasize that the words in the image must not be used improperly.