Hit by a Drunk Driver in Montana?
Someone made a choice — at a bar, at a casino, at the bottom of a bottle — and you’re the one in the hospital. The criminal court will deal with their punishment. We deal with everything they owe you.
Serious crashes. Serious lawyers.
Available 24/7 · Free consultation · No fee unless we recover for you
This state's impaired-driving numbers are a disgrace. Your case doesn't have to be a statistic.
Montana consistently ranks among the very worst states in the nation for impaired-driving deaths per capita. Long distances, a drinking culture with a bar and casino at every exit, and thin enforcement across rural counties — every Montanan knows it, and every Montana family is one wrong driver away from this page.
Here’s what most victims don’t know: a drunk driving crash is usually a stronger civil case than an ordinary crash — clearer liability, the potential for punitive damages, and sometimes an additional defendant nobody thinks of: the business that kept pouring.
The criminal case punishes. The civil case pays. Don't confuse them.
The criminal DUI case
Belongs to the State of Montana. It can jail the driver, fine them, and take their license. It exists to punish — not to compensate you. Court-ordered restitution is typically a fraction of what a serious injury actually costs.
Your civil claim
Belongs to you. It's how your medical bills, lost income, pain, and your family's losses actually get paid — through the driver's insurance, other applicable coverage, and any other liable party.
Three practical truths
You don’t need a conviction to win your civil case (the burden of proof is lower in civil court); you shouldn’t wait for the criminal case to finish before protecting your claim (evidence won’t wait); and the criminal file — the toxicology, bodycam footage, and investigation — becomes powerful evidence in our hands. We coordinate around the prosecution without ever letting your claim ride in its back seat.
Sometimes the drunk driver isn't the only one responsible
Montana law can hold alcohol-serving businesses — bars, casinos, restaurants — responsible when they serve a visibly intoxicated person (or a minor) who then injures someone. In a state where drinking establishments line every commercial strip, this matters for two reasons:
Accountability
The overserving didn't just happen. Receipts, pour counts, security footage, and witness accounts reconstruct the night, drink by drink.
Recovery
Drunk drivers are disproportionately uninsured or minimally insured. A commercial establishment carries commercial insurance. In serious-injury cases, the dram shop claim is often the difference between a symbolic recovery and a real one.
One urgent warning
Montana’s dram shop law is reported to include a short written-notice deadline to the establishment — measured in months, not years. Miss it, and the claim against the business can die no matter how strong it is. This deadline alone is a reason to talk to a lawyer within weeks of a drunk driving crash, not months.
When conduct deserves more than compensation
Ordinary negligence — a missed stop sign, a moment’s distraction — supports compensatory damages. Driving drunk is different: it’s a conscious disregard for everyone else on the road, and Montana law can allow punitive damages for that category of conduct. Punitive damages exist to punish and deter — and their availability changes how insurers value a case. We evaluate punitive exposure in every drunk driving case we take, and we plead it when the facts support it.
None of that changes the fundamentals of a serious injury case — it just raises the price of doing it right. The coverage exists by statute and by the companies’ own policies. Our job is to establish the facts (app status, trip data, driver history), put every applicable policy on notice at once, and refuse to let a coverage dispute between insurers become your problem.
They had money for the bar. Not for insurance.
It’s a bitter pattern: the driver who made the worst decision on the road often carries no insurance or a minimum-limits policy. That does not end your case. Your own UM/UIM coverage — including coverage stacked across household vehicles where Montana law allows — may fund much of the recovery, and a dram shop claim adds a commercially insured defendant. In our intake, “the drunk driver has nothing” is the beginning of the coverage investigation, not the end of the case.
Fast, and in a specific order
Preserve the night
Preservation letters to the bar or casino for video, receipts, and point-of-sale records before retention periods lapse; witness interviews while memories are fresh.
Track the criminal case
Appearance dates, plea posture, restitution — while obtaining the toxicology, bodycam, and crash reconstruction evidence as it becomes available.
Meet every deadline
Including any dram shop notice requirement, government-claim notices where applicable, and policy conditions.
Map every coverage
Driver's liability, your UM/UIM and stacking, MedPay, the establishment's commercial coverage, umbrella policies.
Build the damages case
The same serious-injury workup we bring to every case: future care, lost earning capacity, and the story of what was taken from you.
Support you as a victim
We coordinate with victim advocates, help you understand your rights in the criminal process , and shield you from the driver's insurer.
Drunk driving victim questions, answered straight
Yes. The prosecutor works for the State — their job is conviction and sentencing, not your medical bills or your family’s future. Restitution in criminal court rarely approaches what a serious injury costs. Your civil claim is separate, it’s yours, and it needs its own advocate working from day one.
Montana law can hold establishments liable for serving a visibly intoxicated person or a minor who then causes a crash. But be aware: these claims are reported to carry a short written-notice deadline measured in months — far shorter than the ordinary lawsuit deadline. If overserving may have played a role in your crash, get legal advice within weeks, not months.
Often, yes. Your own uninsured motorist coverage may apply — potentially stacked across household vehicles — along with MedPay and, where overserving occurred, the establishment’s commercial insurance. “The driver has nothing” is where the coverage investigation starts, not where the case ends.
No. The civil claim doesn’t require waiting, and waiting is costly: bar surveillance video gets overwritten, witnesses scatter, and short notice deadlines can pass entirely. We build the civil case in parallel with the criminal case, and we use the criminal evidence as it becomes available.
Then your family may have a wrongful death claim in addition to everything on this page — with the potential for punitive damages given the nature of the conduct. We handle fatal drunk driving cases with the care they demand; you can read about our approach on our wrongful death page, and when you’re ready, we’re here.
It helps enormously — a conviction (or guilty plea) is powerful evidence, and the civil burden of proof is lower than the criminal one. But your recovery still depends on documenting your damages fully and pursuing every applicable coverage. The conviction proves what they did; our work proves what it cost you.
They made the choice. You shouldn't pay for it.
One call. No cost. No pressure. We’ll walk you through exactly what to do in the next 72 hours — before the insurance company gets to you.
Or tell us what happened
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