Mont. Code Ann. § 47-1-102

This is the official text of Mont. Code Ann. § 47-1-102, 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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47-1-102 Purpose

Official statutory text

47-1-102 . Purpose. The purposes of this chapter are to:

(1) establish a statewide public defender system to provide effective assistance of counsel to indigent criminal defendants and other persons in civil cases who are entitled by law to assistance of counsel at public expense;

(2) ensure that the system is free from undue political interference and conflicts of interest;

(3) provide that public defender services are delivered by qualified and competent counsel in a manner that is fair and consistent throughout the state;

(4) establish a system that utilizes state employees, contracted services, or other methods of providing services in a manner that is responsive to and respective of regional and community needs and interests;

(5) ensure that adequate public funding of the statewide public defender system is provided and managed in a fiscally responsible manner; and

(6) ensure that clients of the statewide public defender system pay reasonable costs for services provided by the system based on the clients' financial ability to pay.

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.