HB 766 Montana House · 2025 Regular Session

Revise disqualification grounds of member or proposed member of medical legal panel

HB 766 revises the rules for disqualifying members of Montana's medical legal panel, which reviews medical malpractice cases. The bill adds specific grounds requiring disqualification, such as personal bias, financial interests in the case, or close relationships with involved parties (e.g., being a family member of a party or having a material witness role). It limits each party to three disqualification requests per panel member type (attorney or health care provider) and allows parties to waive disqualification after disclosure if they agree. This update clarifies when panel members must step aside to maintain impartiality in malpractice reviews.
Bill status died 3 of 5 stages cleared
Introduction
Feb 2025
Committee Review
Mar 2025
House Passage
Mar 2025
Senate Passage
Governor
Introduced Feb 25, 2025 Last action May 22, 2025
Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

LC3180.pdf HB0766_1.pdf · 3 edits
MINOR
The bill underwent a complete rebranding from a legislative committee draft (LC 3180) to a formal House Bill (HB 766), including updates to the header, page footers, and the bill's title page. The core policy text regarding disqualification grounds for bill members remains substantively unchanged, with the only functional addition being the formal introduction of the bill by Representative B. Close.
Scope change
None; the bill's scope and applicability remain identical to the original draft.
TECHNICAL

Added the bill number (HB 766) and sponsor name (B. Close) to the header and title page.

Updated page footers to reflect the new bill number and replaced the 'LC 3180' identifier with 'Authorized Print Version - HB 766'.

Removed the original committee draft identifier 'LC 3180' from headers and footers.

Floor votes · House Mar 7, 2025

How they voted

7722
Passed · 1 other
Total votes 100
Mar 7, 2025
D Democratic42
42 Yea
100% Yea
R Republican58
35 Yea 22 Nay 1
60% Yea
Vote distribution
All Yea All Nay Mixed No data
Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions
27
Key actions
3
Committee
4
Amendments
1
Apr 7, 2025
Amended
(S) Tabled in Committee - (S) Judiciary
upper
Mar 19, 2025
Committee
(S) Referred to Committee - (S) Judiciary
upper
Mar 7, 2025
House · Passed
House Vote: pass (77-22-1)
house
Mar 4, 2025
Lower · Passed
(H) Committee Report - (H) Judiciary
lower
Mar 4, 2025
Lower · Passed
(H) Committee Executive Action - (H) Judiciary
lower
Feb 26, 2025
Committee
(H) Referred to Committee - (H) Judiciary
lower
Feb 25, 2025
Introduced
(H) Introduced
lower
1 primary · 0 co-sponsors

Sponsors

Role
Legislator
Party
State
District
P
Photo of Brian Close
Brian Close
DDemocratic
MT
65