SB 38 Montana Senate · 2025 Regular Session

Generally revise laws relating to attorney fees and prevailing parties for veto overrides

SB 38 revises laws concerning attorney fees that can be awarded against government entities. The bill specifies that if a party sues to compel a legislative veto override poll and the poll does not result in an override, the party who brought the suit is not considered to have "prevailed." This change prevents government entities from being liable for the opposing party's attorney fees in such circumstances, even if the government's defense was found to be frivolous or in bad faith. This bill affects government entities and individuals or groups involved in legal actions related to legislative veto override polls.
Bill status signed all 5 stages cleared
Introduction
Dec 2024
Committee Review
Apr 2025
Senate Passage
Apr 2025
House Passage
Apr 2025
Signed into Law
May 2025
Introduced Dec 12, 2024 Signed May 8, 2025
Maddy AI version diff · 2 comparisons

What changed between versions

SB0038_1(7).pdf SB0038_X.pdf · 4 edits
MODERATE
This bill was transitioned from a draft version (SB 38.1) to its final enrolled form (SB 38) for passage. The substantive policy content remains the same, prohibiting attorney fee awards against government entities when legislative veto override polls fail to override a veto. The changes are primarily formatting and structural updates to reflect the bill's final status.
Scope change
The bill's scope and applicability remain unchanged; only the document format and versioning were updated.
TECHNICAL

The bill title and header were updated from 'SB 38.1' to 'SB 38' to reflect its final enrolled status.

Certification language and signature blocks for the Secretary of the Senate, President of the Senate, and Speaker of the House were added to formally certify the bill as enacted.

Draft version markers and placeholder text indicating the bill was an authorized print version were removed.

The bill text was reorganized to place the enrolled bill certification at the beginning, followed by the bill title and text, rather than the draft version layout.

Floor votes · Senate Feb 3, 2025 · House Apr 11, 2025

How they voted

3613
Passed · 1 other
Total votes 50
Feb 3, 2025
D Democratic18
4 Yea 13 Nay 1
72% Nay
R Republican32
32 Yea
100% Yea
Vote distribution
All Yea All Nay Mixed No data
Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions
45
Key actions
9
Committee
6
May 5, 2025
Signed into law
(S) Signed by Governor
upper
Apr 25, 2025
Lower · Passed
(H) Signed by Speaker
lower
Apr 21, 2025
Upper · Passed
(S) Signed by President
upper
Apr 11, 2025
House · Passed
House Vote: pass (58-41-1)
house
Apr 8, 2025
Lower · Passed
(H) Committee Report - (H) Judiciary
lower
Apr 8, 2025
Lower · Passed
(H) Committee Executive Action - (H) Judiciary
lower
Feb 4, 2025
Committee
(H) Referred to Committee - (H) Judiciary
lower
Feb 3, 2025
Senate · Passed
Senate Vote: pass (36-13-1)
senate
Jan 29, 2025
Upper · Passed
(S) Committee Report - (S) Judiciary
upper
Jan 29, 2025
Upper · Passed
(S) Committee Executive Action - (S) Judiciary
upper
Jan 7, 2025
Committee
(S) Referred to Committee - (S) Judiciary
upper
Dec 12, 2024
Introduced
(S) Introduced
upper
1 primary · 0 co-sponsors

Sponsors

Role
Legislator
Party
State
District
P
Photo of Greg Hertz
Greg Hertz
RRepublican
MT
7