Montana Lawyer October/November 2024

COURT NEWS

Recent Montana Supreme Court Orders

The Montana Lawyer . Additionally, copies of the order will be distributed to members of the Commission on Continuing Legal Education, all district court judges, and clerks, with instructions to make it avail able for public review. This extension provides more time for public engagement in the rulemaking process.

The Montana Supreme Court has placed the judicial rulemaking process concerning the Rules of Continuing Legal Education (CLE) in abeyance, follow ing a joint request from the State Bar of Montana and the Commission on Continuing Legal Education. According to the Court’s order in case AF 06-0163, the abeyance applies to the proposed rulemaking initiated by the

Court’s June 25, 2024, order. The public comment period has been extended until July 1, 2025, to allow for additional feed back and considerations. The order directs that notice of the abeyance and the proposed revisions be posted on the websites of the Montana Judicial Branch and the State Bar of Montana. The State Bar is also requested to publish the order in the next issue of

The Farmer's Lawyer: A Story of Resilience and Justice MARK PARKER

Over the last few years friends have sent me some emails and text messages saying that my name came up in a book they were reading. I was recently given a copy and have now read it.

nicotine addiction. I’ve read a few lawyer-authored vanity press type efforts before. This is not that type. This is a book

ready to be read by lawyers, law students, judges, historians and anyone else with a bookworm’s curiosity. Montanans of her vintage will recognize some names. Sarah’s quick brush with the genesis of the Montana Freeman I found interesting. The saga on Sarah’s North Dakota was being simultaneously played out in what was then and what is again Montana’s Second Congressional District. Just because we don’t have our own Sarah “Josephus” Vogel, doesn’t mean we don’t have the same history. Repeating what every high schooler has heard, and every college history student has said–“Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it.” I’ve never been con vinced that we can fairly draw the conclu sion that knowing history proves to be an

The Farmer’s Lawyer by Sarah Vogel was a very fun, interesting and informative read. Sarah, a North Dakota lawyer, took on the USDA, Farm Home Administration in the 1980's--and won. My cameo in her life story involved mu tual clients whose maltreatment at USDA’s behest prompted me to complain on their behalf. This prompted the USDA officer to seek my disbarment. My boss was not happy about having to defend this complaint; not thrilled with being unpaid for the effort and suggested I withdraw. I did. But Sarah marched forward on behalf of our mutual client, then all North Dakota farmers in debt to the government, and

ultimately every farmer in America through a massive class ac tion. She prevailed, largely convincing a United State District Court judge that the government should follow its own rules. She chronicles this professional achievement as it paralleled her life story of single parenthood; creditors of her own; and a chronic

immunity for the same peril. Nevertheless, there is absolutely no barrier to the same political, economic, social and meteo rological events which caused the farm crisis, finding a way to repeat their morbid confluence. It’s worth a read.

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