Montana Lawyer February/March 2024

STATE BAR NEWS

Courtroom safety improvement work gets underway after funding provided by the 2023 Legislature Work to improve courtroom security

in Montana received a boost during the 2023 legislative session and is now underway. A 2021 judicial survey revealed needed improvements to protect court personnel as well as the public. Those concerns were echoed in a survey of attorneys conducted by the State Bar of Montana. In response to the issues raised by the bench and bar, the Judicial Branch convened a security task force, chaired by Hon. Shane Vannatta, with rep resentation from the state, local and private sectors. Kate Ellis, then immedi ate past-president of the State Bar, and former State Bar trustee Samir Aarab were members of the task force. The group also received assistance from a protective security adviser from the Department of Homeland Security. The work of the task force resulted in the legislature providing $500,000 in funding, including money for an in-depth statewide security and safety review of courthouses, funds to pur chase equipment or fund modifications as a result of the review, and resources Former state senator Jerry O’Neil has renewed his longstanding quest for a seat on the Montana Supreme Court, including filing and later dis missing a federal lawsuit against the Montana Supreme Court, the State Bar of Montana and the Montana Secretary of State. O’Neil previously sought a position on the court in the 1990s, suing the Montana Supreme Court and other elected state officials in federal court when the state refused to include his name on the ballot. The Montana Constitution requires that a citizen must have been admitted

The Cascade County Courthouse in Great Falls is pictured in this undated photo. (Adobe Stock photo)

for training for all court staff including local government employees. Doug Overman, recently retired as the police chief in Kalispell,john was hired to oversee the project and other

courthouse security initiatives. The last comprehensive courthouse security review occurred in 2006, result ing in a similar appropriation from the 2007 legislature.

Ex-Columbia Falls legislator files lawsuit, seeks Montana Supreme Court seat

to the practice of law in Montana for at least five years to serve on the Montana Supreme Court. O’Neil is not licensed to practice law in Montana courts. In 2006, the Montana Supreme Court held that O’Neil had engaged in the unauthorized practice of law. O’Neil’s previous case was dismissed by the federal district court, and the dismissal affirmed by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. In 2017, O’Neil similarly sued the clerk of the United States District Court for the District of Montana and the court itself, having been denied the

right to practice before it because he was not a member in good standing of the Montana bar. That case was also dismissed. In his latest complaint, O’Neil had alleged that he earned a juris doctorate from the “school of hard knocks” and, again, that he should be allowed to run for the court. Defendants moved to dis miss the case and while those motions were pending O’Neil filed a notice of dismissal. On March 11, O’Neil filed to run for associate justice of the Montana Supreme Court.

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