Montana Code Annotated 2023

TITLE 50. HEALTH AND SAFETY

CHAPTER 17. DISEASE PREVENTION AND CONTROL

Part 1. Tuberculosis Control

Emergency Detainment -- Petition -- Detention

50-17-115. Emergency detainment -- petition -- detention. (1) If a physician, the department, or a local health officer reasonably believes that a person has tuberculosis and that the person is likely to attempt to leave the jurisdiction to avoid a hearing on commitment, the physician, department, or local health officer shall notify the sheriff of the county in which the person is found, who shall cause the person to be detained in a hospital. At least by the next regular business day, the physician, department, or local health officer shall petition for an order from the district court of the county in which the person is found for continued detention of the person and to require examination or treatment for tuberculosis pursuant to 50-17-105. The sheriff must serve the summons required by 50-17-106 on the person the same day the petition is filed.

(2) Immediately after the petition is filed the court will decide whether further emergency detention is required and may order continued hospital detention of the person for no more than 7 days if it finds that the person is an unacceptable danger to the public health and safety in that the person probably has tuberculosis and unless detained will probably leave the jurisdiction to avoid a hearing pursuant to this part.

(3) The district court of the county in which the person is found has jurisdiction over the person for the purposes of this section. The district court may, in the interests of justice, order that jurisdiction over further proceedings be transferred to the district court of the county of the person's residence.

History: En. Sec. 1, Ch. 460, L. 1989; amd. Sec. 10, Ch. 190, L. 2001.