Montana Court Rules
Montana Court Rules
✓ current as of July 2026Full text of 244 rules across 6 sets, cross-linked with Montana case law.
Mont. Just. & City Ct. R. Civ. P. 24 rules
- Scope of rules
- Commencement of action
- Place of trial or venue
- Persons -- jurisdiction -- process -- service
- Service and filing of pleadings and other papers, excluding summons
- Time
- Pleadings allowed
- Amendment of pleadings
- Motions and other papers
- Naming of parties to action
- Substitution of parties
- Joinder of claims and parties necessary for just adjudication
- Discovery
- Pretrial conferences
- Right to jury trial
- Failure to appear or proceed
- Costs
- Jury
- Order of trial
- Notice of trial
- Entry of judgment
- Relief from judgment
- Execution
- Appeal to district court
Mont. Unif. R. Just. & City Ct. 21 rules
- Scope of rules
- Multi-judge courts -- allocation of cases
- Files and exhibits
- Docket and index
- Form and quality of paper filed
- Motions
- Ex parte matters
- Presenting orders etc
- Witnesses subpoenas
- Duty to make service
- Filing of discovery
- Request for jury trial
- Decorum
- Representation
- Office hours
- Pre-trial conference
- Payment of bonds
- Continuances
- Jury instructions
- Voir dire
- Time computation
Mont. Unif. Dist. Ct. R. 17 rules
- Form of Papers Presented for Filing
- Motions
- Ex Parte Matters
- Filing of Discovery
- Pre-Trial Order and Pre-Trial Conference
- Simplified Procedure for Civil Actions
- Jury Instructions and Verdict Forms
- Findings and Conclusions
- Juror Questionnaire
- Death or Removal of Attorney
- Judgments and Decrees
- Exhibits
- Regulation of Attorneys not Admitted to Practice in Montana
- Chief District Judge
- Local Rules Allowed
- Attorney's Copied or Electronically-Generated Signature
- Informal Domestic Relations Trials
Mont. R. Civ. P. 89 rules
- Scope of Rules
- One form of Action
- Commencing an Action
- Persons Subject to Jurisdiction; Process; Service
- Limited Representation Permitted -- Process
- Notice of Limited Appearance and Withdrawal as Attorney
- Serving and Filing Pleadings and other Papers
- Constitutional Challenge to a Statute -- Notice and Intervention
- Privacy Protection for Filings Made With the Court
- Computing and Extending Time; Time for Motion Papers
- Pleadings Allowed; Form of Motions and Other Papers
- Disclosure Statement
- General Rules of Pleading
- Pleading Special Matters
- Form of Pleadings
- Signing Pleadings, Motions, and other Papers; Representations to the Court; Sanctions
- Defenses and Objections: When and How Presented; Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings; Consolidating Motions; Waiving Defenses; Pretrial Hearing
- Counterclaim and Crossclaim
- Third-Party Practice
- Amended and Supplemental Pleadings
- Pretrial Conferences; Scheduling; Management
- Plaintiff and Defendant; Capacity; Public Officers
- Joinder of Claims
- Required Joinder of Parties
- Permissive Joinder of Parties
- Misjoinder and Non-Joinder of Parties
- Interpleader
- Class Actions
- Derivative Actions
- Actions Relating to Unincorporated Associations
- Intervention
- Substitution of Parties
- General Provisions Governing Discovery
- Depositions to Perpetuate Testimony
- Persons Before Whom Depositions May Be Taken
- Stipulation Regarding Discovery Procedure
- Depositions by Oral Examination
- Depositions by Written Questions
- Using Depositions in Court Proceedings
- Interrogatories to Parties
- Producing Documents, Electronically-Stored Information, and Tangible Things, or Entering onto Land, for Inspection and Other Purposes
- Physical and Mental Examination
- Requests for Admissions
- Failure to Make Discovery; Sanctions
- Right to a Jury Trial; Demand
- Trial by Jury or by the Court
- Scheduling Cases for Trial
- Dismissal of Actions
- Consolidation; Separate Trials
- Taking Testimony
- Proving an Official Record
- Determining Foreign Law
- Subpoena
- Objecting to a Ruling or Order
- Jurors
- Juries -- Verdict
- Special Verdicts and Interrogatories
- Judgment as a Matter of Law in a Jury Trial; Related Motion for a New Trial; Conditional Ruling
- Instructions to the Jury; Objections; Preserving a Claim of Error
- Findings and Conclusions by the Court; Judgment on Partial Findings
- Masters
- Judgments; Costs
- Default; Default Judgment
- Summary Judgment
- Declaratory Judgments
