Helena Catastrophic Injury Lawyers

Helena, MontanaHelena Catastrophic Injury

Helena Catastrophic Injury Lawyers: Life-Changing Injuries, Amputations and Permanent Disability in Lewis and Clark County

Boland Aarab PLLP.

A catastrophic injury near Helena often means care in more than one city: first St. Peter’s Health, an Area Trauma Hospital, and sometimes a Level 1 or Level 2 trauma center elsewhere. The case is built on a lifetime of costs. Montana law allows damages for harm “certain to result in the future,” and most claims have a 3-year deadline.

Key Takeaways

• Montana law allows compensation for “all the detriment” a wrongful act causes, including future harm (§§ 27-1-202, 27-1-203, 27-1-317, MCA).
• A life-care plan and an earning-capacity analysis turn a lifetime of losses into numbers a jury can rely on.
• Most injury claims must be filed within 3 years (§ 27-2-204, MCA).

Facing a life-changing injury after an accident near Helena? Contact Boland Aarab PLLP for a free consultation at (406) 315-3737.

How does Montana’s trauma system affect a Helena injury case?

Montana DPHHS designates trauma facilities by level, and its current list shows where a Helena patient’s care may go:

DPHHS describes Area Trauma Hospitals as able to care for most injured patients, with surgery and intensive care. Patients with the most complex injuries, such as severe brain and spinal cord injuries, major burns and multiple-system trauma, may be transferred to a higher-level center. Some go out of state for specialized care or rehabilitation. Rural hospitals around Helena have lower designations or none at all. The DPHHS list shows the Townsend hospital as not designated and the White Sulphur Springs hospital as a Trauma Receiving Facility. A patient injured in those areas may be stabilized there first and then moved.

That path matters to the case in several ways:

• Records from every stop. Emergency responders, the first hospital, the air or ground transport, the trauma center, rehabilitation and home health each hold part of the story. We gather all of them.
• The family’s costs. Travel, lodging and time away from work while a loved one is treated in Great Falls, Missoula, Billings or out of state are real losses.
• Coming home. A Helena family’s life-care plan has to account for what is actually available in Helena: which therapies, equipment and specialists are local, and which require travel.

What causes catastrophic injuries around Helena?

Every case is different, but the Helena area has its own patterns: head-on and rollover crashes on US-12 over MacDonald Pass, I-15 through Wolf Creek Canyon and the two-lane highways of the Helena Valley. Truck crashes on the interstate corridor. Construction falls. Railroad injuries on the mountain line west of town. Burns and explosions. Defective products (§ 27-1-719, MCA). Serious falls on ice at properties someone else was responsible for maintaining.

What happens after a catastrophic injury in Helena?

Immediately: get the injured person the care they need, and let the family focus on that. A lawyer can handle insurers and evidence in the meantime.

Early: preserve the evidence. That means the vehicles, equipment, scene photos, video, and the records of any company involved. Investigating agencies depend on where it happened: the Helena Police Department in the city, the Lewis and Clark County Sheriff’s Office in the county, the Montana Highway Patrol on the highways, and OSHA or the railroad for workplace events.

Building the damages: we work with treating physicians, life-care planners, vocational experts and economists. For a Helena worker, that includes the full value of lost employment benefits and retirement, not just wages. Many people in Helena work for government agencies, health systems or other employers whose benefits make up a large part of total compensation.

The court: a Helena case is generally filed in the First Judicial District Court at the Lewis and Clark County Courthouse, 228 Broadway (§ 3-5-101(1), MCA). Cases against out-of-state companies may go to the U.S. District Court’s Helena Division at the Paul G. Hatfield Federal Courthouse, 901 Front Street, which covers Lewis and Clark, Broadwater, Jefferson, Meagher and Powell Counties (D. Mont. L.R. 1.2).

Montana law that applies

Recovery covers all the detriment the wrongful act caused, including future harm reasonably certain to occur (§§ 27-1-202, 27-1-203, MCA). You can recover if your share of fault is not greater than the defendants’ combined (§ 27-1-702, MCA). Most claims have a 3-year deadline. Medical malpractice has shorter limits (§ 27-2-205, MCA), and claims against government entities have notice rules and caps (§§ 2-9-301, 2-9-108, MCA). Our Montana catastrophic injury lawyer page explains life-care plans and damages in depth.

Why hire a Great Falls firm for a Helena case?

Catastrophic injury cases require time, money and trial preparation, often against defendants with deep resources. We are based in Great Falls, one of the cities where Helena patients are sent for Level 2 trauma care, and we handle cases statewide. We come to Helena, to the hospital and to your home. Our attorneys travel for depositions, hearings and trial wherever the case requires.

The Boland Aarab Way

• We try cases. Our firm has tried more than a dozen jury trials, and our attorneys have spent more than 4,000 hours in the courtroom.
• We protect verdicts. The Montana Supreme Court reinstated our client’s $168,500 jury verdict in Voegel v. Salsbery, 2023 MT 137. See our results.
• We know federal court. Our attorneys have handled more than 40 cases in the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana over nine years, and Samir Aarab has argued twice before the Ninth Circuit.
• We are part of the trial bar. Both attorneys belong to AAJ and MTLA. Caitlin Boland Aarab is an AAJ Governor and serves on the MTLA Board.

We also handle spinal cord injury cases in Helena, brain injury cases in Helena and other Helena personal injury cases.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is St. Peter’s in Helena a trauma center? Montana DPHHS designates St. Peter’s Hospital as a State Area Trauma Hospital. The nearest ACS Level 2 regional trauma centers are Benefis in Great Falls and Providence St. Patrick in Missoula, and Billings has two ACS Level 1 centers.

My family member was flown from Helena to another hospital. Can we recover those costs? Medical transport costs are recoverable when caused by someone else’s negligence. So are a family’s reasonable costs in caring for an injured person, depending on the claim.

How do you figure out what a lifetime of care will cost? With a life-care plan built with the treating doctors, and an economist’s analysis of lost earnings and benefits. Montana law allows damages for harm reasonably certain to occur in the future.

What if the other driver only had minimum insurance? Montana’s minimum is $25,000 per person (§ 61-6-103, MCA). We look for every other source: other responsible parties, employers and your own underinsured motorist coverage.

Do I have to file in Helena? A Helena crash or injury is usually filed in the First Judicial District Court, but venue can depend on where the defendants live, and an out-of-state defendant may move the case to federal court.

Talk to a Helena Catastrophic Injury Lawyer

Contact Boland Aarab PLLP for a free consultation at (406) 315-3737.

Our attorneys: Caitlin Boland Aarab · Samir F. Aarab

Sources: DPHHS, Montana Designated Trauma Facilities (Nov. 2025) · DPHHS trauma designation levels · § 27-1-202, MCA · § 27-1-203, MCA · § 27-1-317, MCA · § 27-1-702, MCA · § 27-1-719, MCA · § 27-2-204, MCA · § 27-2-205, MCA · § 2-9-301, MCA · § 2-9-108, MCA · D. Mont. L.R. 1.2

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.