Missoula, MontanaMissoula Civil Rights
Missoula Civil Rights Lawyers: Jail Deaths, In-Custody Injuries and Excessive Force Claims in Missoula County and Western Montana
Boland Aarab PLLP.
If someone was seriously injured or died in the Missoula County Detention Facility or another western Montana jail, or was hurt by excessive force during an arrest, the family or the injured person may have a civil rights claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, along with claims under Montana law. These cases are usually heard in the federal courthouse in Missoula, and the evidence must be preserved quickly.
Key Takeaways
Lost a family member in custody in western Montana, or hurt by excessive force? Contact Boland Aarab PLLP for a free consultation at (406) 315-3737.
What is the Missoula County Detention Facility, and who is held there?
The Missoula County Detention Facility, at 2340 Mullan Road, is operated by the Missoula County Sheriff’s Office. It opened on November 1, 1999, replacing an older jail in the courthouse annex, and has a combined capacity of 394, including a separate 24-bed unit for juveniles ages 10 to 17 that is licensed by the Montana Department of Corrections. The facility has an on-site clinic and a staff of nearly 130 (Missoula County Sheriff’s Office, Detention Division).
The facility holds people arrested by many agencies, not just the sheriff: according to the county, it houses inmates for the Missoula Police Department, the Montana Highway Patrol, the University of Montana Police, the U.S. Marshals Service, Fish, Wildlife & Parks, other county sheriffs and the U.S. Forest Service. That matters in a civil rights case, because the agency that made the arrest, the county that ran the jail and any contracted provider may each bear different responsibility, under different rules.
Most people held in a county jail have not been convicted of anything. They are pretrial detainees, and their constitutional protections come from the Fourteenth Amendment. For them, the Ninth Circuit judges claims of inadequate medical care by an objective deliberate-indifference standard (Gordon v. County of Orange, 9th Cir. 2018), and excessive force by whether it was objectively unreasonable (Kingsley v. Hendrickson, 576 U.S. 389 (2015)).
Jail cases commonly involve suicide risk that was known or should have been recognized, medical emergencies such as withdrawal, diabetes, infections and head injuries that were missed or delayed, failure to protect a person from assault, and cell checks logged but not performed. We make no assumption about any particular facility or official. Each case turns on its own records.
What happens after a death or injury in custody in Missoula?
Preserve the evidence at once. The most important evidence belongs to the government: booking and screening forms, medical and medication records, cell-check logs, video, radio traffic and incident reports. Jail video and electronic logs can be overwritten on short retention schedules. We send written preservation demands to the county, the arresting agency and any contracted medical provider immediately.
Investigations and records. A death in custody usually involves an autopsy and a law enforcement investigation. Families have a right to know what happened, but obtaining records often requires formal requests and, eventually, discovery in litigation.
Present the state-law claim. Claims against Missoula County or the City of Missoula must be presented in writing to the entity’s clerk under § 2-9-301(3) before a state-law suit can proceed.
Which court. Civil rights claims from Missoula County are usually filed in the Missoula Division of the U.S. District Court, at the Russell Smith Federal Courthouse, 201 East Broadway (U.S. District Court, Missoula), with Montana wrongful-death and survival claims joined to them. The Missoula Division also hears cases from Flathead, Granite, Lake, Lincoln, Mineral, Ravalli and Sanders Counties. Appeals, including early appeals on qualified immunity, go to the Ninth Circuit.
Tribal lands. Lake County and parts of Sanders County, in the Missoula Division, include the Flathead Indian Reservation of the Salish, Kootenai and Pend d’Oreille tribes. A case involving tribal police or tribal facilities can raise different jurisdictional questions. Our attorneys are not admitted in tribal courts but can seek admission when a case requires it.
Montana law that applies
- Montana constitutional rights, including individual dignity and freedom from cruel and unusual punishments (Art. II, § 4; Art. II, § 22), which can support damages in some cases (Dorwart v. Caraway, 2002 MT 240).
- Wrongful death and survival claims (§ 27-1-513, § 27-1-501, MCA).
- Qualified immunity can protect individual officers from federal damages unless they violated clearly established law, but it does not protect counties from Monell claims.
- No punitive damages against the county on state claims (§ 2-9-105, MCA).
- Deadlines: generally 3 years for § 1983 and wrongful-death claims, and 2 years for state-law assault and battery claims (§ 27-2-204, MCA).
For more, see our Montana civil rights and jail death lawyer page.
Why hire a Great Falls firm for a Missoula case?
We are based in Great Falls and handle civil rights cases across Montana. These cases are fought in federal court, often through interlocutory appeals, and they demand lawyers who know that court. Our attorneys travel to Missoula for depositions, hearings and trial at the federal courthouse on East Broadway.
The Boland Aarab Way
- We have done this work. We represented the estate and family of a man who died in custody at the Cascade County Detention Center, in federal court, and the case resolved in 2023 with a $550,000 settlement (Estate of Alexander v. Cascade County).
- 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 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.
- You work with the lawyers. Caitlin Boland Aarab and Samir Aarab handle your case themselves. Samir Aarab is a member of Public Justice.
We also handle Missoula wrongful death and Missoula medical malpractice cases, and other Missoula personal injury claims.
Frequently Asked Questions
My family member died in the Missoula County jail. What should we do first? Contact a lawyer quickly so preservation demands go out before video and logs are overwritten. Keep any letters, calls or messages from your family member and from the jail.
Who can be responsible for a death or injury in a Missoula jail? Depending on the facts, individual officers, Missoula County if its policies or customs caused the harm, and a private medical contractor. The arresting agency may also be involved.
Will a Missoula civil rights case be in state or federal court? Usually federal court, in the Missoula Division on East Broadway, with Montana claims joined to the federal ones.
What if the arrest happened on the Flathead Reservation? Tribal jurisdiction may affect the claims and the court. We evaluate that early and can seek admission to tribal court if needed.
How long do we have to file? Generally 3 years for § 1983 and wrongful-death claims, but some state-law claims have 2 years, and county claims must be presented first. The evidence can disappear in days.
Talk to a Missoula Civil Rights 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.
