2023 Montana Code Annotated › Title 25. Civil Procedure › Chapter 30A. Montana Uniform Municipal Court Rules of Appeal to District Court › Part 2200. II. Appeals From Municipal Court Judgments › Rule 9. The record on appeal

Rule 9. The record on appeal.
(a) Composition of the record on appeal. The record on appeal to district court consists of the notice of appeal, an electronic recording or stenographic transcription of the case tried, together with the judgment entered and all papers and exhibits filed in the municipal court.
(b) Transcript of the proceedings. The electronic recording of the trial or proceeding will not be transcribed before transmission to the district court, except as provided by Rule 10(f) of these rules. If the proceedings were stenographically recorded the notes will be transcribed in full or in designated parts as stipulated by the parties. The appellant shall order from the reporter a transcript of the proceedings for transmission to the district court. The reporter shall certify the correctness of the transcript. Copies of the transcript shall be sent to all the parties. The appellant shall be liable for the costs of the transcript.
(c) Copies of electronic recording of proceedings. A party may request a copy of the electronic recording of the proceedings. Except as provided under subsection (d), the requesting party shall be liable for the costs of producing a copy of the electronic recording.
(d) Defendants in criminal cases without financial means--petition in municipal court.
(1) Upon imposition of any sentence in a criminal case, a defendant may file in the municipal court a petition requesting that the defendant be furnished with a copy of the electronic recording, or if an electronic recording was not made a transcription of the stenographic record, of the proceedings. The petition shall be verified by the petitioner and shall state facts showing that the petitioner is at the time of filing the petition without financial means to pay for the costs of reproducing the recording or pay for the transcript. If the municipal judge who imposed sentence finds that the defendant is without financial means with which to obtain a copy of the electronic recording, or pay for the transcript, the judge shall order the municipal clerk of court to deliver a copy of the electronic recording, or the transcript, to the defendant without charge.
(2) If the petition provided for in subsection (1) is denied by the municipal court, a petition to proceed may be filed in the district court within the time required for transmission of the record. The petition shall be accompanied by a copy of the verification filed in the trial court and a copy of the statement of reasons for denial given by the municipal court. The district court upon a finding that the defendant is without financial means, shall order the municipal clerk of court to deliver a copy of the electronic recording, or the transcript, to the defendant without charge.
(e) Statement of the evidence or proceedings when no record was made or when record is unavailable. If no electronic recording, or stenographic record, of the evidence or proceedings at a hearing or trial was made, or if the recording, or record, is unavailable, the appellant may, within 3 days from the hearing or trial or such time extended as the municipal court may for good cause shown permit, prepare a statement of the evidence or proceedings from the best available means, including the appellants recollection. The statement shall be served on the respondent, who may serve objections or propose amendments thereto within 3 days after service. Thereupon, the statement and any objections or proposed amendments shall be submitted for settlement and approval to the municipal court judge, and as settled and approved shall be included by the clerk of the municipal court in the record on appeal.
(f) Agreed statement as the record on appeal. In lieu of the record on appeal as defined in subdivision (a) of this rule, the parties may prepare and sign a statement of the case showing how the issues presented by the appeal arose and were decided in the municipal court and setting forth only so many of the facts averred and proved or sought to be proved as are essential to a decision of the issues presented. If the statement conforms to the truth, it, together with such additions as the court may consider necessary to fully present the issues raised by the appeal, shall be approved by the municipal court and shall then be certified to the district court as the record on appeal and transmitted thereto by the clerk of the municipal court within the time provided by Rule 10.
(g) Correction or modification of record. If any difference arises as to whether the record truly discloses what occurred in the municipal court, the difference shall be submitted to and settled by that court and the record made to conform to the truth. If anything material to either party is omitted from the record by error or accident or is misstated therein, the parties by stipulation, or the municipal court, either before or after the record is transmitted to the district court, on proper suggestion or of its own initiative, may direct that the omission or misstatement be corrected, and if necessary that a supplemental record be certified and transmitted. All other questions as to the form and content of the record shall be presented to the district court.
History: En. Sup. Ct. Ord. Mar. 19, 1998, eff. April 1, 1998.