On December 18, 2024, the Montana Supreme Court ruled in the case of Held v. Montana, finding that the Montana Environmental Policy Act ("MEPA") violated the state's constitution. In the midst of great change to the federal...more
Throughout 2024, young Americans from states like Oregon, California, and Hawaii turned to litigation, arguing that court intervention is necessary to protect them from climate change. The young plaintiffs spearheading these...more
The January 2025 Section 7520 rate for use with estate planning techniques such as CRTs, CLTs, QPRTs and GRATs is 5.2%, an increase from the December 2024 rate of 5.0%. The January applicable federal rate (“AFR”) for use with...more
Many Montana employees can claim the protection of Montana’s unique Wrongful Discharge from Employment Act, which generally bars an employer for terminating an employee without “good cause” after the employee has completed a...more
Last week, the defendant filed its answer brief in Bratton v. Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth Health System, Inc., an appeal now pending before the Montana Supreme Court involving a challenge to the defendant’s use of...more
The Montana Supreme Court has accepted a certified question from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals concerning whether, under Montana law, dinosaur fossils constitute “minerals” for the purpose of a mineral reservation. Who...more
It's often difficult to predict how a court will interpret text, whether the text is part of a statute, a regulation, or a contract. Sure, courts have tools to aid their interpretations, but how a court will apply those tools...more
Montana is well-known in the employment world for deviating from the employment at-will doctrine. In Montana, employees are protected under the Wrongful Discharge from Employment Act (WDEA), which provides that an employee’s...more
On September 28, 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari in two cases with labor and employment implications. - In the first case, Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, Council 31...more