Montana Personal Injury Guide

This is where you’ll find Montana’s revised statutes. The website has details about how long you have to bring a case, monetary limits on personal injury cases (which are also known as damage caps), and other important information.

Montana Code Annotated

• Do I have a legal case after my accident?
• What is personal injury law?
• What are damage caps?

In Montana, you have three years to bring a personal injury and two years to bring a property damage claim. That means you have three years to file your paperwork with the court, not that your case has to be completed in that time frame.

Montana’s Statute of Limitations

• What is the statute of limitations?
• The claims process and how long a personal injury lawsuit takes

These are some cases of legal importance that came out of the Montana courts:

• Betterman v. Montana, 578 U.S. _____ (2016): The United States Supreme Court held that the right to a speedy trial under the Sixth Amendment does not necessarily mean the right to speedy sentencing. This came about when the defendant was held in jail for 14 months before being sentenced for assaulting a family member. He said that this violated his constitutional rights; however, the Court stated that the right to a speedy trial is different than sentencing because it a defendant is innocent until proven guilty, and it is a system of checks and balance.
• Baxter v. Montana, 2009 MT 449: This Montana Supreme Court case discussed whether terminally ill patients had the right to die with dignity. The Court managed to sneak around the question of whether the right to die was guaranteed under the state constitution, which advocates had hoped for; they instead voted on the narrower ground that neither legal precedent nor the state’s statute deemed a doctor’s assistance was against public policy.
• State v. Stanko, No. 97-486 (1998): When the plaintiff was pulled over for driving 85 miles per hour, but the Montana statute only said that driving “at a rate of speed greater than is reasonable and proper under the conditions existing at the point of operation” was against the law. He brought a suit that claimed this was void for vagueness, and the Montana Supreme Court agreed, saying that it violated the state Constitution.

Here is some intriguing data about Montana:

• Bureau of Labor: Statistics
• StateMaster: Statistics
• Department of Health and Human Services: Statistics
• U.S. Census: Data

There are a large number of issues you can solve without the help of an attorney, surprisingly enough. If you don’t know where to begin, a law librarian can help you. They are usually legally trained, and they can help you both with texts or online research engines like LexisNexis or Westlaw.

• Montana State Supreme Court: State Law Library
• University of Montana: William J. Jameson Law Library