Butte, MontanaButte Workplace Injury
Butte Workplace Injury Lawyers: Mine, Construction, Cleanup and Industrial Accidents in Butte-Silver Bow
Boland Aarab PLLP.
If you were hurt on the job in Butte, workers’ compensation is usually your only claim against your own employer. But when another company caused the injury, such as a contractor, an equipment maker or a site owner, you can also sue that company, often in the Second Judicial District Court in Butte, and keep your comp benefits.
Seriously hurt at work in Butte, or lost a family member to a workplace accident? Contact Boland Aarab PLLP for a free consultation at (406) 315-3737.
What kinds of work injuries happen in Butte?
Butte’s economy still runs on heavy work, and its injuries reflect that.
- Mining. Montana Resources operates the Continental Mine, an open-pit copper and molybdenum mine and the only active mine at Butte, with a workforce of roughly 350 and reserves projected to support mining into the 2050s. Open-pit work means haul trucks, shovels, conveyors, crushers and mills, and injuries from equipment collisions, falls, caught-in accidents and maintenance on energized machinery.
- Contractors on mine and industrial sites. Many people injured at a mine or plant do not work for the site owner. They work for a maintenance, electrical, trucking or construction contractor. That matters, because the site owner or another contractor may be a “third party” you can sue.
- Environmental cleanup. The Berkeley Pit and the upper Clark Fork are Superfund sites, and remediation and reclamation work puts earthmoving, trucking and construction crews on the ground around Butte and down Silver Bow Creek.
- Rail, transload and industrial work. The Port of Montana at Silver Bow and the Butte, Anaconda & Pacific Railway handle freight including acids, LPG and petroleum products. Railroad workers are covered by FELA instead of workers’ comp; others at these sites are not.
- Construction and utilities. Commercial construction, road work on I-90/I-15 and the Montana Department of Transportation’s Butte District projects, and utility work on lines and substations all carry fall, trench, struck-by and electrical risks, made worse by Butte’s winters.
How are mine injuries in Butte investigated?
Mines are regulated by the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), not by OSHA. A mine operator must notify MSHA of a serious accident immediately, and no later than 15 minutes after the operator knows or should know of it (30 C.F.R. § 50.10). MSHA then investigates and may issue citations.
An MSHA investigation can be valuable evidence, but it is not your case. Its focus is compliance, not your losses. The scene, the equipment and the maintenance records still need to be preserved for a civil claim against any third party. We send preservation letters early and, where the facts call for it, bring in mining and equipment experts. Montana Tech in Butte trains mining engineers and occupational safety professionals, and runs an on-campus underground mine for instruction. That gives some sense of how specialized this field is.
What happens after a workplace injury in Butte?
- Report the injury to your employer in writing, and file the workers’ compensation claim. Do not let anyone talk you out of it.
- Get medical care. St. James Healthcare in Butte is an ACS Level III / State Area Trauma Hospital (DPHHS, Nov. 2025). Severe injuries may be transferred to Missoula or Billings.
- Write down who else was on the site, which companies they worked for, and who owned or maintained the equipment. That list is the start of any third-party claim.
- Talk to a lawyer before giving statements to any company other than your employer’s comp insurer.
Which court? Workers’ comp disputes go through the Montana Department of Labor and the Workers’ Compensation Court. A third-party lawsuit is a separate civil case. In state court in Butte, it goes to the Second Judicial District Court, Silver Bow County (§ 3-5-101(2), MCA), at the Silver Bow County Courthouse, 155 West Granite Street. If the defendant is an out-of-state company, it may move the case to the U.S. District Court, Butte Division, at the Mike Mansfield Federal Courthouse, 400 North Main Street (mtd.uscourts.gov).
Montana law that applies
In brief. Our Montana workplace injury lawyer page covers the details.
- Workers’ comp is generally the exclusive remedy against a covered employer (§ 39-71-411, MCA).
- You keep your comp benefits and can sue a negligent third party (§ 39-71-412, MCA).
- An employer or co-worker who intentionally injures you can be sued, but the bar is high (§ 39-71-413, MCA).
- The comp insurer has a lien on a third-party recovery, with limits that protect the worker (§ 39-71-414, MCA).
- Most third-party injury claims must be filed within 3 years (§ 27-2-204, MCA).
Why hire a Great Falls firm for a Butte case?
Because a third-party work injury case is a full civil lawsuit against a company that will defend itself hard, and that is the work we do. We are based in Great Falls and handle cases throughout Montana. Our attorneys travel to Butte to meet clients, visit sites with experts when access is allowed, and take depositions, attend hearings and try cases.
We do not have a Butte office, and our jury trials have been in Cascade, Phillips, Meagher and Yellowstone Counties rather than Silver Bow.
The Boland Aarab Way
- We try cases: more than a dozen jury trials and more than 4,000 hours in the courtroom.
- We are comfortable in federal court, where out-of-state contractors and manufacturers often go: more than 40 District of Montana cases over nine years.
- We handle our own appeals, with an appellate record back to 1977 (appellate results).
- You deal with the lawyers directly, from the first call.
We also handle railroad and FELA cases in Butte and spinal cord injury cases in Butte. See our Butte personal injury page.
Contact Boland Aarab PLLP for a free consultation at (406) 315-3737.
Frequently Asked Questions
I work for a contractor and was hurt at a Butte mine. Can I sue the mine? Possibly. The site owner is a third party to a contractor’s employee, and it can be sued if its negligence caused your injury. You keep your workers’ comp benefits either way.
Does OSHA or MSHA investigate a mine accident in Butte? MSHA covers mines, including open-pit mines like the Continental Mine. OSHA generally covers other workplaces, such as construction and industrial sites off mine property.
Can I sue my own employer for a Butte work injury? Usually not. Workers’ comp is the exclusive remedy against your employer, except for injuries it specifically and actually intended, which is a high bar.
Who pays if a piece of equipment failed? The manufacturer, seller or a maintenance contractor may be responsible. Keep the equipment from being repaired or scrapped, and call a lawyer quickly.
Where would my third-party case be heard? Usually in the Second Judicial District Court in Uptown Butte, or in the federal Butte Division if an out-of-state company removes it.
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.
