Bozeman, Montana Personal Injury Lawyers

Alex Tsomaya lives in Bozeman. His son will go to school here.

Jesse Medearis drives in from Belgrade every morning — 19th, Huffine, Main, the interchanges.

When a client says they were hit turning left onto 19th, we don't need the intersection described. When someone says it happened on Huffine coming in from Four Corners at five o'clock, we know what that looks like. When a wreck happens in the canyon on 191, we know there's no shoulder, no cell service in stretches, and a long wait before anybody reaches you.

We also handle construction defect claims. A lot has gone up in this valley in a short time, and some of it went up in a hurry. When water shows up in a house that's three years old, or a roof fails under the first heavy snow, that's a case too.

If a case goes to trial in Gallatin County, it's heard by people who drive these same roads.

Medearis & Tsomaya represents injured people and property owners in Bozeman, Belgrade, Four Corners, Big Sky, Manhattan, Three Forks, and throughout Gallatin County.

Explore

Bozeman Isn't the Town It Was

The Gallatin Valley has added people faster than it has added road capacity, and it shows.

More traffic on roads designed for a much smaller town. A large share of drivers who arrived in the last few years and are learning mountain and winter driving in real time. Rental cars and unfamiliar visitors moving between the airport, Big Sky, and Yellowstone. Delivery and construction traffic everywhere. Students on foot, on bikes, and on scooters around campus.

That combination produces a specific set of crashes, and it produces them constantly.

It also means the other driver may not be from here, may be in a rental, may be insured out of state, and may carry coverage that doesn't come close to what a serious injury costs. Those cases have complications that a straightforward local fender-bender doesn't.

Where Crashes Happen Here

North 19th Avenue. High volume, frequent turning movements, and a corridor that has grown far past what it was built for.

Huffine Lane and West Main. The Four Corners approach, heavy commuter traffic, and speeds that don't match the number of access points.

Main Street and the downtown grid. Pedestrians, cyclists, angle parking, and drivers looking at storefronts.

Oak, Baxter, Kagy, and the arterials. Growing residential traffic and intersections that were adequate a decade ago.

The I-90 interchanges. Merging conflicts at speed, made worse by drivers unfamiliar with the exits.

Bozeman Pass. Ice, wind, and the first place winter shows up. Multi-vehicle pileups are routine.

US-191 through the Gallatin Canyon. See below — this one deserves its own discussion.

Bridger Canyon Road. Ski traffic, cyclists, wildlife, and no shoulder to speak of.

Around MSU. Pedestrian and bicycle collisions, scooters, and drivers who don't expect either.

The Gallatin Canyon

US-191 between Bozeman and Big Sky is one of the more dangerous stretches of highway in the state, and it deserves particular attention.

Two lanes, no shoulder for long stretches, a river on one side and rock on the other. Heavy commuter traffic carrying Big Sky's workforce in and out, construction and delivery trucks, tourist traffic that brakes for wildlife without warning, and drivers passing where they shouldn't. Cell service disappears in places, which delays how fast anybody reaches a crash.

Canyon cases have practical features that matter: response and transport times are long, the roadway itself is sometimes an issue, and commercial vehicles serving Big Sky are frequently involved — which means a carrier, a policy considerably larger than a personal auto policy, and an investigator dispatched within hours.

If you were hurt in the canyon, call before you talk to anybody's insurer.

Cases We Handle in Bozeman

Car accidents. Rear-end, intersection, left-turn, and highway collisions. Most of what we do. If you were hurt and the other driver was at fault, this is the starting point.

Truck and commercial vehicle crashes. Semis on I-90 and the pass, plus the delivery, construction, and service vehicles that fill the valley. Carriers respond to serious crashes within hours, and electronic logging data, dashcam footage, and maintenance records are often gone within weeks unless somebody demands them in writing.

Motorcycle accidents. Riders get blamed almost automatically, and the injuries are rarely minor. Fault is often disputed and often disputed wrongly.

Bicycle and pedestrian injuries. Bozeman has real bike and foot traffic, particularly around campus and downtown, and drivers frequently aren't looking for either.

Dog bites. Usually resolved through the owner's homeowners or renters insurance rather than out of their pocket, which lets a family recover — especially for a child's scarring — without turning it into a personal conflict.

Construction site injuries and construction defect. Both come up constantly here. See the two sections below.

Premises liability. Ice and snow, unsafe stairs and walkways, inadequate maintenance, and negligent security.

Recreation and ski injuries. Bridger Bowl, Big Sky, guided trips, and outfitted activities. Montana law limits liability for certain inherent risks, but limits are not immunity — negligent operation, unsafe equipment, and inadequate supervision remain actionable. Bring us any release you signed.

Wrongful death.

Insurance disputes and bad faith. Including claims against your own carrier when it won't pay what your policy promised.

Construction Defect. See below.

Construction Defect

This is a different situation than an injury claim, and it's one we handle that most Bozeman injury firms don't touch.

An enormous amount has been built in this valley in a short time, some of it very well and some of it not. Defects usually show up one to five years in, after the builder's warranty has lapsed and the builder has stopped returning calls.

What we see most:

Water intrusion through windows, doors, and improperly flashed penetrations. Roofing and siding failures. Envelope and weather barrier problems. Ice damming and the damage that follows. Foundation cracking and settlement. Framing and structural defects. And the mold that develops behind all of it, often long before anybody sees a stain.

Three things people get wrong:

The builder's warranty deadline is not the legal deadline. A one-year or two-year warranty expiring does not mean your claim is gone. Montana's statutes of limitation and repose for construction claims run differently, and they can allow a claim well after a warranty has ended.

Your purchase agreement may contain a binding arbitration clause. A great many new-construction contracts do. It doesn't end your claim, but it changes where and how it gets resolved, and it's something to understand before you start making demands. Bring us the contract.

There may be more than one responsible party. The builder, the subcontractor who did the specific work, a product manufacturer whose materials failed, and sometimes a design professional. Your homeowners carrier and the builder's liability carrier may both be involved.

If you're seeing water where water shouldn't be, document it now — photographs, dates, and every communication with the builder. That record is worth more than you'd think later.