State Resources
Maryland
Maryland has the thing almost no other state has — one free statewide property search covering every jurisdiction, name-searchable, no account. Court records are free and statewide too. For an asset check this is about as good as it gets.
At a glance
| Record | Held by | Cost | Online |
|---|---|---|---|
| Business and entity search | Maryland Business Express (SDAT) | Free to search | Yes |
| UCC filings | SDAT — UCC filings | Free to search | Yes |
| Professional licenses | Department of Labor and individual boards | Free | By board |
| Property and land records | Department of Assessments and Taxation (SDAT) | Free | Yes |
| Court records | Judiciary — Case Search | Free | Yes |
| Criminal records | Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services | Fee, fingerprint-based | Fingerprints required |
| Vital records | Department of Health, Division of Vital Records | Certified copies carry a fee | Yes |
| Unclaimed property | Comptroller of Maryland | Free | Yes |
| Voter and resident records | State Board of Elections | Free to look up | Yes |
Worth knowing about Maryland
One property search for the whole state
This is the reason to like Maryland. SDAT, the Department of Assessments and Taxation, runs a Real Property Data Search that covers all 24 jurisdictions — 23 counties plus Baltimore City — in a single free tool with no account and no fee.
It returns the owner of record, the assessed value, lot size, use code and sale history. Almost everywhere else in the country you would be visiting 24 separate county sites of wildly varying quality to get the same thing.
Two notes. The recorded deed itself is still at the circuit court land records office for that county, so SDAT identifies and the land records office documents. And SDAT is an assessment system, so the owner name is the name as assessed — a trust or an LLC will show as the owner without telling you who is behind it.
Case Search is statewide, and it’s blunt about what it shows
Maryland Judiciary Case Search covers the District Court and the circuit courts across the state, free.
Like Wisconsin’s CCAP it shows more than convictions — charges, dispositions and pending matters all appear. Maryland has been through a long public argument about this, and the state has since expanded expungement and shielding, which removes cases from the public view entirely.
So read the disposition line before you write anything down, and remember that a shielded or expunged case doesn’t appear at all. An empty result isn’t a clean history; it’s an empty public index.
Record by record
Business and entity search
Open entity search →- Held by
- Maryland Business Express (SDAT)
- Cost
- Free to search
Free entity search returning status, formation date, resident agent and the principal office address.
Maryland entities file an annual report with SDAT that includes a personal property return, so an active entity has been touched within the year. Because SDAT runs both this and the property search, an entity found here can be run straight back through Real Property to see what it owns.
UCC filings
Open Business Express →- Held by
- SDAT — UCC filings
- Cost
- Free to search
Maryland files UCC financing statements with SDAT rather than a separate Secretary of State office.
A UCC-1 names the debtor, the secured party and the collateral, and the secured party is usually a lender — one of the few free routes to where a business banks.
Professional licenses
- Held by
- Department of Labor and individual boards
- Cost
- Free
Maryland splits licensing between the Department of Labor’s occupational and professional boards and separate health boards.
Search the specific board. Verification usually gives you a legal name, status, dates and any disciplinary action.
Property and land records
Open Real Property search →- Held by
- Department of Assessments and Taxation (SDAT)
- Cost
- Free
All 24 Maryland jurisdictions in one free search. Owner of record, assessed value, lot size, use code and sale history. No account, no fee.
Search by address, by map reference, or by owner name where the jurisdiction supports it. For an asset check, this is the first thing to run in Maryland — not the last.
Court records
Open Case Search →- Held by
- Judiciary — Case Search
- Cost
- Free
Free statewide search of District Court and circuit court records. Criminal, civil, traffic and landlord-tenant.
Landlord-tenant is worth its own pass. Maryland District Court handles a very large volume of it, and a failure-to-pay-rent filing is a dated address with a named landlord attached.
Criminal records
Open background checks →- Held by
- Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services
- Cost
- Fee, fingerprint-based
Maryland doesn’t sell a name-based criminal history to the public the way Kansas, Missouri, Indiana or Pennsylvania do. The state check is fingerprint-based and generally requires the subject’s participation or a statutory authorization.
The practical route to a Maryland criminal history is therefore Case Search, which is free and statewide and shows the court record directly.
Vital records
Open vital records →- Held by
- Department of Health, Division of Vital Records
- Cost
- Certified copies carry a fee
Births and deaths from the state office. Maryland restricts certified copies to the subject and immediate family or someone with a court order, which is tighter than many states.
Unclaimed property
Open unclaimed property →- Held by
- Comptroller of Maryland
- Cost
- Free
Free name search. The holder named on each item is the useful part on a locate — the bank, insurer or employer that reported the funds is a confirmed relationship, reported with a last known address.
Voter and resident records
Open voter lookup →- Held by
- State Board of Elections
- Cost
- Free to look up
Individual registration lookup confirming status and county. Maryland sells the full voter list and restricts it to permitted purposes, so this is a one-subject tool.
Public records requests in Maryland
- Statute
- Md. Code, Gen. Prov. §§ 4-101 et seq. (Public Information Act)
- Response deadline
- 30 days, with a 10-day acknowledgment
- Appeal to
- Public Information Act Compliance Board, or circuit court
- Appeal window
- 90 days for the Compliance Board
Maryland gives you 30 days for a response, and the agency must tell you within 10 days if it needs the full period.
The useful part is the Public Information Act Compliance Board. It handles complaints about fees and about unreasonable delay, it costs nothing to use, and you don’t need a lawyer. There’s also a state PIA Ombudsman whose job is to mediate disputes before they become fights — going to the Ombudsman first is usually faster than anything else available.
You don’t have to be a Maryland resident or explain your purpose. Fee waivers are available and are worth asking for in the original request rather than after an invoice arrives.
What Maryland will not give you
- Shielded and expunged cases. Removed from Case Search entirely. Maryland has expanded both in recent years.
- Name-based criminal history. Not sold to the public. The state check is fingerprint-based.
- Driver and vehicle records. Closed under the federal Driver’s Privacy Protection Act.
- Juvenile records. Not public.
- Vital records. Restricted to the subject, immediate family, or a court order.
Related
- Virginia — next door, and much more fragmented
- Pennsylvania — a free statewide portal and a $22 criminal check
- Property records: finding the owner
- Tracing an LLC to a human being
- Appealing a public records denial
Fees and procedures verified August 2026. Clerks change their counter rules more often than the statutes change — call before you drive.