Carmichael v. Workers Compensation Court

Hoagy Carmichael petitioned this Court for a writ of supervisory control challenging the 1987 amendments to the Workers Compensation Act concerning dispute resolution and mediation, Sections 39-71-2401 and -2406 through -2411, MCA. We granted the writ for the purpose of determining whether these statutes are constitutional as applied to cases where the injury occurred before the effective date of the amendment, but no petition was filed with the Workers Compensation Court until after that date. We find such a retroactive application unconstitutionally impairs a contractual obligation