Havre Construction Accident Lawyer | Falls, Trenches & More

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Havre Construction Accident Lawyers: Falls, Trench Collapses, Work-Zone Crashes and Third-Party Claims in Hill County

Boland Aarab PLLP.

If you were hurt on a construction site in Havre or anywhere in Hill County, workers’ compensation is usually your only remedy against your own employer. But a general contractor, a property owner, another subcontractor or an equipment maker may also be responsible, and a claim against them can recover the full damages workers’ comp does not pay.

Hurt on a Hi-Line job site, or lost someone on the job? Contact Boland Aarab PLLP for a free consultation at (406) 315-3737.

What construction work puts Havre workers at risk?

Construction around Havre is shaped by a short building season, deep frost and a landscape of grain, rail and highway infrastructure. The work that produces the most serious injuries includes:

Highway and street work. MDT’s pavement preservation project on First Street, the 2.3-mile stretch of US-2 through Havre, and other work on US-2, US-87 and the secondary highways put crews, flaggers and equipment operators beside live traffic (MDT, Havre Urban project). Work-zone crashes involve a driver who is not your employer, and that driver is a third party.

Utility trenches and excavation. Water, sewer and gas lines on the Hi-Line must be buried deep to stay below the frost line, so trenches are deep and walls can be unstable in wet spring soil. A cave-in can bury a worker in seconds.

Grain storage and agricultural construction. Havre is at the northern tip of the Golden Triangle. Erecting grain bins, steel buildings and elevator additions means work at height on roofs, ladders and bin walls, and crane lifts in open country where the wind can gust without warning.

Commercial, school and health care building. Projects at schools, clinics, the hospital campus and Montana State University–Northern bring several contractors onto one site, with scaffolds, aerial lifts and floor openings.

Rushed seasonal work. Contractors often compress a year’s work into the warm months, then push to enclose buildings before winter. Fatigue, long days and cold-weather work on icy decks and ladders add to the danger.

Who can be responsible besides my employer?

Most construction sites involve many companies. Responsibility can fall on:

the general contractor, which often controls site safety and scheduling;
the property owner or developer, especially one that kept control of the work or took on safety duties by contract;
other subcontractors, such as an excavation, crane or electrical company whose workers created the hazard;
equipment makers and rental companies, for defective or poorly maintained scaffolds, lifts, harnesses and trench boxes;
engineers and designers, whose plans or inspections created an unsafe condition; and
drivers who strike workers in a highway work zone.

The Montana Supreme Court has held that an owner or general contractor can be liable to a subcontractor’s employee when it had a nondelegable safety duty by contract, when the work was inherently dangerous, or when it retained control and exercised it negligently (Fabich v. PPL Montana, 2007 MT 258). The Court has also held that trenching is inherently dangerous work (Beckman v. Butte-Silver Bow County, 2000 MT 112). Contracts, safety plans and daily logs usually decide which exception applies.

What happens after a construction accident in Havre?

Medical care. Most injured workers are seen first at Northern Montana Hospital in Havre. It is not a designated trauma facility on the state’s November 2025 list (DPHHS), so falls, crush injuries and trench injuries are often transferred to Great Falls or Billings.

Report the injury. Tell your employer in writing and file your workers’ compensation claim on time. For a non-fatal injury, notice to the employer is due within 30 days (§ 39-71-603, MCA).

Safety investigators. Montana has no OSHA-approved state plan for private employers, so federal OSHA enforces construction standards on private sites (OSHA State Plans). A serious injury or fatality may bring an OSHA inspection. Its file, photos and interview notes can be valuable evidence.

Preserve the scene. Identify every company on the site and ask that failed equipment, such as a scaffold, harness or trench box, be kept for inspection.

Courts. A third-party lawsuit over a Hill County construction injury can be filed in the Twelfth Judicial District Court at the Hill County Courthouse, 315 4th Street, Havre (§ 3-5-101, MCA). Out-of-state contractors and manufacturers often remove cases to the federal Great Falls Division (D. Mont. L.R. 1.2(c)(3)). The workers’ compensation claim runs separately.

Montana law that applies

Our Montana construction accident lawyer page covers these rules in depth:

Workers’ comp is generally the exclusive remedy against a covered employer (§ 39-71-411, MCA), but it does not bar claims against third parties (§ 39-71-412, MCA).
The workers’ comp insurer generally has a lien on a third-party recovery, with limits that protect the worker (§ 39-71-414, MCA).
OSHA requires fall protection at 6 feet on unprotected edges (29 C.F.R. § 1926.501(b)(1)), protection for scaffold workers more than 10 feet up (§ 1926.451(g)(1)), and cave-in protection in most excavations 5 feet or deeper (§ 1926.652(a)(1)).
Third-party injury and wrongful-death claims generally must be filed within 3 years (§ 27-2-204, MCA). Claims involving a public project require written presentation to the government entity first (§ 2-9-301, MCA).

Why hire a Great Falls firm for a Havre case?

We are based in Great Falls and handle cases statewide. For a Havre construction injury, we come to the site, meet the worker and family, and take depositions and attend hearings wherever the case is heard. Many construction cases against out-of-state contractors are heard in the federal court in Great Falls, where our office is. We have no office in Havre. We do not handle the workers’ compensation claim itself; we focus on the third-party case and coordinate with your workers’ comp counsel.

The Boland Aarab Way

We try cases. The 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 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 protect results on appeal. The Boland Aarab appellate record reaches back to 1977 (appellate results).
We belong to the trial bar. Both attorneys belong to AAJ and MTLA, and Caitlin Boland Aarab serves on the MTLA Board.

Frequently Asked Questions

I was hit by a car while flagging on US-2 in Havre. Who can I sue? Usually the driver who hit you, and possibly a contractor responsible for the traffic-control plan. Those are third-party claims that can proceed alongside workers’ compensation.

A trench caved in on a Havre utility job. Is the general contractor responsible? Possibly. Montana treats trenching as inherently dangerous work (Beckman), which is one of the exceptions that can make an owner or general contractor liable to a subcontractor’s worker.

I fell while building grain bins for a farm near Havre. Is the farmer responsible? It depends on who controlled the work and the site. The bin manufacturer, the erection contractor or a crane company may also be responsible. We look at the contracts and the equipment.

Does OSHA have to cite someone for me to have a case? No. OSHA standards show what reasonable care required whether or not OSHA inspected, and a citation is helpful but not required.

Will a lawsuit affect my workers’ comp benefits? No. You keep your benefits and bring the third-party case alongside them. The insurer may have a lien on the recovery, within limits set by Montana law.

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.