Judgment liens in Montana

What to file, and where

A Montana judgment becomes a lien from the moment it is docketed, and that docketing is the clerk's own act.

From the time the judgment is docketed it is a lien on the debtor's real property in the county that is not exempt from execution. See MCA 25-9-301¹. Not from entry, and not from the date on the face. Docketed.

And the debtor files nothing to make that happen. Immediately after the judgment goes into the judgment book, the clerk enters it in the docket the clerk keeps, under MCA 25-9-301. That section names the clerk and stops there, so the office beyond that is not something these words settle.

What it reaches

Land the debtor owns when the lien docks is reached, and so is land the debtor buys afterward.

Every bit of the debtor's non-exempt real property in the county is reached, whether the debtor owned it when the judgment docked or acquired it later before the lien ends. See MCA 25-9-301. So a debtor who buys after the judgment docks does not buy clean. A lien is waiting for the deed.

How long it lasts, and renewing it

A clock runs 10 years, and which 10 years depends on what the judgment is for.

One lien continues for 10 years unless the judgment is satisfied first, except as provided in MCA 61-6-123. See MCA 25-9-301. A lien from a federal court judgment transcript filed here runs the same 10 years, under MCA 25-9-303². And a lien from a judgment docket transcript filed in another county runs 10 years from entry of the judgment, under MCA 25-9-302³. Three paths, one number.

Child support is the exception that moves the start. There the lien continues for 10 years from the end of the support obligation, or 10 years from entry of a lump-sum judgment or order for arrears, whichever is later, unless satisfied first. See MCA 25-9-301. The obligation can outlast the ordinary clock, and the statute lets the lien outlast it too.

Whether a Montana lien can be extended or renewed past that 10 years, and how, is a question MCA 25-9-301 and 25-9-302 do not answer in the text here. This page will not guess at it. How long a judgment lien lasts across the states is the wider frame, and renewal is a question for counsel with the file open.

Land in another county

A Montana judgment reaches land outside its home county only after a certified transcript is filed there.

Certified by the clerk, a transcript of the original docket may be filed with the district court clerk of any other county. From that filing the judgment becomes a lien on the debtor's non-exempt real property in that county, owned then or acquired later before the lien expires, under MCA 25-9-302. Until the transcript is filed, that county's land is untouched.

Its federal counterpart mirrors it. Certified, a transcript of the original docket of a judgment from the federal court for the district of Montana may be filed with the district court clerk of any Montana county, and from the filing the same lien attaches. See MCA 25-9-303.

Homestead here, in one paragraph

Exempt from forced sale is where a Montana homestead starts, with a short list of judgments that get through and a dollar limit that climbs every year.

Chapter 32 makes the homestead exempt from execution or forced sale, except as that chapter itself provides, under MCA 70-32-201⁴. Only a short list of judgments gets through. A homestead is subject to forced sale on debts secured by construction or vendors' liens on the premises, on mortgages executed and acknowledged by the husband and wife or by an unmarried claimant, or on mortgages executed and recorded before the declaration of homestead was filed, under MCA 70-32-202⁵. Outside that list, the exemption holds.

In 2021 the limit was $350,000, and it does not sit still. Rules adopted by the department of revenue set the limit, which must increase by 4% every calendar year after 2021, under MCA 70-32-104(3)⁶. Those rules are not reproduced here, so the current figure is not either. One claimant who owns an undivided interest gets an exemption proportional to that interest, under MCA 70-32-104(2).

Value is decided on the ground. A homestead may not exceed the limit in subsection (3), and in a proceeding to determine value the assessed value of the land, appurtenances and dwelling house on the last-completed assessment roll before the proceeding is prima facie evidence of its value. See MCA 70-32-104(1). Homestead protection across the states sets Montana beside the rest.

Where the records live

A docket the clerk keeps is the record that matters, and the clerk makes it without a nudge.

Docketing is the event the lien dates from, not the judgment itself, under MCA 25-9-301. The clerk's act. Done immediately after the judgment is entered in the judgment book. So the date to ask about is the docket entry, in the right county. How a judgment becomes a lien across the states shows how far that answer travels, which is not far: Montana docketing is Montana's rule and nobody else's.