How Montana handles a case
What happens after an arrest anywhere in Montana: who decides release first, how fast a person sees a judge, which courts hear the case, and who runs the offices around them. Every county in the state works under these rules.
From arrest to court
- Who decides release first
Each judge may post a bail schedule for offenses in that court, and a peace officer may accept bail under it without a judge. Otherwise the judge at the initial appearance, most often a justice of the peace or city judge, sets release.
MCA 46-9-302- Time to see a judge
An arrested person must be taken without unnecessary delay before the nearest and most accessible judge. The statute sets no hour limit.
MCA 46-7-101- Money bail
Money bail is allowed, and judges may post bail schedules that peace officers apply at the jail.
MCA 46-9-302- Pretrial risk assessment
State law directs the Office of the Court Administrator to run a pretrial program that uses a validated risk tool, as funds allow. The program scores the Public Safety Assessment and began in 2018 in five pilot counties: Butte-Silver Bow, Lake, Lewis and Clark, Missoula, and Yellowstone.
MCA 3-1-708Montana Office of Court Administrator, Facts about the Public Safety Assessment (rev. Mar. 27, 2024)- Courts
District courts try felonies. Justice courts in each county, and city or municipal courts in cities, hear misdemeanors, and justices of the peace and city judges can hold felony preliminary hearings.
MCA 3-5-302MCA 3-10-303MCA 3-11-102MCA 3-6-103- Judges and magistrates
Voters elect district judges to six-year terms; the governor fills vacancies from nominees, with Senate confirmation. Justices of the peace are elected on the nonpartisan ballot to four-year terms and need not be lawyers. Municipal court judges must be lawyers, while city judges need only meet the justice of the peace requirements.
Mont. Const. art. VII, secs. 7, 8MCA 3-5-201, 3-5-202MCA 3-10-201, 3-10-204MCA 3-11-201, 3-11-202MCA 3-6-201, 3-6-202- Prosecutors
Each county has a county attorney, elected to a four-year term.
MCA 7-4-2203, 7-4-2205- Public defense
Montana has a statewide public defender system, paid for by the state, that uses state-employed public defenders and contract lawyers.
MCA 47-1-102MCA 47-1-201- Jails
The sheriff keeps the county detention center unless a private operator, a detention center administrator, or another local government runs it. Counties may also share a regional detention center.
MCA 7-32-2121MCA 7-32-2201
Read from the statutes and court rules cited, 2026-09-30. Which counties use the Public Safety Assessment today was not confirmed beyond the five pilot counties.