Montana Statute of Limitations—Is It Too Late to Get Compensation for Your Injury?

Like most states, Montana has time limits for filing both personal injury and workers compensation claims. After these deadlines, it’s often impossible to recover damages for your injuries, even if your case is clear and simple.

Knowing these deadlines—and building your case ASAP—is key to seeing a favorable resolution and getting your just compensation. Today, we’ll briefly take a look at those deadlines to give you an idea of just how fast you need to move after your injury.

Montana Personal Injury Statute of Limitations

Here in Montana, most torts (also known as civil wrongs) must be brought within three years of the date of your injury. There are a handful of exceptions that have shorter time frames, such as malicious prosecution and defamation, which have a two-year time limit.

For minors, the statute of limitations doesn’t begin “ticking” until their 18th birthday. So if your son was injured on his 10th birthday, you have a total of 11 years to file a claim—but in general, you should file sooner rather than later.

Montana Medical Malpractice Statute of Limitations

Most cases against healthcare providers must be filed within three years of the day when the act that caused your injury occurred, or within three years of the date that your injury was or should have been discovered.

Plus, there’s a larger deadline that states you cannot file a claim after five years has passed.

For minors over the age of 4, you have 5 years from the date of their injury to file a claim. For minors under the age of 4, you have 5 years starting on their 8th birthday.

Montana Workers Compensation Statute of Limitations

If you’re hurt at work, you usually have 1 year from the date of the injury to file your claim, or 2 years if you weren’t aware of the injury or suffered a latent injury.

Is the Statute of Limitations Ever Extended?

There are situations when a person could not have reasonably discovered their injury, either due to concealment by the defendant or otherwise. In these situations, it is sometimes possible to file a claim after the statute of limitations has expired for your injury—but you should not rely on this law, and instead should file your case as quickly as possible. Even though 2-3 years sounds like a long time to think about whether you should seek damages or not, it’s really not that long.

If you’re unsure whether you have a winning case, get in touch with us right away to schedule a free consultation. We’ll help you discover the strong and weak points of your case, and which first steps you should take to start seeing compensation as soon as possible—before the statute of limitations sneaks up on you.