_________ Bill No. _______

Introduced By _______________________________________________________________________________

A Bill for an Act entitled: "An Act prohibiting evidence in a criminal prosecution of a victim's consulting or retaining an attorney for, or of a victim's initiation or intention to initiate, civil litigation; and providing an immediate effective date and an applicability date."

Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Montana:

NEW SECTION. Section 1.  Evidence of, or of consulting or retaining an attorney for, civil litigation. In a criminal prosecution, evidence is not admissible that an alleged victim of the alleged offense or a legal representative of an alleged victim has consulted or retained an attorney in regard to civil litigation or possible civil litigation, or has initiated, is considering initiating, or intends to initiate civil litigation, because of a fact, transaction, or occurrence related to the criminal prosecution.

NEW SECTION. Section 2.  Codification instruction. [Section 1] is intended to be codified as an integral part of Title 46, chapter 16, part 2, and the provisions of Title 46 apply to [section 1].

NEW SECTION. Section 3.  Applicability. [This act] applies to prosecutions commenced after [the effective date of this act].

NEW SECTION. Section 4.  Effective date. [This act] is effective on passage and approval.

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