Filing a car accident lawsuit in Montana

A crash on a Montana highway leaves you with more than a wrecked car. There are medical bills, missed work, and a claims adjuster who wants a recorded statement before you've even seen a doctor. When a settlement won't cover what you lost, a lawsuit is how you force the issue. Montana's rules on deadlines, fault, and insurance have their own quirks, and a few of them differ sharply from what you would find in a neighboring state.

Here is what actually governs a car accident case in Montana.

How long you have to file

You get three years from the date of the crash to file a personal injury lawsuit. That deadline comes from Mont. Code Ann. 27-2-204(1), which sets a three-year limit on any tort claim not founded on a written contract.¹ Miss it, and the court will almost certainly throw the case out no matter how strong the facts are.

Property damage runs on a shorter clock. Claims over your vehicle and its contents must be filed within two years under Mont. Code Ann. 27-2-207.² So the deadline to sue over your totaled truck can expire a full year before the deadline to sue over your injuries. If a family member died in the crash, a wrongful death claim carries a three-year deadline as well, and that stretches to ten years when the death resulted from a homicide, such as a vehicular homicide charge.¹

Three years feels like plenty until you count the months spent treating injuries and going back and forth with an insurer. Evidence goes stale. Witnesses move. The clock is the outer limit, not a suggested pace.

How Montana splits the blame

Montana follows modified comparative negligence. Under Mont. Code Ann. 27-1-702, you can recover as long as your share of the fault is not greater than the combined fault of everyone you are suing.³ Cross that line, your fault being greater than theirs, and you recover nothing.

In practice that is a 51% bar. If a jury finds you 50% responsible, you still collect half your damages. At 51%, you collect nothing. And whatever your percentage, the court cuts your award by exactly that share, so a $100,000 verdict with 20% of the fault on you pays out $80,000.³ This is why insurers work so hard to pin part of the blame on you. Every point of fault they shift is money out of your pocket, and past the halfway mark it is your entire case.

An at-fault state with no PIP

Montana is an at-fault state. The driver who caused the crash, through their insurer, pays for the harm. Every registered vehicle has to carry liability coverage of at least $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident for bodily injury, plus $20,000 for property damage, under Mont. Code Ann. 61-6-103.⁴

What Montana does not have is no-fault or personal injury protection. There is no PIP requirement and no mandatory medical payments coverage in the state's motor vehicle liability law.⁴ Your own medical bills are not automatically paid by your policy the way they would be in a no-fault state. You recover them from the at-fault driver's liability insurance, or from your own coverage if you bought the optional add-ons.

That gap is why uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage matters so much here. Insurers must include UM/UIM matching your liability limits on every auto policy unless you reject it in writing, under Mont. Code Ann. 33-23-201.⁵ A rejection carries over to your renewals until you ask, in writing, to reinstate it. Given how low the state minimums are, if the driver who hits you carries only $25,000 and your injuries run past that, your own UM/UIM coverage may be the only thing between you and an uncollectible judgment.

What your case can be worth

There is no cap on compensatory damages in an ordinary Montana car crash case. Your medical costs, lost income, and pain and suffering are limited by the evidence, not by a statutory ceiling. The noneconomic-damages cap you may have read about, currently $350,000 as of January 1, 2026, sits in Mont. Code Ann. 25-9-411 and applies only to medical malpractice claims, not car accidents.⁶

Punitive damages are a separate question. They are available only when you prove by clear and convincing evidence that the at-fault driver acted with actual malice or actual fraud, under Mont. Code Ann. 27-1-221.⁷ Ordinary carelessness does not qualify. Think of a driver who was severely drunk or who fled the scene. When punitive damages are on the table, Montana caps them at the lesser of $10 million or 3% of the defendant's net worth, under Mont. Code Ann. 27-1-220.⁸

Drunk drivers and bar liability

If a drunk driver hit you, the punitive-damages door above is the one you would use against the driver. Going after the bar or restaurant that served them is harder. Montana's dram shop statute, Mont. Code Ann. 27-1-710, lets you sue an alcohol provider only in narrow situations: they served someone visibly intoxicated, served a minor, or forced or tricked the person into drinking.⁹ The statute also requires written notice by certified mail within 180 days of the sale, sets a two-year filing deadline, and caps noneconomic damages at $250,000 per event plus another $250,000 on punitive damages.⁹ Those are real hurdles, and they run separate from the claim against the driver.

