Southwestern Montana Injury Lawyers
Jesse Medearis went to college at Western in Dillon. He played a year of basketball, then competed on the rodeo team. A lot of his closest friends are still in that country, and he still gets back.
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That's years of actually living somewhere, not a pin on a service-area map. He knows the drive over the passes in February. He knows what the Big Hole looks like in haying season and what happens on I-15 when the wind comes up. He knows which people out there work cattle, which work at the mine, and which do a little of both.
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Alex has personally handled many cases in southwest Montana and has stepped foot in the majority of its courtrooms representing its citizens.
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Medearis & Tsomaya represents injured people and families across Southwestern Montana, including Dillon, Butte, Anaconda, Twin Bridges, Sheridan, Ennis, Whitehall, Virginia City, Deer Lodge, Philipsburg, Wisdom, and the surrounding communities.
We Know This Kind of Work
Jesse ranched before he practiced law, and he rodeoed at Western. Ranch and livestock injuries aren't abstract to him — PTO shafts, augers, haying equipment, cattle, and horses. He knows the difference between a guard that was removed and one that failed, and he knows how often a serious ranch injury gets written off as part of the work when something actually went wrong.
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Alex Tsomaya worked industrial safety before practicing law. He knows what a real safety program looks like and what a paper one looks like — how job safety analyses are supposed to be run versus how they actually get run, how incident investigations are conducted and what they are built to conclude, and where the documentation quietly stops matching the work.
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That carries onto any industrial site, mine or otherwise. Companies defend these cases with their own safety records. Knowing how those records get produced, by whom, and under what pressure is a different thing than reading them cold.
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Both of us started out on the other side, defending insurers. That's where you learn what an adjuster is actually looking at when a file lands on the desk.
Southwestern Montana Roads
Interstate 15. The spine of the region, from Monida Pass north through Dillon to Butte. Heavy commercial traffic, long empty stretches, hard crosswinds, and serious winter conditions. Crashes here happen at speed and a long way from help.
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Homestake Pass. The I-90 grade east of Butte is one of the more demanding stretches of interstate in the state for heavy trucks — steep, curved, and unforgiving when a rig comes down it too fast or with brakes that weren't maintained. Winter makes it worse.
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Montana Highway 41. Dillon to Twin Bridges. Two lanes, ranch equipment, cattle trucks, and drivers turning left across traffic.
Montana Highway 278 and the Big Hole. Ranch country, hay traffic in season, wildlife, and long distances between services.
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US-287 through the Madison Valley. Ennis and Virginia City, with heavy seasonal traffic moving toward Yellowstone — drivers who don't know the roads, towing trailers, stopping unpredictably.
Cases We Handle In Southwestern Montana
Car and truck accidents. Highway-speed crashes on two-lane roads, winter and pass conditions, wildlife collisions, and tourist traffic that doesn't know the area. Carriers running I-15 and Homestake put investigators on scene within hours of a serious crash, and electronic logging and maintenance records are often gone within weeks unless someone demands them in writing.
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Ranch and livestock injuries. Haying equipment, balers and stackers, tractor rollovers on side hills, horses, and cattle handling. Ranch cases are often unusual in that there may be no employer at all — the injured person is the owner, a family member, or a neighbor helping out. When that's the case the claim runs against an equipment manufacturer, a custom operator, or a liability policy nobody thought to look at.
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Mining and industrial injuries. Silver Bow, Jefferson, and Beaverhead Counties all have active industrial operations. Workers' compensation generally bars claims against your own employer, but not against contractors, equipment manufacturers, or other companies on site. On a multi-employer operation there is frequently a third-party claim nobody has examined.
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Recreation and outfitting injuries. Guided float trips, hunting, horseback operations, and outfitted activities. Montana law limits liability for certain inherent risks of recreational and equine activities — but limits are not immunity, and those statutes are narrower than outfitters and their insurers often claim. Negligent guiding, unsafe or poorly maintained equipment, inadequate supervision, and unsuitable stock remain actionable. If you signed a release, bring it to us; releases have limits too.
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Everything else. Premises liability, dog bites, defective products, construction defect, insurance bad faith, wrongful death, and civil disputes. Not sure your situation fits any of these? Call and describe it. We'd rather spend fifteen minutes telling you there's nothing here than have you never ask.
What It Costs
Nothing up front. We take personal injury cases on a contingency fee — our fee is a percentage of what we recover, and if there's no recovery you owe no attorney fee. The firm advances case costs.
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We put the fee terms in writing and explain them in plain language before you sign anything.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I have to come to Bozeman?
No. Most of what we need can be handled by phone or video, and Jesse still gets down that way regularly. Bozeman to Dillon is a couple of hours.
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Why not hire someone in Butte or Dillon?
Sometimes that is the right answer, and we'll say so if it is. What we bring is four years of actually living in that country, friends who are still there, and a background defending insurance companies before we started suing them.
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I signed a release before a guided trip. Does that end it?
Not necessarily. Releases and Montana's recreational and equine statutes both have real limits, and they generally do not protect against negligence. Bring us whatever you signed.