Montana Personal Injury Law Overview

Personal injury is a very broad area of law that encompasses cases that have to do with injury resulting from medical malpractice, defective products, vehicle accidents and premises liability issues. Personal injury cases can also deal with financial injury as in identity theft and emotional identity as with defamation of character complaints.

Negligence

In Montana, in order to prove fault, you must prove negligence. Negligence is the failure to show a reasonable degree of care; you do not have to prove intentional wrongdoing. Montana law follows the doctrine of "modified comparative negligence," which states that you can be 49% at fault or less and still be entitled to monetary compensation. The following four elements must be present in order to prove negligence:

• The defendant owed you a duty
• The defendant failed to live up to this duty
• That failure caused your injuries
• You suffered damages

Liability

Montana law follows the doctrine of "joint and several liability," which means that if there are multiple parties responsible for your injuries, they all must pay their share. But if one party cannot pay his share, then the other parties are responsible for the entire amount. Each defendant who is more than 50% at fault will be held responsible for the entire amount of damages. You can collect the entire amount from one party. It is up to the party who paid you to try and recover part of their expenses from the other party or parties. However, defendants who are less than 50% to blame can only be held responsible for their share.

Punitive damages are damages awarded in order to "punish" the responsible party. Punitive damages are often difficult to obtain; in most cases, malice and/or intent to fraud must be proved.

In Montana, punitive damages are determined in a separate hearing after the compensatory damages have been determined. There is a cap of $10,000,000 on punitive damages and they cannot be more than three percent of the defendant's net worth.

Statute of limitations

Each of the fifty states has what is called "statute of limitations," which is the time limit you have to file a personal injury claim following the accident and injury. In Montana, most personal injury claims will have three years to file, but this can vary with some cases.

If you live in Montana and feel you may have a valid personal injury claim, please contact an experienced Montana personal injury lawyer in your area today.