Quick answer: An Anne Arundel County DUI is heard in the District Court of Maryland for Anne Arundel County, which sits in two places — Annapolis and Glen Burnie. Which one gets your case follows where you were stopped, not where you live, and the trial notice settles it. Beside it runs an MVA case with a 10-day deadline from the arrest.
I’m David Waranch, and I’ve handled thousands of Maryland DUI and serious traffic cases, including in both the Annapolis and Glen Burnie courthouses. Anne Arundel is one of the few Maryland counties whose District Court sits in two buildings, and that causes more avoidable trouble here than anything else below.
Read the courthouse line on your trial notice before you get in the car. Two locations means two ways to miss court. Arriving in Glen Burnie when your case is called in Annapolis is still a failure to appear, and the standard consequence is a warrant issued on top of the DUI — see Anne Arundel County bench warrants. The town where you were arrested is a hint, not an answer.
Annapolis or Glen Burnie: Which Courthouse Gets Your Case
The two locations are one court under one State’s Attorney’s Office, so the charging posture is identical. What changes is the docket, the judge sitting that morning, and how far you drive.
Assignment follows the geography of the stop. Roughly, the north county — Glen Burnie, Pasadena, Severna Park, Linthicum and the BWI Marshall roads — runs to Glen Burnie; Annapolis, the Bay Bridge approach and the south county run to Annapolis. Treat that as orientation only. The trial notice names the location and the notice controls — and it arrives weeks later, by mail, at whatever address the court has for you. If you moved, fix that now: a notice that never reached you is no defense.
Your Court Case and Your License Case Are Not in the Same Building
A DUI arrest opens two proceedings on separate clocks. Only one happens at the courthouse.
| The criminal case | The MVA case | |
|---|---|---|
| Decided by | A District Court judge in Annapolis or Glen Burnie | An administrative law judge at the Office of Administrative Hearings — not the courthouse |
| Triggered by | The charging documents the officer files | A test result of 0.08 or more, or a refusal |
| Your deadline | The trial date on your notice | 10 days from the arrest to request a hearing or elect interlock |
| At stake | Conviction, points, fine, jail exposure, probation terms | Your privilege to drive, and on a refusal or a 0.15+ result, whether any restricted license exists at all |
| Does one control the other? | No. A dismissal in court does not automatically undo a suspension the MVA has already imposed. | |
The quiet damage happens on the administrative side, because the 45-day paper license the officer hands you reads like a 45-day deadline. The number is 10. See temporary licenses after a DUI arrest, the MVA per se hearing, and license restrictions. A good day in court often does not fix the MVA side. Local hearings: Anne Arundel County MVA hearings.
Three Different Enforcement Patterns in One County
Anne Arundel is unusual in how little its DUI stops resemble each other. One county holds a major airport, a Baltimore–Annapolis commuter corridor and a dense waterfront district. Each produces a different case file.
The commuter corridors. MD 2 (Ritchie Highway), I-97, MD 100, MD 10 and MD 3/Crain Highway carry most of the county’s traffic. On fast multi-lane roads the stop begins with a moving violation — speed, drifting, a late signal — on video before the officer reaches your window.
The airport ring. US 50, MD 170, MD 176 and the loop around BWI Marshall put unfamiliar drivers on unfamiliar roads late at night, many in rental cars. A wrong turn at a terminal exit reads to an officer the way impairment reads.
The Annapolis waterfront. Downtown, Eastport and West Street generate short, low-speed trips on narrow historic streets. The stop is usually built on something small — a light, a turn, a parking maneuver — and the State leans far harder on what the officer says he saw afterward.
That decides where a defense works. A Ritchie Highway case is attacked through the video and the breath test procedure; a downtown Annapolis case at the reason for the stop and the roadside tests.
Stopped on the Bay Bridge? The Span Decides Your County
US 50/301 crosses the Chesapeake at Sandy Point, and the county line runs across the water. A stop on the western approach or the western half of the bridge is an Anne Arundel case, heard in Annapolis. East of the span it is Queen Anne’s County — different court, different State’s Attorney, different drive back.
That route also means many Anne Arundel DUI defendants are not Maryland drivers, and one detail is routinely misread. Under Md. Code, Transp. § 16-205.1(b)(3) the officer confiscates “the person’s driver’s license issued by this State,” and the 45-day temporary license is for a person “licensed under this title.” Your Delaware card stays in your wallet.
That is not a reprieve. For a nonresident the statute suspends the driving privilege instead — 180 days on a first result of 0.08 or more, 270 days on a refusal — and your home state is told. The 10-day window applies the same way, from out of state. See out-of-state drivers charged with DUI in Maryland and four things out-of-state drivers should know.
