Local Rule 73.1: Consent Election

73.1 Consent Election

(a) Anonymity. Parties are free to give or withhold their consent to magistrate judge jurisdiction. No judge will be notified as to the identity of any party giving or withholding consent to the exercise of jurisdiction by a magistrate judge, except when there is no objection to magistrate judge jurisdiction. No party may disclose its own or any other party's consent or lack of consent.

(b) Filing. Information about filing consent forms electronically is available in the court's CM/ECF User's Guide for Filing in the District of Montana which is available on the court's public website, www.mtd.uscourts.gov.

(c) Notice. When a civil action has been assigned to a magistrate judge under L.R. 72.2(a), the clerk will notify the parties of such assignment and advise them that they may withhold consent to the magistrate judge's exercise of jurisdiction. In cases that are pre-screened pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2), the clerk will serve the notice of assignment to U.S. magistrate judge and a form for withholding consent after all parties ordered to be served have made an appearance. In all other cases assigned to a U.S. magistrate judge pursuant to L.R. 72.2(a), the clerk will serve the notice of assignment to U.S. magistrate judge and a form for withholding consent within seven days after the last party has appeared. At the direction of the court, the clerk may conduct new consent elections at any time.

(d) Return of Consent Election Forms. Parties have 14 days from service of the clerk's notice of assignment to file a notice of withholding of consent form. If any party's form is not timely filed after service of the clerk's notice of assignment, that party is deemed to have consented to magistrate judge jurisdiction. If any party objects to the exercise of jurisdiction by a magistrate judge, the case will be reassigned to an Article III judge but may still be referred to a magistrate judge for all pretrial proceedings pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 636(c).