Mont. Code Ann. § 27-1-739

This is the official text of Mont. Code Ann. § 27-1-739, part of Montana’s Code Ann — part of the compiled statutory law of Montana, published by the state as "Code Ann." Browse the sections below, each linked to its official government source.

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27-1-739 Liability of health care provider for reduced chance of recovery caused by malpractice

Official statutory text

27-1-739 . Liability of health care provider for reduced chance of recovery caused by malpractice. (1) For purposes of a malpractice claim, as defined in 27-6-103 , damages may be awarded against a health care provider, as defined in 27-6-103 , if a negligent act or omission during diagnosis or treatment for a medical condition reduces a patient's chance of recovering and the negligent act or omission is a contributing cause of:

(a) death;

(b) survival for a shorter period of time;

(c) no recovery;

(d) a recovery that is of lesser extent or quality or that takes longer to occur; or

(e) other injury.

(2) The damages must be determined based on which of the events referred to in subsections (1)(a) through (1)(e) occurred and the resulting types of injury, damage, and loss.

(3) (a) If the evidence establishes that the chance of recovering prior to the negligent act or omission was more likely than not, the damages awarded must be 100% of the damages determined under subsection (2).

(b) If the evidence establishes that the chance of recovering prior to the negligent act or omission was not more likely than not, the damages awarded must be the difference between the chance of recovering prior to the negligent act or omission and the chance of recovering after the negligent act or omission multiplied by the total damages determined under subsection (2).

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.