Montana Code Annotated 2023

TITLE 37. PROFESSIONS AND OCCUPATIONS

CHAPTER 61. ATTORNEYS AT LAW

Part 4. Provisions Regulating Practice

Authority Of Attorney

37-61-401. Authority of attorney. (1) An attorney has authority to:

(a) bind the attorney's client in any steps of an action or proceeding by agreement filed with the clerk or entered upon the minutes of the court and not otherwise;

(b) receive money claimed by the attorney's client in an action or proceeding during the pendency of an action or proceeding or after judgment unless a revocation of authority is filed and, upon the payment of the money and not otherwise, to discharge the claim or acknowledge satisfaction of the judgment.

(2) The death of a party to an action or proceeding does not revoke the authority of the party's attorney of record in the action or proceeding, but the authority of the attorney is continued in all respects the same and with like effect as it was prior to the death of the party until the attorney withdraws the attorney's appearance in the action or proceeding or some other attorney is substituted or the original attorney's authority is otherwise terminated and entry of the substitution or termination is made in the record of the action or proceeding.

History: En. Sec. 398, C. Civ. Proc. 1895; re-en. Sec. 6389, Rev. C. 1907; amd. Sec. 1, Ch. 35, L. 1915; re-en. Sec. 8974, R.C.M. 1921; Cal. C. Civ. Proc. Sec. 283; re-en. Sec. 8974, R.C.M. 1935; R.C.M. 1947, 93-2101; amd. Sec. 1431, Ch. 56, L. 2009.