Lawsuit update

Dear Members:

I have just recently received a notice from the Goetz Law Office informing me that MTCIA is now in arrears of $28,000 due to a high volume of legal activity in the month of December. You will recall that in May of last year we were given an estimate of the legal costs which would take us through the hearing in May of this year. That estimate was $50,000. We have paid that amount to the law firm that is representing us in the law suit against the State of Montana. However the original estimate was primarily based on the assumption that the state’s arguments would be redundant and without much additional evidence.

That assumption proved to be incorrect. The state is bringing in “the big guns” in the form of high profile “expert witnesses” and is engaged in a vigorous effort to shut our industry down for good. Our legal team has had to respond in kind with some very expensive expert witnesses of our own. It is for this reason that our legal costs have skyrocketed beyond our original estimates.

I have received assurances from our legal team that we are very well- positioned for the upcoming hearing on May 20. We do, however, need to pay the attorneys asap so that they can resume preparing for the hearing. You can donate via paypal on the MTCIA website or mail money orders to:

MTCIA
1120 Yale Avenue
Billings, MT 59102

Thank you for your support.

Yours in Solidarity,

Mort Reid
President, MTCIA