"The Robing Room: MD State Judges

Hon. Susan M. Souder	See Rating Details
Associate Judge Circuit Court
Baltimore County County 3rd Circuit	See Comments

Attorney Average Rating: 5.1 - 14 rating(s) Non-Attorney Average Rating: 1.0 - 3 rating(s)	Please send me alerts on this judge E-mail Address:

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Only items marked with (*) are averaged into the displayed overall rating.

General Rating Criteria

* Temperament		(1=Awful,10=Excellent)
* Scholarship		(1=Awful,10=Excellent)
* Industriousness		(1=Not at all industrious,10=Highly industrious)
* Ability to Handle Complex Litigation		(1=Awful,10=Excellent)
* Punctuality		(1=Chronically Late,10=Always on Time)
* General Ability to Handle Pre-Trial Matters		(1=Not all Able, 10=Extremely Able)
* General Ability as a Trial Judge		(1=Not all Able, 10=Extremely Able)
Flexibility In Scheduling		(1=Completely Inflexible,10=Very Flexible)

Criminal Rating Criteria (if applicable)

* Evenhandedness in Criminal Litigation		(1=Demonstrates Bias,10=Entirely Evenhanded)
General Inclination Regarding Bail		(1=Pro-Defense,10=Pro-Government)
Involvement in Plea Discussions		(1=Not at all Involved, 10=Very Involved)
General Inclination in Criminal Cases Pretrial Stage		(1=Pro-prosecution,10=Pro-defense)
General Inclination in Criminal Cases Trial Stage		(1=Pro-prosecution,10=Pro-defense)
General Inclination in Criminal Cases Sentencing Stage		(1=Pro-prosecution,10=Pro-defense)

Civil Rating Criteria (if applicable)

* Evenhandedness in Civil Litigation		(1=Not at all Evenhanded,10=Entirely Evenhanded)
Involvement in Settlement Discussions		(1=Not at all Involved,10=Very Involved)
General Inclination		(1=Pro-defendant, 10=Pro-plaintiff)

Comments

What others have said about Hon. Susan M. Souder

Comments

Civil Litigation - Private

Comment #: MD1863
Rating:8.7

Comments:
Intelligent - Respectful to both the attorney and their clients. Very attentive to the facts of the case

Civil Litigation - Private

Comment #: MD1725
Rating:3.9

Comments:
Very pro-business anti-plaintiff. She is smart, but she is activist-smart, not honest-smart. Her intelligence just lets her accomplish the ends of her bias. Her temperament is very good. If she would make calls fairly, and not harbor such animosity toward plaintiffs, she'd be a great judge.

Criminal Defense Lawyer

Comment #: MD1649
Rating:9.2

Comments:
Competent, respectfuly and unbiased.

Criminal Defense Lawyer

Comment #: MD1615
Rating:10.0

Comments:
She is very thorough - very fair - very well versed in the law.

Criminal Defense Lawyer

Comment #: MD1604
Rating:1.0

Comments:
she is rude, odius, bias, don't know the law, don't follow the law, is CSS side, she lies, holds evidence, a total MESS if a "Judge" she will come down off her so call throne

Civil Litigation - Private

Comment #: MD1496
Rating:2.6

Comments:
Embarrassingly rude and disrespectful to most attorneys. She also once criticized the trial strategy of a defense attorney in a written order. Baltimore County probably has the laziest bench, but she's the worst re: temperment. Sad, really.

Criminal Defense Lawyer

Comment #: MD1440
Rating:9.4

Comments:
Judge Souder is very even-handed and never takes sides in a case, regardless of who the lawyer might be. The best part of trying a case in front of her is that she NEVER jumps in to interfere and allows the lawyers to try their own cases.

Other

Comment #: MD1390
Rating:Not Rated
Comments:
Last several posters, Your remarks probably violate MRPC 8.2(a), and may expose you to a suspension. See, Bd. of Prof'l Responsibility v. Davidson, 205 P.3d 1008 (2009); In re Riley, 691 P.2d 695 (1984). See also, In re Madison, 282 S.W.3d 350 (Mo., 2009); Anthony v. Va. State Bar , 270 Va. 601 (2005); In re Nathan, 671 N.W.2d 578 (Minn., 2003); Miss. Bar v. Lumumba, 912 So. 2d 871 (2005).

Civil Litigation - Private

Comment #: MD1389
Rating:1.5

Comments:
A tragic and dim-witted hack of a Judge. Total disgrace.

