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Committee hears competing views on expanding product-liability law to economic harms
Summary
Senators heard testimony for and against adding the word "economic" to Montana's products liability statute to allow recovery for purely financial losses caused by defective digital or financial products; proponents said the change is needed for modern digital products, opponents warned it is a sweeping rewrite best considered more deliberately.
Senator Andrea Olsen opened the hearing on Senate Bill 292 by saying the bill "is adding 2 words, or economic, to several sections of the liability, products liability code" to allow recovery for financial losses from defective digital products.
The nut graf: proponents argued the change would give businesses and consumers a remedy when software, algorithms or digital tools cause financial loss; opponents cautioned that inserting two words into a decades-old statute could have broad unintended consequences and that other legal protections already exist for some harms.
John Morrison, an attorney and former…
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