Havre, MontanaHavre Legal Malpractice
Havre Legal Malpractice Lawyers: Farm and Ranch Deals, Estate Plans and Missed Deadlines on the Hi-Line
Boland Aarab PLLP.
If a lawyer’s mistake cost you a farm sale, an inheritance, a lawsuit 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. You generally have 3 years from discovering the error, and never more than 10.
Believe a lawyer’s mistake cost you? Contact Boland Aarab PLLP for a free consultation at (406) 315-3737.
What legal mistakes hurt Hi-Line families and businesses?
On the Hi-Line, the matters that go wrong are often the ones that carry a family’s land and livelihood. A small number of lawyers handle much of the region’s legal work, and a mistake may not surface until years later, when a parent dies, a buyer defaults or a lease ends. The errors we evaluate most often include:
Farm and ranch sales and leases. Contracts for deed, land sales with a right to keep living on the place, grazing and crop-share leases, and water rights transfers all depend on careful drafting. A missing protection, such as who must insure a building or what happens if it burns, can cost the seller everything the deal was meant to protect.
Estate and succession planning. Wills, trusts, deeds and farm succession plans that fail to do what the family asked for, that are not signed correctly, or that create tax or title problems.
Divorces involving farm ground and businesses. Property settlements that misvalue land, equipment or an operating business, or that fail to protect a spouse’s interest.
Missed deadlines in injury and injury-related cases. Hi-Line cases can involve deadlines that differ from the ordinary 3-year rule. A claim against the United States over care at an Indian Health Service facility must be presented in writing within 2 years (28 U.S.C. § 2401(b)). A claim against a city, county or school district requires written presentation first (§ 2-9-301, MCA). A lawyer who misses one of those steps may have lost the client’s case.
Conflicts of interest. In a small legal community, the same lawyer may know, or have represented, both sides. A lawyer who favors another client or a family member over you may be liable.
A disappointing result is not, by itself, malpractice. The question is whether the lawyer fell below the standard of care, and whether that caused a loss you can measure.
What happens with a legal malpractice claim from Havre?
Request your file. Ask in writing for your complete client file, including correspondence, drafts, pleadings and billing records. Keep your own copies of everything.
Protect the underlying matter first. If your original case, deal or estate can still be saved, that comes first. Another lawyer may be able to fix or limit the damage.
Expert review. Legal malpractice cases almost always require an experienced Montana lawyer to testify about what a careful lawyer would have done. With limited exceptions, “only expert testimony can establish the standard of care in a legal malpractice case” (Babcock Place Ltd. P’ship v. Berg, Lilly, Andriolo & Tollefsen, P.C., 2003 MT 111, ¶ 21). Because Havre’s legal community is small, that expert usually comes from another part of the state.
Courts. A malpractice case against a Hill County lawyer can be filed in the Twelfth Judicial District Court at the Hill County Courthouse, 315 4th Street, Havre (§ 3-5-101, MCA). Venue depends on where the lawyer practices and where the work was done. A bar complaint to the Office of Disciplinary Counsel is a separate process that addresses discipline, not compensation.
Montana law that applies
Our Montana legal malpractice lawyer page covers the law in depth. The essentials:
- Four elements: duty, breach, injury and proximate cause (Labair v. Carey, 2012 MT 312, ¶ 20, as quoted in Konesky v. Keller, 2021 MT 214N, ¶ 10). An attorney-client relationship is enough to establish the duty.
- The “case within a case.” When the error happened in a lawsuit, the client usually must prove that the underlying case would have come out better (Lorash v. Epstein, 236 Mont. 21 (1989)).
- Transactions. In a sale or estate plan, the question is often what protection a careful lawyer would have built into the documents, and what the client lost without it.
- Deadline: 3 years after the client discovers, or with reasonable diligence should have discovered, the error, but never more than 10 years after it (§ 27-2-206, MCA). An error in a deed or will may not surface until the 10 years are nearly gone.
What does Konesky v. Keller show?
Our client sold his family ranch near Great Falls on the condition that he and his wife could keep living in the farmhouse rent-free. The signed lease let the buyer end it if the house burned. The house burned, the buyer ended the lease and kept the insurance money. The district court granted the law firm summary judgment; the Montana Supreme Court reversed (Konesky, 2021 MT 214N). On remand, a Cascade County jury returned $100,000 against the law firm for legal malpractice and $388,291 against the buyer, $488,291 in total (case page). Farm and ranch deals on the Hi-Line raise the same kinds of drafting questions.
Why hire a Great Falls firm for a Havre case?
Suing a lawyer in a small legal community can be uncomfortable for local counsel. We are based in Great Falls, we handle cases statewide, and we have taken a legal malpractice claim through the Montana Supreme Court and a jury trial. We come to Havre to meet with you and review your file. We have no office in Havre.
The Boland Aarab Way
- We try malpractice cases. In Konesky v. Keller, we won reversal in the Montana Supreme Court and then a Cascade County jury verdict against the law firm.
- We know Hi-Line juries. The Montana Supreme Court reinstated a Phillips County jury’s $168,500 verdict for our client on our appeal (Voegel v. Salsbery, 2023 MT 137).
- 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 protect results on appeal. The Boland Aarab appellate record reaches back to 1977 (appellate results).
Related Havre pages: appeals · insurance bad faith · Havre and Hill County injury lawyers.
Frequently Asked Questions
My parents’ estate plan did not do what they wanted. Can the family bring a claim? Possibly. Whether heirs or beneficiaries can sue the drafting lawyer depends on the facts and the relationship. Get the documents reviewed promptly, because the 10-year outside limit runs from the error.
A lawyer drafted our farm sale, and the buyer has stopped paying. Is that malpractice? Not automatically. It may be if the documents lacked protections a careful lawyer would have included. We review the contract and what you asked the lawyer to do.
My injury lawyer missed the deadline for a claim against the Indian Health Service. What now? Missing the 2-year federal claim deadline can end the underlying case. The lawyer may be responsible for what the claim was worth. You must prove the underlying claim would have succeeded.
Do I need an expert to sue a lawyer in Montana? Almost always. Only expert testimony can establish the standard of care, with limited exceptions (Babcock Place, 2003 MT 111).
How long do I have? 3 years from when you discovered or reasonably should have discovered the error, but never more than 10 years from the error (§ 27-2-206, MCA).
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.
