By Meredith Girard, Executive Director
The Maryland General Assembly closed its 2025 legislative session at midnight on Monday, April 7 after passing nearly 900 bills. Shore Legal Access alongside businesses and advocates from across the state worked for reforms to protect and lift up people with limited financial means. We’d like to share a few highlights.
Maryland’s Access to Counsel in Evictions program provides financially eligible tenants with the right to legal representation in eviction cases, now has permanent funding (HB103). This funding allows Shore Legal Access and other organizations to provide same-day legal representation for tenants at courthouses across Maryland. This effective program ensures fair eviction proceedings, keeps Marylanders in their homes, and every dollar invested results in $3 of economic impact.
The Expungement Reform Act of 2025 will allow many more Marylanders to clear their records and shield from public view cannabis convictions pardoned by Governor Wes Moore in 2024. The new law also overturns a 2022 state court ruling that found that a person who is found to have violated their probation after a criminal sentencing would be indefinitely ineligible to have that record expunged, even if they have served an entire sentence, paid the consequence for the probation violation and completed a required waiting period of between five and 15 years. The new law ensures that a probation violation will not impede a person’s ability to seek an expungement if they complete their sentence and otherwise qualify to have their record cleared.
The Tenant Possessions Recovery Act (HB767) ensures that tenants have notice prior to a landlord implementing an eviction. This reform will ensure that tenants know the exact date when an eviction will take place. The Maryland General Assembly also passed HB59, a bill reforming tax sale procedure including additional notice requirements to homeowners, increased threshold triggering tax foreclosure, and prevention of unpaid water and utility bills from triggering foreclosure. This significant reform will improve equity, efficiency, and protection of homeowners. Criminal record expungement, landlord/tenant matters, and foreclosure are all financial legal matters vital to economic stability. If you know someone who could benefit from having legal representation, let them know about Shore Legal Access. Having a lawyer in your corner makes a big difference. To learn more and get help go to www.shorelegal.org or call 410.690.8128
