Legislation: batch B — IL IN KS KY LA MA MD ME MI MN

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>

legislation/us/states/md/2025/hb-438.md

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+---
+type: "Bill"
+title: "Civil Actions - Tortious Injury to or Death of Pet - Compensatory Damages (Buddy's Law)"
+description: "Civil Actions - Tortious Injury to or Death of Pet - Compensatory Damages (Buddy's Law)"
+jurisdiction: "us/states/md"
+legislature: "Maryland General Assembly"
+session: "2025"
+identifier: "HB 438"
+citation: "Maryland HB 438 (2025)"
+classification: ["bill"]
+subjects: []
+status: "enacted"
+primary_sponsors: ["Arikan", "Bartlett", "Cardin", "Hill", "Kaufman", "Kipke", "Lehman", "Nkongolo", "Phillips", "Ruth", "Sample-Hughes", "Schmidt", "Simpson", "Stinnett", "Williams"]
+version_count: 3
+action_count: 14
+vote_count: 1
+first_action: "2025-01-16"
+last_action: "2025-04-22"
+source: "openstates"
+source_identifier: "ocd-bill/e1b56f8a-ae98-4b27-8130-900be7db911e"
+source_url: "http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Legislation/Details/hb0438?ys=2025RS&search=True"
+source_hash: "3903f17169d2e953f1aada4ecb5c2f1f87b76feaeade65d7a74f1de2375aa354"
+vintage: "2026-07-01"
+source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
+retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
+confidence: "reported"
+tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-md"]
+---
+
+# Maryland HB 438 (2025) — Civil Actions - Tortious Injury to or Death of Pet - Compensatory Damages (Buddy's Law)
+
+## Version chain
+
+The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.
+
+1. **Chapter - Civil Actions - Tortious Injury to or Death of Pet - Compensatory Damages (Buddy's Law)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/2025RS/Chapters_noln/CH_101_hb0438t.pdf)
+2. **First - Civil Actions - Tortious Injury to or Death of Pet - Compensatory Damages** (committee substitute) — [source](http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/2025RS/bills/hb/hb0438f.pdf)
+3. **Third - Civil Actions - Tortious Injury to or Death of Pet - Compensatory Damages (Buddy's Law)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/2025RS/bills/hb/hb0438t.pdf)
+
+## Votes
+
+- On Third Reading — **139–0** (pass) · lower
+
+## Sponsors
+
+- Arikan — primary (person)
+- Bartlett — primary (person)
+- Cardin — primary (person)
+- Hill — primary (person)
+- Kaufman — primary (person)
+- Kipke — primary (person)
+- Lehman — primary (person)
+- Nkongolo — primary (person)
+- Phillips — primary (person)
+- Ruth — primary (person)
+- Sample-Hughes — primary (person)
+- Schmidt — primary (person)
+- Simpson — primary (person)
+- Stinnett — primary (person)
+- Williams — primary (person)
+
+## Timeline
+
+The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.
+
+- **2025-01-16** First Reading Judiciary `referral-committee`
+- **2025-01-17** Hearing 2/05 at 1:00 p.m.
+- **2025-02-03** Hearing canceled
+- **2025-02-03** Hearing 2/05 at 2:00 p.m.
+- **2025-03-10** Favorable with Amendments Report by Judiciary `committee-passage-favorable`
+- **2025-03-11** Favorable with Amendments { `committee-passage-favorable`
+- **2025-03-11** Second Reading Passed with Amendments
+- **2025-03-11** Third Reading Passed `passage`
+- **2025-03-12** Referred Judicial Proceedings `referral-committee`
+- **2025-03-27** Favorable Report by Judicial Proceedings `committee-passage-favorable`
+- **2025-03-27** Favorable Adopted Second Reading Passed `committee-passage-favorable`
+- **2025-04-02** Third Reading Passed `passage`
+- **2025-04-02** Returned Passed
+- **2025-04-22** Approved by the Governor - Chapter 101 `executive-signature`
+
+## Source
+
+OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/e1b56f8a-ae98-4b27-8130-900be7db911e`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Maryland legislature records).
+