- Entering Judgment
- New Trial; Altering or Amending a Judgment
- Relief from Judgment or Order
- Harmless Error
- Stay of Proceedings to Enforce a Judgment
- Indicative Rule on a Motion for Relief that is Barred by a Pending Appeal
- Judge's Inability to Proceed
- Seizing a Person or Property
- Injunctions
- Receivers
- Deposit into Court
- Offer of Judgment
- Execution
- Enforcing a Judgment for a Specific Act
- Enforcing Relief For or Against a Nonparty
- Appeal from A District Court to the Supreme Court
- Conducting Business; Clerk's Authority; Notice of an Order or Judgment
- Stenographic Transcript as Evidence
- Applicability in General
- Jurisdiction and Venue Unaffected
- Rules by District Courts
- Forms
- Title
- Effective Date -- Statutes Superseded
Mont. R. App. P. 30 rules
- Title and scope
- Parties - amicus curiae - captions
- Interpretation of time requirements
- How and when to take an appeal or cross-appeal
- Proceeding without the required filing fee
- Application of these rules
- Mandatory appellate alternative dispute resolution
- The record
- Transmission of the record and other matters relating to the record on appeal
- Filing and service of papers - generally
- Form of briefs and other papers - duplication
- Briefs
- Filing and service of briefs
- Jurisdiction - extraordinary writs - supervisory control - original proceedings
- Certification of questions of law
- Motions
- Oral arguments
- Media access to court proceedings
- Relief
- Petitions for rehearing
- Remittitur
- Stay of judgment or order pending appeal
- Undertaking for costs on appeal
- Sureties
- Substitution of parties in civil cases - acts of personal representatives or guardians when appointment vacated
- Extension of time
- Notice involving constitutional questions where the state is not a party
- Minutes of supreme court
- Suspension of the rules
- Judicial waiver appeals
Mont. R. Evid. 63 rules
- Scope
- Purpose and construction
- Rulings on evidence
- Preliminary questions of admissibility
- Limited admissibility
- Remainder of or related acts, writings, or statements
- Judicial notice of facts
- Judicial notice of law
- Presumptions in general
- Applicability of federal law in civil cases
- Definition of relevant evidence
- Relevant evidence generally admissible; irrelevant evidence inadmissible
- Exclusion of relevant evidence on grounds of prejudice, confusion, or waste of time
- Character evidence not admissible to prove conduct, exceptions; other crimes; character in issue
- Methods of proving character
- Habit; routine practice
- Subsequent remedial measures
- Compromise and offers to compromise
- Payment of expenses
- Offer to plead guilty; nolo contendere; withdrawn plea of guilty
- Liability insurance
- Privileges recognized only as provided
- Identity of informer
- Waiver of privilege by voluntary disclosure
- Privileged matter disclosed under compulsion or without opportunity to claim the privilege
- Comment upon or inference from claim of privilege
- Competency in general; disqualification
- Lack of personal knowledge
- Oath or affirmation
- Interpreters
- Competency of judge as witness
- Competency of juror as witness
- Who may impeach; party not bound by testimony
- Evidence of character and conduct of witness
- Impeachment by evidence of conviction of crime
- Religious beliefs or opinions
- Mode and order of interrogation and presentation; re-examination and recall; confrontation
- Writings used to refresh memory
- Prior statements of witnesses
- Calling and interrogation of witnesses by court
- Exclusion of witnesses
- Opinion testimony by lay witnesses
- Testimony by experts
- Basis of opinion testimony by experts
- Opinions on ultimate issue
- Disclosure of facts or data underlying expert opinion
- Definitions
- Hearsay rule
- Hearsay exceptions: availability of declarant immaterial
- Hearsay exceptions: declarant unavailable
- Hearsay within hearsay
- Attacking and supporting the credibility of declarant
- Requirement of authentication or identification
- Self-authentication
- Subscribing witness' testimony unnecessary
- Definitions
- Requirement of original
- Admissibility of duplicates, copies of certain entries
- Admissibility of other evidence of contents
- Public records
- Summaries
- Testimony or written admission of party
- Functions of court and jury