OPINION: State v. Child

The Montana Supreme Court has issued an Opinion in the following matter:

DA 08-0408,

2009 MT 148,

STATE OF MONTANA,

Plaintiff and Appellant,

v.

TROY JAY CHILD,

Defendant and Appellee.

UNPUBLISHED OPINION: Marriage of Webster

The Montana Supreme Court has issued an Unpublished Opinion in the following matter:

DA 08-0417,

2009 MT 147N,

IN RE THE MARRIAGE OF HENRY D. WEBSTER,

Petitioner and Appellant,

and

PATRICIA R. WEBSTER,

Respondent and Appellee.

OPINION: State v. Bullplume

The Montana Supreme Court has issued an Opinion in the following matter:

DA 07-0001,

2009 MT 145,

STATE OF MONTANA,

Plaintiff and Appellee,

v.

SHANNON BULLPLUME,

Defendant and Appellant.

OPINION: Anderson v. Woodward

The Montana Supreme Court has issued an Opinion in the following matter:

DA 08-0333,

2009 MT 144,

VERNON A. ANDERSON,

Plaintiff and Appellant,

v.

NANCY LEE WOODWARD,

Defendant and Appellee.

OPINION AND ORDER: Borgen v. Sorrell & State

The Montana Supreme Court has issued an Opinion and Order in the following matter:

OP 09-0170,

2009 MT 143,

JOHN ALFRED BORGEN,

Petitioner,

v.

ANNA WHITING SORRELL, Director of DPHHS, and the STATE OF MONTANA,

Respondents.

UNPUBLISHED OPINION: State v. Crawford

The Montana Supreme Court has issued an Unpublished Opinion in the following matter:

DA 08-0210,

2009 MT 142N,

STATE OF MONTANA,

Plaintiff and Appellee,

v.

ROBERT LEE CRAWFORD,

Defendant and Appellant.

UNPUBLISHED OPINION: Nelson v. McLaughlin

The Montana Supreme Court has issued an Unpublished Opinion in the following matter:

DA 08-0459,

2009 MT 141N,

MARK T. NELSON and JO MARIE S. NELSON,

Plaintiffs and Appellants,

v.

RUTH ANN McLAUGHLIN and DWIGHT W. ALEXANDER,

Defendants and Appellees.

Updating MCA 2007

Legal Information Users

Beware! We are now in Legislative Limbo.  The Montana Legislature has passed into law a number of bills that have effective dates sooner than July 1st or October 1st. Therefore if you rely solely on the MCA 2007, either in book form or online, you are running the risk of missing important amendments.  MCA 2009 won’t be out until the early fall.

So for those of you who have forgotten the drill since the last time around, here it is:

On the Montana Legislature website, http://leg.mt.gov/css/default.asp , there are a number of lists/tools which provide access to the new laws.

The most basic one is “Session Laws – 2009” http://leg.mt.gov/css/Sessions/61st/bills%20signed.asp .  It lists the bills by title in bill number order and will allow you to click them open for the full text.

If you wish to see the list in bill number order/Session Law number order, go to http://laws.leg.mt.gov/reports/rwservlet?laws09ext&report=LAW0700R.rdf&paramform=no .  Again you can click the bill open to read the final enrolled text.  That list notes all the effective dates along with the topics.

If you know the MCA section number that you are concerned about and need to check to see if it has been amended, go to http://laws.leg.mt.gov/reports/rwservlet?laws09ext&report=LAW0650R.rdf&paramform=no . It lists all of the sections that could have been affected this session.  You are only concerned about the ones which are followed by the code “ENR” for enrolled bill.  (The other bills are also-rans which did not pass into law.)  Once you have a House or Senate Bill number, you then need to go to either of the two links above or to the main search page, http://laws.leg.mt.gov/laws09/law0203w$.startup

There is the ability to search all of the bills by broad subject terms on the main page of the Detailed Bill information, http://laws.leg.mt.gov/laws09/law0203w$.startup .  You can then check in Session Laws -2009 to see if the bill in question passed.

Remember “An attorney may be liable  … for his failure to conduct adequate legal research. “ McCoy v. Tepper, 261 A.D.2d 592, 593 (N.Y. App. Div. 2d Dep’t 1999)

OPINION: Pacificorp v. State DOR

The Montana Supreme Court has issued an Opinion in the following matter:

DA 08-0010,

2009 MT 140,

PACIFICORP,

Petitioner and Appellee,

v.

STATE OF MONTANA, DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE,

Respondent and Appellant.

UNPUBLISHED OPINION: State v. C.J.S.

The Montana Supreme Court has issued an Unpublished Opinion in the following matter:

DA 08-0361,

2009 MT 139N,

IN THE MATTER OF C.J.S.,

A Youth.