Bike accidents in Montana sometimes result in major medical bills and other types of losses: all things that you would probably not want to pay for if you had a choice. A lawsuit might help you recover some of the damages you suffered, but that is not truly the purpose of the legal system.
The court is typically not interested in forcing people to pay for other people’s injuries. Rather, you would seek justice through a personal injury lawsuit. You would typically ask for enough resources to make yourself whole again after somebody injured you. That is why, even if you believed an accident was partially your fault, you may still want to pursue your case.
As described on FindLaw, Montana operates under a system called comparative negligence. Under this system, your amount of fault would be compared to other parties’ amount of fault. Even if you bore almost half of the responsibility, you may still be able to claim compensation from the person who injured you.
The truth is that, even in situations that involve cars and bicycles colliding, there is some amount of negligence on both sides of the incident. For example, if a child under the age of 16 in Billings received a head injury while riding a bike without a helmet, that could lead to a claim some negligence on behalf of the child’s caretaker — an argument supported by the fact that city code mandates helmets for kids.
This added subtlety to personal injury law makes it even more important to look at the specific details of your case rather than act on general information. Therefore, please do not use anything in this article as legal advice. It is only meant to provide you with general background information.
At Colton Holm Law Firm, we look forward to learning how we can help you resolve your legal concern.Call us today: (406) 259-9986