Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Maryland

You cannot get an affidavit judgment if the defendants have filed a notice to defend, so there is something wrong with that notice. In all likelihood you didn't complete the part of the complaint form that requests an affidavit judgment, since it isn't that type of case. You should be prepared to go to court on the trial date and try to prove your case. By the way, although the rules of evidence are somewhat relaxed in a small claims proceeding, you probably won't be allowed to use interview statements prepared by the police as evidence. This would deprive the defendants of their right of cross-examination of your witnesses. If possible you should try to get at least one of these witnesses to come to court if they can testify that these kids were the culprits. I assume they are denying responsibility, or the parents should be willing to settle your claim. I hope you sued the parents as "next friends" of the children, because the parents themselves are not directly responsible unless they failed to properly supervise the children and that led to this event.