(a) Pre-judgment interest. — Any pre-judgment interest awarded shall be separately stated in the decision and included in the judgment.
Rule 3-604.Interest
District Court · Not amended since adoption on record · Last verified July 13, 2026
In one sentenceRule 3-604 requires pre-judgment interest to be stated separately in the decision, and provides that a money judgment earns post-judgment interest from the date it is entered.
Full Text of Rule 3-604
(b) Post-judgment interest. — A money judgment shall bear interest at the rate prescribed by law from the date of entry.
Committee Note & Source
Source. This Rule is new.
Plain-English Summary
Interest on a money judgment comes in two flavors, and Rule 3-604 keeps them distinct. Pre-judgment interest — interest that accrued before the court ever ruled — has to be called out separately in the court's decision and then folded into the judgment amount. That separation matters because it shows exactly how much of the total award is principal and how much is interest that built up while the case was pending.
Post-judgment interest works differently: it is not something the court needs to calculate or write in. A money judgment bears interest at the rate the law prescribes, running from the date the judgment is entered, until it is paid. The rule itself does not set that rate; it just establishes that the judgment accrues interest automatically from entry.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does a money judgment automatically earn interest after it's entered?
Yes. Rule 3-604 provides that a money judgment bears interest at the rate prescribed by law from the date it is entered, without the court needing to order it separately.
Do I need to ask the court to include pre-judgment interest?
Any pre-judgment interest the court awards must be separately stated in the decision and included in the judgment. The rule addresses how awarded interest is stated, not whether interest is owed in the first place, which depends on the substantive law governing the claim.
What interest rate applies to a District Court money judgment?
Rule 3-604 does not set a specific rate. It says post-judgment interest runs at the rate prescribed by law from the date of entry, leaving the applicable rate to other statutes.
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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