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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.
Your case doesn't have to be a statistic.
Impaired driving is a persistent problem across Montana. Long distances, a bar or 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
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
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.
- 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.
- The criminal file — toxicology, bodycam footage, the 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.
A claim against the bar can expire long before your injury claim does.
Montana’s dram shop law carries its own written-notice requirement to the establishment, and the window is short — measured in months, not years. Miss it and the claim against the business can die no matter how strong the facts are. If alcohol was served before your crash, call us immediately so we can confirm the deadline that applies and get notice out in time.
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, subject to the standards and procedures the statute sets. 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.
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
01 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.
02 Track the criminal case
Appearance dates, plea posture, restitution — while obtaining the toxicology, bodycam, and crash reconstruction evidence as it becomes available.
03 Meet every deadline
Including any dram shop notice requirement, government-claim notices where applicable, and policy conditions.
04 Map every coverage
Driver's liability, your UM/UIM and stacking, MedPay, the establishment's commercial coverage, umbrella policies.
05 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.
06 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. Be aware, though: these claims carry a written-notice deadline that is far shorter than the ordinary lawsuit deadline. If alcohol was served before your crash, call us right away so we can confirm the deadline and act on it.
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.
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.