The texting-law gap

Montana is the only state in the country with no statewide ban on texting or handheld phone use while driving. The last serious attempt to change that, Senate Bill 359 (nicknamed Chloe's Law), passed the Montana Senate 34-16 on March 3, 2025, then died in the House on May 23, 2025.¹⁰ Some cities, including Billings, Bozeman, and Missoula, enforce their own local ordinances, but those stop at the city limits.

The absence of a statewide law does not put a texting driver in the clear. A driver staring at a phone can still be found negligent, and their phone records can still prove it. It just means there is no per-se traffic violation to point to, so the proof leans harder on those records and on crash reconstruction.

Winter roads, motorcycles, and other specifics

Montana driving comes with hazards that shape a lot of its crash cases. The Department of Transportation's winter driving guidance flags ice on bridges and in shady spots, urges drivers to cut speed and turn off cruise control in poor visibility, and points to 511mt.net for road conditions.¹¹ A crash on black ice does not excuse a driver who was following too closely or going too fast for conditions, and comparative fault often turns on exactly those judgment calls.

For motorcyclists, Montana's helmet law is partial. Only operators and passengers under 18 are required to wear one under Mont. Code Ann. 61-9-417; adults may legally ride bareheaded.¹² Riding without a helmet is not itself proof of fault, though an insurer may still argue it worsened your injuries. Montana also allows limited lane filtering: a two-wheeled motorcycle can overtake a stopped or slow (10 mph or under) vehicle at up to 20 mph where the lane is wide enough to pass safely, under Mont. Code Ann. 61-8-392.¹³ Full lane-splitting at speed is not legal.

Before you file

Two documents anchor most cases. The first is the official crash report, which you can request through the process on the Montana crash reports page. The second is a full accounting of your vehicle's loss, including any diminished value in Montana that a repair does not restore. Line those up early, while the evidence is fresh.

Montana's deadlines are firm and its comparative-fault rule is unforgiving, so the details of how you build the case matter. If your injuries are serious or the insurer is disputing fault, it is worth talking with a lawyer who handles these claims. You can start with the thatcarhitme.com legal directory.

This is general information, not legal advice.

Sources

1. Mont. Code Ann. 27-2-204 (tort statute of limitations). https://mca.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0270/chapter_0020/part_0020/section_0040/0270-0020-0020-0040.html

2. Mont. Code Ann. 27-2-207 (injury to property, two-year limit). https://mca.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0270/chapter_0020/part_0020/section_0070/0270-0020-0020-0070.html

3. Mont. Code Ann. 27-1-702 (comparative negligence). https://mca.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0270/chapter_0010/part_0070/section_0020/0270-0010-0070-0020.html

4. Mont. Code Ann. 61-6-103 (mandatory liability limits; no PIP requirement). https://mca.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0610/chapter_0060/part_0010/section_0030/0610-0060-0010-0030.html

5. Mont. Code Ann. 33-23-201 (uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage). https://mca.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0330/chapter_0230/part_0020/section_0010/0330-0230-0020-0010.html

6. Mont. Code Ann. 25-9-411 (medical malpractice noneconomic-damages cap). https://mca.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0250/chapter_0090/part_0040/section_0110/0250-0090-0040-0110.html

7. Mont. Code Ann. 27-1-221 (punitive damages; actual malice or actual fraud). https://mca.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0270/chapter_0010/part_0020/section_0210/0270-0010-0020-0210.html

8. Mont. Code Ann. 27-1-220 (punitive damages cap). https://mca.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0270/chapter_0010/part_0020/section_0200/0270-0010-0020-0200.html

9. Mont. Code Ann. 27-1-710 (furnishing alcohol; dram shop liability). https://mca.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0270/chapter_0010/part_0070/section_0100/0270-0010-0070-0100.html

10. Montana SB 359 (2025 regular session), bill status and votes. https://legiscan.com/MT/bill/SB359/2025

11. Montana Department of Transportation, Winter Driving. https://www.mdt.mt.gov/visionzero/people/winterdriving.aspx

12. Mont. Code Ann. 61-9-417 (motorcycle protective headgear). https://mca.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0610/chapter_0090/part_0040/section_0170/0610-0090-0040-0170.html

13. Mont. Code Ann. 61-8-392 (motorcycle lane filtering). https://mca.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0610/chapter_0080/part_0030/section_0920/0610-0080-0030-0920.html