What to do after a car accident in Montana

A crash rearranges your day, and sometimes your year. Once everyone is safe and the scene is documented, the questions that follow are about money and time: who is responsible, and how long you have to act. Those answers come from Montana law, and Montana's version differs from its neighbors in ways that can change what a claim is worth. This guide sticks to what is true here.

The deadlines the clock is already running on

Montana gives you three years from the date of the crash to file a personal injury lawsuit. That comes from Mont. Code Ann. 27-2-204, which puts a three-year limit on tort claims not based on a written contract.¹ Miss it and the court will almost certainly throw the case out, no matter how clear the other driver's fault was.

The deadline for your vehicle is different, and shorter. Property damage claims, including the damage to your car, run on a two-year clock under Mont. Code Ann. 27-2-207.² People are often surprised that the metal and the medical bills have separate deadlines, so if the vehicle claim is still open, treat the two-year mark as the one to protect first.

When a crash is fatal, a wrongful death action carries a three-year deadline of its own, which stretches to ten years if the death resulted from a homicide.¹

How fault gets split, and why your own share matters

Montana is an at-fault (tort) state. There is no no-fault system and no mandatory personal injury protection, so the driver who caused the crash is responsible for the harm, through their insurer.

What catches people off guard is how their own share of fault eats into the recovery. Montana uses modified comparative negligence with a 51% bar under Mont. Code Ann. 27-1-702. You can recover only if your negligence "was not greater than" the other side's, and any award is then reduced by your own percentage of fault.³ If your damages come to $100,000 and you are found 20% responsible, you collect $80,000. Cross the line to 51% and you collect nothing. That one percentage point is why insurers work so hard to shift blame onto you, and why the photos and details you gather at the scene carry real weight.

What insurance you must carry, and what actually pays the bills

Every registered vehicle in Montana has to carry liability insurance. The statutory minimums under Mont. Code Ann. 61-6-103 are $25,000 for injury to or death of one person, $50,000 per accident, and $20,000 for property damage, usually written as 25/50/20.⁴ Those are floors, not cushions. A single emergency-room visit can burn through $25,000.

Here is the part that trips people up. Montana does not require personal injury protection, and it sets no mandatory medical payments (MedPay) coverage.⁴ There is no automatic pot of money that pays your medical bills regardless of fault. You recover medical costs from the at-fault driver's liability coverage or from your own uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage.

That makes UM/UIM coverage worth understanding before you ever need it. Under Mont. Code Ann. 33-23-201, insurers have to include uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage on your policy unless you reject it in writing, and a written rejection carries forward to your renewals unless you later ask in writing to add it back.⁵ Plenty of drivers rejected it years ago and forgot. If the person who hit you had no insurance or only the state minimum, your own UM/UIM may be the only real source of payment, so it is worth pulling your declarations page to see what you actually have.

Montana's distracted-driving gap

Montana is the only state in the country with no statewide ban on texting or handheld phone use while driving, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association.⁶ The other 49 states restrict it in some form. Montana does not.

The legislature came close in 2025. Senate Bill 359, known as Chloe's Law, would have banned handheld device use behind the wheel. It cleared the Senate 34-16 on its third reading on March 3, 2025, then was tabled in a House committee and died in the process on May 23, 2025.⁷ Some Montana cities and counties have passed their own local ordinances, so handheld use may still be illegal where you were driving even though the state has no rule.

None of this makes texting behind the wheel consequence-free in a crash claim. A distracted driver can still be found negligent, and phone records can still prove it. The missing statute just means there is no automatic traffic-citation shortcut to establishing that fault.

If a motorcycle was involved

Montana's helmet law is partial. Mont. Code Ann. 61-9-417 requires helmets only for operators and passengers under 18, so adult riders may legally ride without one.⁸ An adult's choice to ride unhelmeted can still come back as a comparative-fault argument in an injury claim.

Montana also permits limited lane filtering. Full lane splitting is not allowed. Under Mont. Code Ann. 61-8-392, a two-wheeled motorcycle may overtake a stopped vehicle or one moving at 10 mph or less, at a speed no greater than 20 mph, and only where the lane is wide enough to pass safely.⁹ A rider filtering outside those limits is operating unlawfully, which matters once fault is assigned.

When the other driver was drunk

A drunk driver who injures you can face punitive damages on top of compensation for your losses. Montana allows punitive damages only on clear and convincing evidence of actual malice or actual fraud under Mont. Code Ann. 27-1-221, and the award is capped at the lesser of $10 million or 3% of the defendant's net worth under Mont. Code Ann. 27-1-220.¹⁰¹¹

Going after the bar or host that served the driver is much harder. Montana's dram shop statute, Mont. Code Ann. 27-1-710, allows a claim only where the establishment served someone visibly intoxicated, served a minor, or tricked a person into drinking. It also requires written notice within 180 days, sets a two-year filing deadline, and caps noneconomic damages at $250,000 and punitive damages at another $250,000.¹² These are narrow claims with early deadlines of their own.

Your crash report and your vehicle

The Montana Highway Patrol, a division of the Montana Department of Justice, handles crash report requests and charges $2 per report and $10 for photos.¹³ You can start that request from our Montana crash reports page.

For the car itself, keep the two-year property deadline in mind, and remember that a repaired vehicle can still be worth less on paper than it was before the wreck. If your car lost market value, our Montana diminished value page covers how that claim works.

One local reality is worth naming: winter. The Montana Department of Transportation flags snow, ice, and reduced visibility as recurring hazards on state roads.¹⁴ Bad weather does not excuse a driver who follows too closely or drives too fast for the conditions. "The roads were icy" is not, by itself, a defense.

When to bring in a lawyer

Small, clear crashes with minor damage often settle fine on their own. The cases where a lawyer tends to pay for themselves are the ones with disputed fault (because of that 51% bar), serious or lasting injuries, an uninsured driver, or an insurer that keeps slow-walking you. If you want to talk to someone, you can find an attorney through our legal directory.

This article is general information about Montana law, not legal advice.

Sources

1. Mont. Code Ann. 27-2-204 (statute of limitations, tort and wrongful death). 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 (two-year limit, injury to property). 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 insurance and minimum limits). 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. Governors Highway Safety Association, Distracted Driving. https://www.ghsa.org/state-laws-issues/distracted-driving

7. Montana Free Press, 2025 Capitol Tracker, Senate Bill 359. https://projects.montanafreepress.org/capitol-tracker-2025/bills/sb-359/

8. 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

9. 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

10. Mont. Code Ann. 27-1-221 (when punitive damages are allowed). https://mca.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0270/chapter_0010/part_0020/section_0210/0270-0010-0020-0210.html

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

12. Mont. Code Ann. 27-1-710 (liability of provider of alcohol). https://mca.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0270/chapter_0010/part_0070/section_0100/0270-0010-0070-0100.html

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

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