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Montana pedestrian accident lawyers
When a vehicle hits a person, there’s no fender to absorb it — just a body. The injuries are severe, the bills start immediately, and within days the driver’s insurance company starts building a story where the crash was somehow your fault. We’ve seen that playbook. We don’t let it stand.
They came out of nowhere — the oldest line in the claims file
Pedestrian cases have a pattern: the driver didn’t see the person, so the insurer argues the person was impossible to see — dark clothes, outside the crosswalk, looking at a phone, darted out. The goal is comparative fault: every percentage point of blame they pin on you cuts what they pay.
Here’s what that narrative conveniently skips: Montana law requires drivers to keep a proper lookout, drive at safe speeds for conditions, and exercise due care to avoid pedestrians — not only at crosswalks.
I didn't see them is not a defense. It's usually the admission.
Our job in a pedestrian case starts with taking the blame narrative apart — with physical evidence, sight-line analysis, vehicle data, camera footage, and witnesses — before it hardens into the official version of events.
The scenarios we see again and again
Crosswalks — marked and unmarked
Drivers turning left while looking at oncoming traffic instead of the person in the crosswalk. Pedestrian right-of-way is not limited to painted lines.
Parking lots
Low speed doesn't mean low injury, especially for kids and older adults.
Winter darkness
Montana's long dark season puts pedestrians on unlit roads during commute hours. Darkness raises a driver's duty of care; it doesn't erase the pedestrian's rights.
Rural roads without sidewalks
In much of Montana, walking on the shoulder isn't a choice, it's the only option.
School zones and neighborhoods
Children are owed a heightened degree of care, and the law does not judge a child's street judgment by adult standards.
Impaired and distracted drivers
Overrepresented in pedestrian deaths, and each opens additional evidence and, sometimes, additional defendants.
No steel, no airbag, no second chances
A pedestrian absorbs the full physics of a crash. Even low-speed impacts produce traumatic brain injuries, spinal damage, shattered legs and pelvises, and internal injuries — and highway-speed impacts are too often fatal. These are exactly the serious cases our firm was built for: they require future-care planning, orthopedic and neurological experts, and damages work that proves what the next decades will cost — not a quick settlement priced off the first ER bill.
Yes — even if you weren't in a car. Even if you don't own one.
This is the section most pedestrians need and never find. Multiple coverage sources can apply when a vehicle hits you.
01 The driver's liability coverage
The primary claim, against the at-fault driver and, if they were working, potentially their employer.
02 Your own auto policy's UM/UIM coverage
Even though you were on foot. Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage often follows you as a person, not just your car, depending on the policy. Hit-and-run while walking? Your UM coverage may be the whole case.
03 A household member's auto policy
Resident relatives are often covered under family policies. A pedestrian who owns no car at all may still be insured through a spouse's or parent's policy.
04 MedPay and health coverage
Medical payments coverage can start paying bills immediately, regardless of fault, alongside your health insurance.
Finding every layer — and stacking where Montana law allows — is standard procedure in our pedestrian cases. Insurance companies pay what’s claimed, not what’s available. We claim all of it.
What we lock down, fast
The vehicle
Impact points and damage patterns tell reconstruction experts speed and angle. We demand preservation before repairs.
Event data recorder
Speed, braking, and steering in the seconds before impact, from the vehicle's own computer.
Cameras
Intersections, businesses, doorbells, transit. Footage overwrites in days; preservation letters go out immediately.
Scene evidence
Sight lines, lighting, signal timing at crosswalks, skid marks, and debris field — documented before weather and traffic erase them.
The driver's phone records
When distraction is suspected, subpoenaed records tell the truth the statement didn't.
Witnesses
Contacted within days, while memory is fresh and before adjusters shape their recollections.
Start with a Free Crash Response Plan
One call with a lawyer — from your hospital room if that’s where you are. You’ll get a written, personalized plan: your medical documentation, the evidence to preserve now, every insurance coverage that may apply to you, and how to handle the adjuster who’s already calling. Free, whether you hire us or not.
Pedestrian accident questions, answered straight
Potentially several sources at once: the driver’s liability insurance, MedPay coverage from applicable auto policies, your health insurance, and — even though you were on foot — uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage from your own or a household member’s auto policy. Most pedestrians never learn about that last one.
Often, yes. Drivers owe a duty of care to pedestrians everywhere, not only at crosswalks, and Montana’s comparative negligence rules mean partial fault reduces a claim rather than automatically eliminating it. Never accept an adjuster’s word that being outside a crosswalk ends your claim.
Report it to police immediately, get medical care the same day, and preserve everything — your clothing, photos of your injuries, and any witness information. Then act fast on two fronts: nearby camera footage, which overwrites in days, and your own or household UM coverage, which typically covers hit-and-run.
Yes, in important ways. Drivers are held to a heightened duty of care around children, and a child’s actions are not judged by adult standards. Settlements involving minors also generally require court approval and protection of the funds for the child. We handle all of that structure for your family.
No. Fault percentages are negotiated and litigated, not decreed by adjusters — and insurers routinely overstate pedestrian fault precisely because each percentage point saves them money. The evidence decides fault. Get the evidence examined before you accept anyone’s percentages.
Montana sets a limited window, with shorter notice deadlines if a government vehicle — a city truck, a transit bus, a plow — was involved. Camera footage and scene evidence, though, measure their lifespan in days. The practical deadline is now, and we’ll confirm the legal one for your situation.