Pedestrian accident settlement amounts in Montana

A quick search for the "average" pedestrian settlement will hand you numbers that mean nothing for your case. A real settlement is built from the specific facts of the crash, the injuries involved, and a set of Montana rules that decide how fault gets split, how much insurance is available to pay, and how long you have to act. Those rules are what move the number.

Pedestrian crashes tend to be severe. In 2024, 10 people on foot were killed on Montana roads, about 5% of the state's 206 traffic deaths that year.¹² Montana's per-capita pedestrian death rate of 0.88 per 100,000 residents is among the lowest in the country, yet a person struck by a car has almost no protection, and the bills climb fast.¹ Here's how Montana law shapes what a claim like that is worth.

Fault gets split, and it directly cuts the payout

Montana is an at-fault state that uses modified comparative negligence. Under Mont. Code Ann. § 27-1-702, you can recover as long as your share of the fault was "not greater than" the driver's, but any award is "diminished in the proportion to the percentage of negligence attributable to" you.³ Put simply, if you're found 20% at fault you collect 80%, and if you're found 51% or more at fault you collect nothing.

That threshold is where many pedestrian claims are won or lost, because where you were walking matters. Montana law tells drivers to yield, slowing or stopping if needed, to a pedestrian in a marked crosswalk or in an unmarked crosswalk at an intersection (Mont. Code Ann. § 61-8-502).⁴ The same statute says a pedestrian can't "suddenly leave a curb or other place of safety" into the path of a car that's too close to stop.⁴ Cross somewhere else and the burden flips: § 61-8-503 requires a pedestrian outside a crosswalk to yield to all vehicles, and it bars crossing between two signalized intersections except at a marked crosswalk.⁵ An adjuster who can pin part of the blame on you will use these sections to push your percentage up and your settlement down.

The insurance available is often the real ceiling

A settlement can't exceed what's there to pay it. Montana requires every driver to carry liability coverage of at least $25,000 per person, $50,000 per accident, and $20,000 for property damage (Mont. Code Ann. § 61-6-103).⁶ Those minimums are low. A pedestrian with a fractured pelvis or a brain injury can pass $25,000 in a single hospital stay, and once the at-fault driver's policy is exhausted, that money is gone.

Montana also has no personal injury protection and no required medical-payments coverage. The state's motor vehicle liability law mandates only bodily-injury and property-damage liability plus uninsured and underinsured coverage; MedPay is an optional add-on with no statutory minimum.⁷ There's no no-fault fund that pays your bills up front. You recover medical costs from the at-fault driver's liability insurance or from your own policy.

That's why underinsured motorist coverage often decides these cases. Every Montana auto policy must include UM/UIM matching the liability limits unless the named insured rejects it in writing, and that rejection carries into renewals until the insured asks in writing to reinstate it (Mont. Code Ann. § 33-23-201).⁸ If you own a car, your own UIM can stack on top of a driver whose limits fall short, even though you were on foot when you were hit. If the driver fled or carried no insurance, your UM coverage may be the only source of payment. Damage to belongings you were carrying, or to a vehicle, is a separate claim with its own two-year deadline; vehicle owners can read about post-repair value loss on the Montana diminished value page.⁹

What Montana does not cap

Montana puts no cap on compensatory damages in an ordinary crash. Your economic losses (medical bills, lost income, future care) and your noneconomic losses (pain, disability, loss of enjoyment of life) are recoverable in full, limited only by fault and available coverage. The state's single noneconomic cap applies to medical malpractice, not to car or pedestrian claims (Mont. Code Ann. § 25-9-411).¹⁰

Punitive damages are a different matter and rarely apply, but they can raise a claim's value when a driver's conduct was egregious, such as a drunk driver striking someone in a crosswalk. Montana allows them only on proof of "actual fraud or actual malice," and every element must be shown by clear and convincing evidence (Mont. Code Ann. § 27-1-221).¹¹ When awarded, they're capped at the lesser of $10 million or 3% of the defendant's net worth (Mont. Code Ann. § 27-1-220).¹² If a bar over-served the driver, a separate liquor-liability claim may exist, but it's narrow: it applies only to serving a visibly intoxicated person or a minor, requires written notice within 180 days, must be filed within two years, and caps noneconomic damages at $250,000 (Mont. Code Ann. § 27-1-710).¹³

The made-whole rule protects what you keep

The settlement figure and the amount you actually pocket aren't the same, because health insurers and others who paid your bills will often assert a lien against the recovery. Montana limits that. Under the made-whole doctrine the Montana Supreme Court set out in Swanson v. Hartford Insurance Co. of the Midwest, an insurer can't exercise subrogation until its insured has been "totally reimbursed for all losses," including the attorney fees and costs of obtaining the recovery.¹⁴ When a settlement doesn't fully cover your losses, the party seeking reimbursement may collect less, or nothing. For a pedestrian with large bills and a recovery capped by low policy limits, this rule can be the difference between netting something and netting nothing.

