SB 284 Montana Senate · 2025 Regular Session

Revise district court laws

SB 284 would have combined Montana's 10th and 14th judicial districts (covering counties like Fergus, Meagher, and Wheatland) and added a ninth judge to Yellowstone County's 13th Judicial District, which currently has a workload equivalent to 13.9 judges but only eight full-time judges. The bill amended laws defining judicial districts and judge assignments to address imbalances in court workloads. It included transition rules for filling vacancies and scheduled a new judge election for the 13th district in 2030. The bill died in process after being tabled in committee and missing a transmittal deadline in 2025.

Bill status died 1 of 4 stages cleared

Introduction

Feb 2025

Committee Review

Floor Vote

Governor

Introduced Feb 7, 2025 Last action May 23, 2025

Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

LC1049.pdf → SB0284_1.pdf · 2 edits

MINOR

The bill was renumbered from LC 1049 to SB 284, indicating a shift from a committee substitute to a formal Senate bill. The document was updated to reflect the official 'Authorized Print Version' branding. Additionally, the effective date of the legislation was changed from immediate implementation to taking effect only upon passage and approval by the legislature.

TIMELINE

The effective date was changed from 'immediately' to 'on passage and approval', meaning the new judicial district boundaries will not take effect until the bill is officially signed into law.

TECHNICAL

The bill number was updated from LC 1049 to SB 284, and the header text was changed to reflect the official Senate bill format.

Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Amendments

Feb 26, 2025

Amended

(S) Tabled in Committee - (S) Judiciary

upper

Feb 10, 2025

Committee

(S) Referred to Committee - (S) Judiciary

upper

Feb 7, 2025

Introduced

(S) Introduced

upper

1 primary · 0 co-sponsors