Filing a civil case in district court in Prince George’s County takes three times longer than it does in other Maryland counties, according to a state audit.
The district courthouse in Prince George’s County, one of 12 district courts throughout the state, takes an average of 20.1 days to record civil cases, a report by the Maryland Office of Legislative Audits found.
It takes an average of six days in all other districts to process case filings.
| Average days to file | ||
| District | Days | Total cases |
| Prince George’s | 20.1 | 44,080 |
| Dorchester/Somerset/Wicomico/Worcester | 13.1 | 15,017 |
| Montgomery | 9.6 | 30,529 |
| Baltimore | 7.5 | 39,276 |
| Anne Arundel | 6.5 | 17,328 |
| Source: Maryland Office of Legislative Audits | ||
The long waits in Prince George’s cause delays in setting trial dates and issuing summonses to defendants in a county that handled 44,080 cases from July 1, 2010, to June 30, 2011. Roughly 45 percent of civil case files in the county took more than 20 days to be checked and filed into the court system, according to the audit.
The audit was conducted after a request by the General Assembly’s Joint Audit Committee, which received a tip that some districts were taking excessive time to file cases, according to Legislative Auditor Bruce Myers.
“I think they were a little surprised to see those numbers,” Myers said.
Court officials blame the long processing times on temporary staffing shortages. Half of the employees responsible for entering case information at the clerk’s office in Prince George’s were out on extended sick leave or for other emergency purposes in fiscal 2011, according to courts spokeswoman Angelita Plemmer.
The clerk’s office has not made any hires for quite some time, which can add to the likelihood of having employees leave for long periods, Plemmer said.
“In this case, it was truly an anomaly,” Plemmer said. “In that office we had a number of employees that hand a number of long-term, unexpected and serious incidents occur.
“This is not the norm,” she said.
For example, one employee was given 12 weeks off to care for a daughter with a terminal illness, Plemmer said. Another received time off to undergo brain surgery.
In a response to the audit, Court of Appeals Chief Judge Robert Bell said the district court system now has a four-day deadline to file cases. And a new digital system that allows for scanning and electronically filing cases should eliminate future delays, he said.
