MontanaSB 51169th Legislature, Regular Session (2025)SenateWALLET

Generally revising laws related to litigation financing

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Bill Overview

Analyzed Economic Effects

5 provisions identified: 4 benefits, 0 costs, 1 mixed.

Lower-cost and safer lawsuit funding

The law caps what a financer can take at 25% of any judgment, award, or settlement. It also limits interest to the legal rate under Montana law. Financers cannot give legal advice, control your case, or securitize your contract. Service providers tied to your claim cannot get commissions or referral fees from a financer. If a financer backed your case, the financer is jointly responsible for court costs or sanctions tied to that case.

Protects confidential case information

You cannot share information under a court protective or sealing order with a litigation financer. You also cannot share proprietary or trade secret material from your case with a financer. You may not share that proprietary material with a foreign person, foreign adversary, or person of concern.

Stronger disclosure of lawsuit funding

You must share any lawsuit funding contract with all parties, their lawyers, the court, and any known insurer within 30 days of signing or changing it. This applies even before a case is filed, and others can ask about it in discovery. If a financer becomes affiliated with or takes money from a foreign person, the financer must tell the Montana Secretary of State within 30 days after you sign. The filing must include the foreign person’s name, address, citizenship or country, and a copy of any contract that pays the foreign person.

Foreign money barred from lawsuit funding

Foreign adversaries and foreign persons of concern cannot do litigation financing in Montana or invest in, fund, or control a financer. Montana financers cannot accept investment, ownership, control, or funding from those actors. Foreign persons also cannot finance, invest in, or control Montana litigation financers, and they cannot tie themselves to foreign adversaries. The law uses federal lists and designations to define who counts as a foreign adversary or person of concern.

Who these lawsuit funding rules cover

The law updates key definitions, like who is a consumer and what counts as litigation financing. It applies only to funding contracts signed on or after the law’s effective date. Some groups are exempt if they meet strict limits: certain 501(c)(3) nonprofits that do not get more than attorney fees and expenses or any right to recovery, commerce actors that charge no fees or interest and keep no right to recovery, and regulated lenders with no right to payment from lawsuit proceeds.

Sponsors & Cosponsors

Sponsor

Greg Hertz
Republican • Senate

Cosponsors

Brandon Ler
Republican • House
Courtenay Sprunger
Republican • House

Roll Call Votes

All Roll Calls

Yes: 237 • No: 59

Senate vote • 4/11/2025

Do Concur

Yes: 84 • No: 15

Senate vote • 4/11/2025

Do Concur

Yes: 77 • No: 22

Senate vote • 3/6/2025

Do Pass

Yes: 42 • No: 7