There shall be a complaint and a notice of intention to defend. There may be a counterclaim, a cross-claim, and a third-party complaint. There shall be a notice of intention to defend against any counterclaim, cross- claim, or third-party complaint. No other pleading shall be allowed.
Rule 3-302.Pleadings allowed
District Court · Last amended January 1, 2004 · Last verified July 13, 2026
In one sentenceRule 3-302 lists the only pleadings allowed in a District Court case — complaint, notice of intention to defend, and, when needed, counterclaim, cross-claim, third-party complaint, and the notices of intention to defend that answer them.
Full Text of Rule 3-302
Amendment History
Amended Nov. 12, 2003, effective Jan. 1, 2004.
Committee Note & Source
Source. This Rule is new and is derived from former M.D.R. 300 a and the 1983 version of Fed. R. Civ. P. 7.
Plain-English Summary
District Court practice keeps the pleading stage narrow. A case needs a complaint to start it and a notice of intention to defend to respond to it — the District Court's stand-in for an answer. Beyond that baseline, a party may add a counterclaim, a cross-claim, or a third-party complaint if the case calls for one, and each of those pulls in its own notice of intention to defend from whoever is on the receiving end. The rule then closes the door: no other pleading is allowed.
That last sentence matters. A party cannot file a reply to a notice of intention to defend or invent some other paper to keep the pleading exchange going. If a party wants to raise something beyond what a notice of intention to defend covers, the tools for that live elsewhere in Title 3 — through motions, discovery, or trial — not through additional rounds of pleadings.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the District Court use an 'answer' the way Circuit Court does?
No. A defendant responds with a notice of intention to defend rather than a formal answer.
Can I file something in reply to the defendant's notice of intention to defend?
No. The rule allows no pleading beyond the complaint, the notice of intention to defend, and, where applicable, a counterclaim, cross-claim, or third-party complaint and the notices of intention to defend that respond to them.
What if I'm named in a counterclaim, cross-claim, or third-party complaint?
You respond the same way you would to the original complaint: by filing a notice of intention to defend.
Source & verification. Rule text, Committee Note, Source note, and
amendment history are reproduced verbatim from the Maryland Rules, adopted by the
Supreme Court of Maryland. Last verified July 13, 2026. ·
Official source
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