Deadlines that can end a claim before it starts

Montana gives you three years from the date of the crash to file a personal injury lawsuit (Mont. Code Ann. § 27-2-204).¹⁵ A claim for property damage carries a shorter two-year limit (§ 27-2-207).⁹ Miss the deadline and the claim is barred no matter how strong it was, so the statute of limitations sets a hard outer edge on any negotiation.

Evidence runs on its own clock. The police crash report anchors most claims, and in Montana those reports are held by the Montana Highway Patrol, a division of the Department of Justice, which releases them through a Crash Release Form for $2 per report and $10 for photos.¹⁶ You can find the steps on the Montana crash reports page. Photos of the scene, the vehicle, and your injuries fade or vanish quickly, and they're often what settles the fault percentage that drives everything else.

Getting your claim valued

There's no Montana pedestrian settlement chart to look up. What a real claim is worth comes from how the crosswalk statutes split the fault, how much liability and UM/UIM coverage is actually in play, the full size of your uncapped economic and noneconomic losses, and whether the made-whole rule lets you keep the recovery. A local attorney can pull the coverage, weigh the fault exposure, and value the claim against these rules. You can start with the thatcarhitme.com legal directory.

This article is general information, not legal advice.

Sources

1. NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), State pedestrian fatality rankings, 2024. https://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov/states/statespedestrians.aspx

2. Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, Fatality Facts 2024: State by state. https://www.iihs.org/topics/fatality-statistics/detail/state-by-state

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. § 61-8-502, Pedestrians' right-of-way in crosswalk. https://mca.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0610/chapter_0080/part_0050/section_0020/0610-0080-0050-0020.html

5. Mont. Code Ann. § 61-8-503, Crossing at other than crosswalks. https://mca.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0610/chapter_0080/part_0050/section_0030/0610-0080-0050-0030.html

6. Mont. Code Ann. § 61-6-103, Mandatory liability insurance minimum limits. https://mca.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0610/chapter_0060/part_0010/section_0030/0610-0060-0010-0030.html

7. Mont. Code Ann. Title 33, ch. 23, part 2, Motor Vehicle Liability Insurance. https://mca.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0330/chapter_0230/part_0020/sections_index.html

8. Mont. Code Ann. § 33-23-201, Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage. https://mca.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0330/chapter_0230/part_0020/section_0010/0330-0230-0020-0010.html

9. Mont. Code Ann. § 27-2-207, Actions for injury to property, two-year period. https://mca.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0270/chapter_0020/part_0020/section_0070/0270-0020-0020-0070.html

10. Mont. Code Ann. § 25-9-411, Medical malpractice noneconomic damages limitation. https://mca.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0250/chapter_0090/part_0040/section_0110/0250-0090-0040-0110.html

11. Mont. Code Ann. § 27-1-221, Punitive damages, liability and proof. https://mca.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0270/chapter_0010/part_0020/section_0210/0270-0010-0020-0210.html

12. Mont. Code Ann. § 27-1-220, Punitive damages limitation. https://mca.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0270/chapter_0010/part_0020/section_0200/0270-0010-0020-0200.html

13. Mont. Code Ann. § 27-1-710, Liquor liability. https://mca.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0270/chapter_0010/part_0070/section_0100/0270-0010-0070-0100.html

14. Swanson v. Hartford Insurance Co. of the Midwest, 2002 MT 81, 309 Mont. 269, 46 P.3d 584 (2002). https://law.justia.com/cases/montana/supreme-court/2002/30a6dfbf-fdf4-495d-9af9-81d8e40e2f1c.html

15. Mont. Code Ann. § 27-2-204, Tort actions, three-year period. https://mca.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0270/chapter_0020/part_0020/section_0040/0270-0020-0020-0040.html

16. Montana Department of Justice, Montana Highway Patrol Crash Records. https://www.dojmt.gov/montana-highway-patrol/crash-records/