Civil Litigation - Private

Comment #: MD1377
Rating:1.9

Comments:
This judge was simply completely wrong on the law. It was only after filing a Motion for Reconsideration that the judge realized her incorrect ruling and amended her order. The most disappointing part was that she would not take a moment and listen to me state the law to her during oral argument, thus necessitating my Motion for Reconsideration.

Other

Comment #: MD1355
Rating:1.0

Comments:
Judge Souder is incompetent, disrespectful, and arrogant. She is an embarassment to the Baltimore County Court System. She needs to be removed.

Civil Litigation - Private

Comment #: MD1287
Rating:1.1

Comments:
My one and only experience with Judge Souter came early in her career.
Due to a major (very memorable) dispute she had when an attorney with our attorney we asked her to recuse herself. She refused claiming no memory of this very significant event then proceeded to tilt the entire trial against us. It appeared so obviuosly biased that we began to worry from hour one of this 3 day trial.
Ultimately the jury ruled against us (no suprise there) then perhaps due to the poisoned atomosphere refused to be polled. We successfully appealed based on her decision to allow damning and obviously excluded evidence (the silver lining is we created good case law) to be heard by the jury. Based on her incomepetence the appeals court reversed and remanded. At new trial we once again drew Souder and stupidly didn't ask her the 2nd time to recuse herself. Any judge worth their salt would have voluntarily recused themselves having been so embarrassed by the litigants but then she isn't worth her salt. She rewarded our polite gesture by throwing the trial again and we lost BIG on perhaps the most solid case I have ever seen in my 15 years of involvement in such matters. I mean this was so solid we threw half our evidence away for fear of overpowering the jurors. But our loss was a foregone conclusion.
I have no doubt she is incompetent, corrupt and can be bought. If you plan to appear in Souder's court I recommend you first make a hefty donation to her reelection campaign

Prosecutor

Comment #: MD1270
Rating:3.1

Comments:
Judge Susan Souder continues to be an embarassment to the Circuit Court. How do you rule finger prints are inadmisable in court. The system is already backed up, now Judge Souder wants to back it up more by having every criminal convicted on strong fingerprint analogy appeal their case. This court is awash in day to day mistakes, does not run smooth and is understaffed. WAY to go Judge Souder. Your arrogence has not room in this court. Such a ruling is questioned by the century old technology that has been proven fingerprints are unique, one of a kind and no two people can have the same prints. She is the laughing stock of her profession.

Litigant

Comment #: MD1227
Rating:2.0

Comments:
Rude, abrupt and basically the most arrogant Judge I have ever seen. Was called a "prolific letter writer" because I apparently , in her opinion wrote to many letters to her regarding my case( 2 letters, each one page w/ documentation to verify my illness so to ask for postponement) When I did go before her, I was treated like a murderer even though I had my case transfered to Circuit from District. It was a traffic case. I have had in the past other cases in my youth that were far worse and was treated with more respect by other judges and given fair sentencing as deserved. I felt like I was being punished for taking up space in her more important cases and was given and extremely harsh sentence considering my crime. HAVING MY TRAFFIC CASE TRANSFERRED TO HER COURT.

Criminal Defense Lawyer

Comment #: MD1226
Rating:4.2

Comments:
Does not like it if you know something she is not aware of legally. Rude , abrupt and generally hard on cases that come from district court, easy on those defendants who committed harsher crimes. If you come to her court without an attorney, be advised that you should think twice. Overall, she would be better suited for district court matters , but even then her arrogance would still be apparent.

Litigant

Comment #: MD1053
Rating:2.0

Comments:
One of Baltimore County's more unfit if not corrupt judges. She will go out of her way to sabotage your case if you are a pro se litigant, and acts extremely perturbed if you come to court prepared and actually did your legal homework. After grilling the petitioner, and finding no legal or factual basis to deny his petition for injunctive relief, she will simply rise from the bench, walk out of the courtroom, and enter a dismissal into the record. She actually claimed that the Circuit Court does not have the Jurisdiction to issue Injunctions, that such relief must come from the District Court.
Justice comes only with a price in her court, and the lesson is, "You have to pay to play."

Civil Litigation - Private

Comment #: MD2
Rating:8.8

Comments:
Very capable judge who does her homework and uses common sense in resolving complex factual and legal issues. Not afraid to made tough decisions.