Almost every injury claim involves some argument that the injured person contributed to what happened. You were going a little fast. You could have seen them. You should have been paying closer attention.

In Montana that argument does not end your claim, but it does have a precise financial effect, and understanding how it works changes how you respond to it.

The Rule

Montana applies modified comparative negligence under MCA § 27-1-702. Two things follow from it:

  • If you are found 50% or less at fault, you recover, and your award is reduced by your percentage.
  • If your share exceeds 50%, you recover nothing at all.

So a $100,000 claim where you bear 20% of the fault becomes $80,000. The same claim at 51% becomes zero. That cliff is the entire reason the percentage gets fought over so intensely.

Nobody Calculates This Number

People assume the percentage comes from some established formula. It does not. It is either negotiated between the parties or decided by a jury, and it is a judgment about the facts rather than an arithmetic result.

That is worth internalizing, because it means the figure an adjuster gives you is not a finding. It is an opening position, offered early, in the hope that you will treat it as settled.

How the Argument Gets Built Against You

Insurers develop your percentage from material you generally hand them yourself:

  • What you said at the scene. A reflexive apology, or an offhand "I didn't see them," gets quoted back for months.
  • Your recorded statement, which is requested early precisely because you are unprepared and possibly medicated.
  • The police report narrative, which is a summary written under time pressure, not a verdict.
  • Gaps in your medical treatment, reframed as evidence you were not really hurt.
  • Social media, where any photo of you doing anything active becomes an exhibit.

None of these are conclusive. All of them are usable if nobody pushes back.

What Actually Moves the Percentage

The counterweight is physical evidence, which does not have a memory or a motive. Vehicle damage showing the true angle and force of impact. Scene measurements. Sight-line analysis. Traffic and business camera footage, which is frequently overwritten within days. Independent witnesses who were not involved in the collision.

This is the practical argument for getting help early. The evidence that moves your percentage down has a short shelf life, and once it is gone the case gets decided on competing recollections, which favors whoever is more practiced at telling their version.

The Practical Advice

  • Do not apologize at the scene. Courtesy is read as admission.
  • Do not give a recorded statement to the other side's insurer before getting advice.
  • Do not accept the adjuster's percentage as though it is a finding.
  • Get consistent medical care, because gaps get used against you.
  • Stay off social media about the incident and about your activities.

If an insurer has already told you that you were mostly at fault, that is a reason to have someone look at it rather than a reason to give up. Our insurance claims page explains how we handle adjusters, and our personal injury page covers our approach generally.