2023 Montana Code Annotated › Title 53. Social Services and Institutions › Chapter 9. Services for Victims of Crime › Part 1. The Crime Victims Compensation Act of Montana › 53-9-103. Definitions

53-9-103. Definitions.
As used in this part, the following definitions apply:
(1) "Claimant" means any of the following claiming compensation under this part:
(a) a victim;
(b) a dependent of a deceased victim; or
(c) an authorized person acting on behalf of any of them.
(2) "Collateral source" means a source of benefits, other than welfare benefits, or advantages for economic loss otherwise compensable under this part that the claimant has received or that is readily available to the claimant from:
(a) the offender;
(b) the government of the United States or any agency thereof, a state or any of its political subdivisions, or an instrumentality of two or more states, unless the law providing for the benefits or advantages makes them excess or secondary to benefits under this part;
(c) social security, medicare, and medicaid;
(d) workers' compensation;
(e) wage continuation programs of any employer;
(f) proceeds of a contract of insurance payable to the claimant for loss that was sustained because of the criminally injurious conduct;
(g) a contract, including an insurance contract, providing hospital and other health care services or benefits for disability. A contract in this state may not provide that benefits under this part are a substitute for benefits under the contract or that the contract is a secondary source of benefits and benefits under this part are a primary source.
(h) a crime victims compensation program operated by the state in which the victim was injured or killed that compensates residents of this state injured or killed in that state; or
(i) any other third party.
(3) "Criminally injurious conduct" means conduct that:
(a) occurs or is attempted in this state or an act of international terrorism, as defined in 18 U.S.C. 2331, committed outside of the United States against a resident of this state;
(b) results in bodily injury or death or involves domestic violence in a home where minor children were present; and
(c) is punishable by fine, imprisonment, or death or would be so punishable except that the person engaging in the conduct lacked capacity to commit the crime under the laws of this state; however, criminally injurious conduct does not include conduct arising out of the ownership, maintenance, or use of a motor vehicle unless the bodily injury or death occurred during the commission of an offense defined in Title 45 that requires the mental state of purposely as an element of the offense or the injury or death was inflicted by the driver of a motor vehicle who is found by the office, by a preponderance of the evidence, to have been operating the motor vehicle while under the influence, as that term is defined in 61-8-1001; or
(d) is committed in a state without a crime victims compensation program that covers a resident of this state if the conduct meets the requirements in subsections (3)(b) and (3)(c).
(4) "Dependent" means a natural person who is recognized under the law of this state to be wholly or partially dependent upon the victim for care or support and includes a child of the victim conceived before the victim's death but born after the victim's death, including a child that is conceived as a result of the criminally injurious conduct.
(5) "Office" means the office of victims services established in 2-15-2016.
(6) "Victim" means:
(a) a person who suffers bodily injury or death as a result of:
(i) criminally injurious conduct;
(ii) the person's good faith effort to prevent criminally injurious conduct; or
(iii) the person's good faith effort to apprehend a person reasonably suspected of engaging in criminally injurious conduct; or
(b) a minor child present in a home where domestic violence occurred.
History: En. 71-2603 by Sec. 3, Ch. 527, L. 1977; R.C.M. 1947, 71-2603; amd. Sec. 1, Ch. 367, L. 1979; amd. Sec. 1, Ch. 496, L. 1987; amd. Sec. 2, Ch. 68, L. 1989; amd. Sec. 2, Ch. 397, L. 1991; amd. Sec. 8, Ch. 186, L. 1997; amd. Sec. 3, Ch. 124, L. 2001; amd. Sec. 1, Ch. 32, L. 2011; amd. Sec. 28, Ch. 498, L. 2021.