Quick answer: In Maryland, a hit-and-run is leaving the scene of an accident before you stop, give your information, and render aid. Property-damage-only cases are a misdemeanor carrying up to 60 days and a $500 fine. If someone was hurt, it climbs to 1 year for a bodily-injury accident, and becomes a felony carrying 5 years for serious injury or 10 years where someone died. Whether it is a felony turns on one thing: what you knew.
I’m David Waranch, and I’ve defended Maryland drivers in hit-and-run cases for years. Almost none were the person the charge makes them sound like. They were frightened, unsure what had happened, and drove off before they could think it through. If that’s you, I’m not here to lecture you — I’m here to tell you what you’re facing and what can be done about it.
What Counts as a Hit-and-Run in Maryland?
As a Maryland hit-and-run lawyer I see the same misunderstanding constantly: people think “hit-and-run” means speeding away from a crash you caused. The statute is broader. Any driver involved in an accident must immediately stop at or near the scene, return to and remain there, and give their information and reasonable aid. Leaving before you finish those steps is the crime, and it doesn’t matter whose fault the accident was.
The duty appears in three linked sections of the Transportation Article. § 20-102 covers accidents causing injury or death, § 20-103 covers damage to an attended vehicle or property, and § 20-104 spells out what giving your information and rendering aid means. The penalty depends entirely on what the accident caused.
What Are the Penalties for Hit-and-Run in Maryland?
The range is enormous — from a $500 fine to a decade in prison — and where you sit on it depends on facts that can be argued:
| What the accident caused | Statute | Classification | Maximum jail | Maximum fine |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Damage to an attended vehicle or property only | § 20-103 | Misdemeanor | 60 days (2 months) | $500 |
| Accident causing bodily injury | § 20-102(a) | Misdemeanor | 1 year | $3,000 |
| Serious bodily injury (driver knew or should have known) | § 20-102 | Felony | 5 years | $5,000 |
| Death (driver knew or should have known) | § 20-102 | Felony | 10 years | $10,000 |
Notice what the ladder does and does not say. Leaving the scene of an injury accident is a misdemeanor, not a felony. Only the serious-injury and death tiers are felonies, and both require proof of a mental state, not just a bad outcome. Plenty of people get that wrong, and it changes everything about how you approach the case.
Your license is a separate problem. The MVA runs its own point schedule: leaving the scene of a property-damage accident is commonly assessed at 8 points, and the injury and death tiers carry heavier points that can trigger revocation on their own, whatever the criminal court does. I explain how points stack in Maryland’s point system in a nutshell.
When Is a Hit-and-Run a Felony in Maryland?
Look at the two felony rows again. They are not defined by what happened. They are defined by what you knew. Under § 20-102(c)(3), the offense becomes a felony only where the driver “knew or reasonably should have known that the accident might result in serious bodily injury” — or death — and that outcome actually occurred.
“A person who violates this section and who knew or reasonably should have known that the accident might result in serious bodily injury to another person and serious bodily injury actually occurred to another person, is guilty of a felony…”
The identical act, causing the identical injury, is a misdemeanor if the driver could not reasonably have known — and a felony if he did know. That is not a technicality; it is the whole case, and it is where the real defense work happens: what could you actually see, hear, and feel from inside the vehicle, and how hard was the impact? Every fact that bears on knowledge is contestable, and the burden of proving it sits with the State.
Do not explain it to the police first. The most damaging thing in most hit-and-run cases is done by the driver, before a lawyer is involved. A well-meant statement that you “thought you might have felt something” can hand the State the exact knowledge element it needs to turn a misdemeanor into a felony. Say nothing about what you knew or noticed, and call a lawyer before you talk to police or your insurer.
What Did the Law Actually Require You to Do?
Section 20-104 is worth knowing precisely, because a “hit-and-run” is often really a failure to finish one of these steps rather than a dramatic flight:
- Render reasonable assistance to anyone injured, and arrange transport to a doctor or hospital if it’s requested or clearly needed.
- Give your name, address, and registration number — and show your license if asked — to anyone injured and to the driver or attendant of any damaged vehicle or property.
- Give that same information to any police officer at the scene or investigating.
- If nobody is there to receive it, report the accident to the nearest police authority immediately.
That last duty catches people. There is a separate rule for unattended property — if you hit a parked, empty car, § 20-105 lets you leave a written note with your name, address, and registration in a secure, conspicuous place after trying to find the owner. But leaving a note after hitting an occupied car is not what the statute asks for, and a decent instinct can still leave you charged.
What If I Didn’t Know I Hit Anything?
This is more common than people believe, and it is a genuine defense, not an excuse. A low-speed contact in a parking lot. A clipped side mirror in traffic. A parked car you never felt. Every duty in the statute is triggered by being “involved in an accident” you were aware of. If you did not know an accident happened, the analysis is very different from the one the charging document assumes.
I’ve written about this scenario in depth in accused of a hit-and-run you didn’t know happened, and I break the defenses down further — the knowledge element, the note-duty for unattended property, and how coming back or reporting promptly mitigates — in the second part of my hit-and-run guide. If either describes your situation, get a lawyer before you explain it to a detective.
The Three Cases You Actually Face
A single hit-and-run can spin off three separate proceedings that run independently; winning one does not resolve the others:
- The criminal case. Misdemeanors are heard in District Court, felonies in Circuit Court — where jail, fines, and probation before judgment are decided. What to expect step by step is in what happens after a hit-and-run charge in Maryland.
- The MVA action. The administrative track over your license and points moves on its own timeline. A revocation can happen even if the criminal case ends well.
- The civil suit. The other party can sue for damages and injuries, and your insurer’s response to a hit-and-run allegation matters. See how leaving the scene affects coverage in the Maryland insurance and hit-and-run guide and how insurers treat traffic convictions.
For the line between the property-damage and injury cases — really the line between misdemeanor and felony — see Maryland hit-and-run: property damage vs. injury.
How I Defend a Hit-and-Run Charge
The work is concrete:
- Attack the knowledge element — the difference between a misdemeanor and a felony, and often between conviction and none.
- Test the identification — a plate number is not a driver, and the State must still prove you were behind the wheel.
- Gather the evidence — surveillance and dashcam footage, the damage profile on both vehicles, medical records that go to how serious the injury really was.
- Negotiate. Restitution paid early, insurance engaged, and a driver who came forward move prosecutors and judges, and open the door to probation before judgment so nothing lands as a conviction.
Leaving-the-scene charges are must-appear offenses, not payable tickets — you can’t mail in the $500 and be done. But that court date is where a real defense can change the outcome. Anywhere in Maryland, from Montgomery County to Baltimore County, the sooner you call, the more room there is to work.
Frequently Asked Questions
Only in specific circumstances. Leaving an accident that caused bodily injury is a misdemeanor with up to 1 year in jail. It becomes a felony (5 years for serious bodily injury, 10 years where someone died) only where the driver knew or reasonably should have known that outcome might occur. Property-damage-only cases are misdemeanors carrying up to 60 days.
Far less bad than the injury cases, and it is fixable. You are looking at a misdemeanor with a maximum of 60 days and a $500 fine, plus about 8 MVA points, which is the part that actually stings. Paying for the damage promptly and coming forward voluntarily both matter to how it resolves.
Not before you talk to a lawyer. Everything in these cases turns on what you knew, and a statement explaining that you thought you might have felt something can hand the State the exact element it needs to prove a felony. Stay quiet about what you noticed and call.
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. § 20-102, § 20-103, § 20-104, and § 20-105. This page is general information about Maryland law, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.