Maryland has one court search for the whole state, and since December 7, 2021 it matches exact names only unless the searcher adds a percent sign after the first letters of a last name. Its corrections department runs both the incarcerated individual locator and the sex offender registry, the latter with radius alerts, and its assessment department publishes every parcel online but will not search them by owner.
The order to use: CaseSearch with the wildcard, the locator and the registry for status, Business Express for companies, the Board of Physicians for doctors, then the SDAT property search once an address is known, and the county land records for the deed itself, which the Maryland county pages at SearchSystems list.
- Courts, statewide: the Maryland Judiciary CaseSearch, exact names by default, a percent sign for partial names.
- In custody: the DPSCS Incarcerated Individual Locator.
- Registered offenders: the Maryland Sex Offender Registry, with alerts for moves within a quarter mile to five miles of home.
- Companies and physicians: Maryland Business Express and the Board of Physicians practitioner search.
- Property, certificates and money: the SDAT real property search by address, the Vital Statistics Administration and Claim It MD.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Maryland's own systems: the Maryland Judiciary, the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, the Maryland Board of Physicians, the Maryland State Board of Elections, the Maryland Department of Health Vital Statistics Administration, the Office of the Secretary of State, the State Department of Assessments and Taxation, each read on October 13, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
CaseSearch: exact names, or a percent sign
The Maryland Judiciary's CaseSearch is the state's one portal for court case records, and the Judiciary's court records page explains the rule that trips most searchers: beginning December 7, 2021 the system defaults to exact names only. For a partial name search, enter at least the first character of the last name followed by a percent sign; the first name is not required, and a partial first name takes any characters followed by the percent sign, which cannot be placed at the beginning or in the middle of a word. A search for Smith therefore misses Smithson, and Smi% catches both. The portal's own disclaimer and coverage are on the portal.
The locator and the registry at DPSCS
The Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services' Incarcerated Individual Locator page delivered its heading alone to SearchSystems' reader, so its fields are on the page. The department's Comprehensive Registered Sex Offender Website describes a flexible search tool for registered sex offenders living and working near an address, notification of registrants' movements, and treatment and prevention resources; it cites the U.S. Department of Justice's 2022 National Crime Victimization Survey estimate that 78.6% of sexual assaults are never reported, meaning many offenders are never registered. Through icrimewatch, anyone can register for phone and email alerts when a convicted sex offender moves within a radius of a quarter mile to five miles of their home, and VINE sends email, text or phone notifications on the custody status of people incarcerated in Maryland. The page also warns that Maryland law enforcement never asks an offender to send money or gift cards to avoid a warrant or removal from the registry.
The Practitioner Profile Search and Maryland Business Express
The Maryland Board of Physicians' Practitioner Profile Search looks up any licensed practitioner's credentials; the board, which licenses physicians and other health care providers, also sells a digitally certified verification letter by credit card, emailed immediately, at $50 for a physician and $25 for an allied health practitioner. Maryland Business Express searches entities by business name, department ID or employer identification number, and explains the resident agent: a Maryland resident aged 18 or older, a Maryland corporation or a Maryland LLC chosen to receive service of process, who may or may not be associated with the entity, with consent required under Corporations and Associations section 1-208(a). The search runs on the business, not the owner, so it confirms a company already known and reveals its agent.
Voters: your own record
The State Board of Elections' Voter Lookup asks for a first name, last name, date of birth, the five digit ZIP code and the street number of the Maryland residential address on the registration record, with an optional middle initial, and returns the voter's registration record, districts, local board of elections and mail in or provisional ballot status. The site is updated daily, and a registration submitted online or at the MVA can take up to three weeks to appear. The required ZIP code and street number make it a tool for a voter reviewing their own registration rather than a search for other people.
Property: by address, never by owner
The State Department of Assessments and Taxation's real property data system covers every county, and the department's instructions are explicit about the limits: the database is searched by address, street name, account identifier or map reference, and it cannot be searched by owner's name, town, neighborhood, subdivision or ZIP code. The search application itself answered an automated read with a Cloudflare wall. For a people search this means the address must come first, from CaseSearch, the registry or another source, and then SDAT confirms who owns it; the deed behind the assessment is at the county land records office, which the Maryland county pages at SearchSystems list.
Vital records, unclaimed property and Safe at Home
The Department of Health's Vital Statistics Administration states its mission as the accurate collection, issuance and protection of vital records, and its home page is given over to scam alerts: the Division of Vital Records never asks for a Social Security number or a credit card PIN when processing an order, never uploads official records to external accounts, and issues records only once entitlement is verified, with questions at 410-764-3038. The ordering terms are on the division's own pages. The Comptroller's unclaimed property search, Claim It MD, answered with its title only.
The Secretary of State's Safe at Home Address Confidentiality Program, established by state law in 2006, assigns a legal substitute address that all government agencies, private companies and individuals must accept in place of a home, work or school address, and forwards first class, certified and registered mail and service of process free of charge. It protects people fleeing threatened, attempted or actual domestic violence, human trafficking, sexual assault, stalking or harassment, lets them obtain a driver's license, rent or buy property and take part in court proceedings under the substitute address, and bars anyone on notice from uploading a participant's actual address with their name to a shared database. A participant is absent by law from the records this guide describes.
Background checks and the Public Information Act
The DPSCS Background Checks page describes Maryland's participation in the FBI's Next Generation Identification Rap Back Service, which lets authorized government agencies receive notice of later arrests of people in positions of trust or under supervision, and notes that effective October 1, 2026 the FBI raised its fee for fingerprint based federal criminal history reports from $12 to $15, adding $3 to the CJIS fingerprinting fee schedule for transactions that include a national check. The page is written for agencies and applicants; whether and how a member of the public may obtain another person's Maryland criminal history is set out on the CJIS pages it links, not here. The Attorney General's Public Information Act page redirected to the office's home page when read, so the Act is not summarized on this page.
Maryland: CaseSearch wildcards and SDAT parcels
A Maryland search runs through CaseSearch with a wildcard, then the locator and the registry, then Business Express and the Board of Physicians. Property is the reverse of most states: find the address first, then let SDAT name the owner. Deeds, local vital records and the circuit court files are county matters, listed on the Maryland county pages at SearchSystems.
Paid people search reports on Marylanders are built from these records; CaseSearch and the SDAT parcel record are where their claims are checked, and both are free.
County Starting Points
Questions about finding someone in Maryland
Every Maryland Guide
The full set: arrest records, background checks, inmate search, offender registry, birth certificates, unclaimed property, business search, and the Maryland records law that opens every door on this list.