Committee note: Problem-solving court programs often provide for professionals in various fields working with a judge or other judicial official as a team to deal with participants in the program. That may result in the judge or other judicial official coming into possession of documents that identify the participant and contain sensitive information about the participant--health information, school records, drug testing, psychological evaluations. Some of that information may ultimately end up as a case record, and, if it does, public inspection will be determined by the Rules governing access to case records. To the extent the information does not become a case record but is used in private discussions among the therapy team, it will be shielded under this Rule, even though it also may be shielded under other Rules as well. Subsection (h) does not apply to judicial records regarding the creation, governance, or evaluation of problem-solving court programs that do not identify participants.

Committee note: There exist committees, subcommittees, or work groups that are sub-units within a larger judicial entity that constitutes a public body as defined in Code, General Provisions Article, § 3-101. The predominant function of those committees, subcommittees, and work groups is to investigate issues within their jurisdiction and develop recommendations for the parent entity to consider. The committees, subcommittees, and work groups are not “public bodies” subject to the Open Meetings Law, as they do not meet the definition of that term in Code, General Provisions Article, § 3-101(h). They therefore are permitted, as a matter of judicial policy, to hold meetings not open to the public and are not required to keep minutes of their meetings. It is not uncommon, however, for a committee, subcommittee, or work group member or staff person to keep notes of what occurred at meetings of those committees, subcommittees, or work groups and to circulate them to their members. Those notes, whether or not designated as minutes, represent the author's perception of what was discussed or what occurred and are in the nature both of the author's work product and an intra-agency memorandum. Section (i) of this Rule clarifies that those notes or memoranda, whether or not in the form of minutes, are not required to be open to public inspection. Any recommendations or decisions of the committee, subcommittee, or work group submitted to and considered by the parent body will be reflected in the minutes of the parent body, subject to any exceptions allowed in these Rules.

Source: This Rule is derived in part from former Rule 16-905 (2019) and in part from Code, General Provisions Article, § 4-344, and in part is new. See also Stromberg Metal Works, Inc. v. University of Maryland, 382 Md. 151, 163 (2004).