Do Not Go Back for the Car: The 12-Hour Rule
Most people arrested for DUI here are released within hours, often at night, with the car at an impound lot or on the shoulder. Going to get it is a crime.
“An arrestee may not drive a motor vehicle within 12 hours after the arrestee’s arrest for a violation of § 21-902 of this subtitle or Title 2, Subtitle 5 or § 3-211 of the Criminal Law Article.”
Md. Code, Transp. § 21-902.1 makes that a separate offense punishable by up to 2 months in jail or a $500 fine or both. Proving it takes the arrest time already in the file plus one more police contact.
What the Charge Itself Carries
Under Md. Code, Transp. § 21-902, DUI under subsection (a) carries up to 1 year, a $1,200 fine, or both on a first offense; 2 years or $2,400 on a second. DWI under subsection (b) carries up to 2 months or $500, then 1 year or $500. Both are must-appear charges — 12 points for DUI, 8 for DWI — so there is no preset fine to mail in and nothing here resolves without a court date.
Most first-timers are hoping for probation before judgment, and there is one hard limit on it. Under Md. Code, Crim. Proc. § 6-220(f)(1) a court may not grant a PBJ on a § 21-902 charge if within the preceding 10 years you were convicted under that section — or were placed on probation before judgment for it. That is a bar on the judge’s power, not a matter of persuasion, and a prior PBJ counts the same as a conviction.
The rest of the statewide picture: DUI versus DWI, penalties, first-offense penalties, second and subsequent offenses, and the Maryland DUI overview.
Annapolis, Glen Burnie and the Rest of the County
Two communities have their own pages, because their cases differ from the picture above. If your stop was in one, start there.
- DUI lawyer in Annapolis — city police enforcement, the historic downtown and Eastport street grid, and the courthouse in town.
- DUI lawyer in Glen Burnie — the Ritchie Highway, I-97 and MD 100 commuter belt, and the north county courthouse.
Everywhere else — Pasadena, Severna Park, Arnold, Millersville, Odenton, Crofton, Edgewater, Linthicum, Deale — the case still lands at one of those two locations.
Charges That Travel With an Anne Arundel DUI
| Charge | Why it shows up alongside a DUI |
|---|---|
| Reckless driving | Frequently charged off the same driving pattern on I-97 or MD 2 |
| Driving while suspended | Common once an MVA suspension from a prior case is already running |
| Driving while revoked | Treated more harshly than suspension, with a longer road back |
| Driving without a license | Charged differently depending on whether the license expired, was never issued, or is out of state |
| Driving without insurance | Court penalty plus separate MVA uninsured-motorist penalties |
| Hit and run | Turns a DUI stop into a far more serious file; severity depends on injury |
| Bench warrants | The usual result of missing a date at the wrong courthouse |
| Expungement | What can come off the record after the case ends |
Non-alcohol citations from the same stop belong on my Anne Arundel County traffic lawyer page, or statewide at Maryland traffic violations. Non-traffic charges: Maryland criminal defense.
Anne Arundel County DUI Questions
The District Court of Maryland for Anne Arundel County sits in both places, and the location follows where the stop happened rather than where you live. Broadly, north county stops around Glen Burnie, Pasadena, Severna Park and the BWI Marshall Airport roads go to the Glen Burnie location, while Annapolis, the Bay Bridge approach and the south county go to Annapolis. Do not rely on that guide. The trial notice the court mails you names the location, and going to the wrong building is a failure to appear.
It depends on which side of the span the stop happened. US 50/301 west of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge is Anne Arundel County, so the case is heard in Annapolis. East of the span is Queen Anne’s County, which has its own District Court and its own State’s Attorney. Out-of-state drivers crossing to and from the Eastern Shore make up a large share of these arrests, and the county line decides where you have to come back to.
Not for 12 hours. Md. Code, Transp. 21-902.1 makes it a separate offense for a person arrested for DUI or DWI to drive a motor vehicle within 12 hours after the arrest, punishable by up to 2 months in jail or a $500 fine or both. This matters here because people are routinely released in the middle of the night with a car still at an impound lot or on the shoulder of Ritchie Highway. Arrange a ride and collect the vehicle later.
Law Offices of David R. Waranch — 301-563-9575 · toll-free 1-877-566-2408. Hablamos Español.
Last updated: August 2026. Statutory references: Md. Code, Transp. §§ 16-205.1, 21-902, 21-902.1; Md. Code, Crim. Proc. § 6-220. This page is general information about Maryland law, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.