Billings, MontanaBillings Legal Malpractice
Billings Legal Malpractice Lawyers: Missed Deadlines, Lost Cases and Botched Real Estate, Ranch and Mineral Deals
Boland Aarab PLLP.
If a Billings lawyer’s mistake cost you a lawsuit, a property sale, mineral rights or money, you may have a legal malpractice claim. You must prove the lawyer failed to use reasonable care and skill and that the failure caused a real loss, usually with expert testimony. The deadline is generally 3 years from when you discovered the error, and never more than 10 years from the error itself.
Believe a lawyer’s mistake cost you? Contact Boland Aarab PLLP for a free consultation at (406) 315-3737.
What kinds of malpractice claims come out of Billings?
Billings is the legal center of eastern Montana. The Thirteenth Judicial District is an eight-judge district serving Yellowstone County (Yellowstone County Clerk of District Court), and the federal court’s Billings Division hears cases from 22 counties, from Carbon and Park to Richland and Wibaux. Lawyers here handle litigation, ranch and commercial real estate, oil and gas, estates and business transactions for clients across the region. Malpractice claims follow that work:
- Missed deadlines in injury and civil cases. A statute of limitations that ran, a government claim never presented to the City of Billings or Yellowstone County, a federal filing deadline missed, or an appeal not taken.
- Litigation errors. Failing to name the right defendants, to disclose experts on time, to respond to a summary judgment motion, or to communicate a settlement offer.
- Ranch and land sales. Deeds, easements, water rights, leasebacks and reserved rights that were drafted wrong or left out. Eastern Montana ranch transactions often carry terms, such as the right to keep living on the place or to keep grazing, that are easy to get wrong.
- Oil, gas and mineral work. Leases, royalty provisions, mineral reservations in deeds and title opinions. The Bureau of Land Management’s Montana/Dakotas State Office in Billings manages about 47 million acres of federal mineral estate in Montana and the Dakotas (BLM), and many private and federal mineral deals across the Williston Basin are handled from Billings.
- Estate planning and probate. Wills and trusts that fail to carry out the client’s wishes, or probate deadlines missed.
- Business transactions and conflicts of interest, where a lawyer favored another client or the lawyer’s own interest.
A disappointing outcome is not malpractice on its own. The question is whether the lawyer fell below the standard of care and whether that caused a loss that can be measured.
What happens when you suspect malpractice by a Billings lawyer?
- Protect the underlying matter first. If your original case can still be saved, by an appeal, a motion or new counsel, that comes before anything else.
- Request your complete file in writing, including correspondence, drafts, pleadings, notes and bills.
- Write down a timeline of what you were told and when. The discovery date often decides the deadline.
- Talk to independent counsel promptly. A lawyer with no ties to the lawyer or firm involved should review what happened.
A malpractice lawsuit against a Billings lawyer or firm is usually filed in the Thirteenth Judicial District Court at the Yellowstone County Courthouse, 217 North 27th Street (§ 3-5-101, MCA). If the error happened in a federal case, the underlying proof may run through the Billings Division record at the James F. Battin Federal Courthouse (District of Montana).
A complaint to Montana’s Office of Disciplinary Counsel, in Helena, addresses professional discipline. It does not award you damages and does not stop the malpractice deadline.
What must you prove?
Four elements: duty, breach, injury and proximate cause (Labair v. Carey, 2012 MT 312). The attorney-client relationship establishes the duty. Breach almost always requires expert testimony: with limited exceptions, “only expert testimony can establish the standard of care in a legal malpractice case” (Babcock Place, 2003 MT 111, ¶ 21).
When the error happened in a lawsuit, you usually must also prove the “case within a case”: that, but for the lawyer’s negligence, you would have done better in the original matter (Lorash v. Epstein, 236 Mont. 21 (1989)). In a transaction, the question is what protection a careful lawyer would have built into the documents and what its absence cost you.
Montana law that applies
- Elements and experts: Labair and Babcock Place, above.
- Deadline: an action against a Montana-licensed attorney must be filed within 3 years after the client discovers, or through reasonable diligence should have discovered, the act, error or omission, but in no case more than 10 years after it (§ 27-2-206, MCA).
The 10-year limit is absolute. Errors in deeds, mineral reservations and estate plans may not surface for years, which is why a prompt review matters. See our Montana legal malpractice page for more.
Why hire a Great Falls firm for a Billings case?
Many people hesitate to ask a local lawyer to sue a colleague down the street. We are based in Great Falls, handle legal malpractice claims statewide, and have no practice ties to the Billings firms these cases involve. Our attorneys travel to Billings for depositions, hearings and trial, and our firm has tried jury trials in Yellowstone County. We do not have a Billings office.
The Boland Aarab Way
- We try cases. Our firm has tried more than a dozen jury trials, in Cascade, Phillips, Meagher and Yellowstone Counties, and our attorneys have spent more than 4,000 hours in the courtroom.
- We know appellate and federal court. The Montana Supreme Court reinstated a $168,500 jury verdict for our client (Voegel v. Salsbery, 2023 MT 137). The Boland Aarab appellate record reaches back to 1977, and our attorneys have handled more than 40 federal cases in Montana over nine years.
- You work with the lawyers, Caitlin Boland Aarab and Samir Aarab, who review your file themselves.
Related Billings pages: appeals · insurance bad faith · all Billings cases
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I sue my Billings lawyer for losing my case? Only if the lawyer failed to use reasonable care and skill and that failure caused the loss. You generally must also prove you would have done better in the original case.
My lawyer never filed my claim against the City of Billings. Is that malpractice? It may be. Missing a statute of limitations or a required government-claim presentation is a common basis for malpractice, if the underlying claim had value.
A mineral reservation in my ranch deed was drafted wrong years ago. Is it too late? Possibly not. You have 3 years from when you discovered or should have discovered the error, but never more than 10 years from the error itself (§ 27-2-206, MCA).
Where would my case against a Billings law firm be filed? Usually in the Thirteenth Judicial District Court at the Yellowstone County Courthouse.
Is a bar complaint enough? No. A complaint to the Office of Disciplinary Counsel addresses discipline, not compensation, and it does not stop the malpractice deadline.
Talk to a Billings Legal Malpractice Lawyer
Contact Boland Aarab PLLP for a free consultation at (406) 315-3737.
Our attorneys: Caitlin Boland Aarab · Samir F. Aarab
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.
