Is Montana an At-Fault or No-Fault State?
No — Montana is an at-fault (tort) state, not a no-fault state.
- Fault system
- At-fault (tort)
The driver responsible for the crash, and that driver's liability insurer, pays. Montana has no personal injury protection, no no-fault benefits and no injury threshold to clear before suing. The Legislative Services Division's background paper on these laws opens with the same sentence: "Montana is a tort law state."
- Comparative negligence rule
- Modified comparative — 51% bar
Under § 27-1-702 contributory negligence does not bar recovery if it "was not greater than" the negligence of the person sued or the combined negligence of everyone sued, with damages reduced by the claimant's percentage. So a claimant found exactly 50% at fault still recovers half; it takes 51% to lose everything. The Commissioner of Securities and Insurance calls this the 51% rule and then describes it as recovering only if "less than 50% at fault", which would cut off the 50/50 case the statute allows. Two further points. Joint and several liability survives in Montana but only partly: § 27-1-703(2) makes a defendant found 50% or less of the combined negligence severally liable for its own share alone, while the rest remain jointly and severally liable. And § 27-1-702 carries a dormant second version, rewritten in terms of "fault" rather than "negligence", that takes effect only on a contingency set in Chapter 429, Laws 1997 that has not occurred.
How Montana compares with every other state
What the fault rule decides
In an at-fault state the driver who caused the crash — through their liability insurer — pays for the harm. That is the arrangement in 38 of the 51 jurisdictions on this site, so it is the one most US advice assumes. The practical consequence is that your recovery depends on two things you do not control: how much liability cover the other driver bought, and what share of the blame you are assigned.
Modified comparative fault turns the case into a percentage. On a hypothetical $100,000 of damages — arithmetic, not a figure from Montana law — being 20% to blame leaves you $80,000, and being 40% to blame leaves you $60,000. Cross the line at 51% and the award is not reduced, it is gone. 24 of the 50 jurisdictions on this site draw the line in the same place, and the whole dispute after a serious crash tends to be about which side of it you land on.
Every statute cited for Montana
Why the rule looks like this
- What Changed in 2026Liability minimums doubled in Hawaii, two states dropped pure comparative fault, New Hampshire stopped inspecting cars, and three crash reporting thresholds moved — a dated account of the 2026 changes, and the ones already signed for 2027 and beyond.
- The One Percentage Point That Decides Your ClaimAcross the states covered on this site there are four different rules for what your own share of the blame does to your claim — and in North Carolina, Maryland and Virginia, being 1% at fault ends it entirely.
- No-Fault Does Not Mean Nobody Is at FaultNo-fault restricts the right to sue rather than removing it. Florida, Massachusetts, Michigan and New York run it, New Jersey and Pennsylvania let you choose, and Michigan lets every driver pick one of six PIP ceilings — which changes who pays after a crash.
More on Montana
Checked against the primary sources above on September 29, 2026. If a figure here is wrong, tell us and we will fix it — what we have corrected so far is public.