A few days after a serious truck crash, the phone rings. The voice on the other end is warm and concerned. They represent the trucking company’s insurance carrier, they’re sorry about what happened, and they just need a few details to get your claim moving.

That call is not customer service. It is the opening move in a process designed to pay you as little as possible. The person making it has done this hundreds of times. You have done it once. Understanding what happens next, and how the rules in Idaho and Montana shape it, is the difference between a fair recovery and a fraction of one.

The Recorded Statement

The adjuster will almost always ask for a recorded statement. It sounds routine. It is not. You are still in pain, possibly medicated, and don’t yet know the full extent of your injuries. Every word is preserved, and the questions are built to draw out admissions: that you were going a little fast, that you glanced at your phone, that you feel “okay” today.

Weeks later, when an MRI reveals a herniated disc or a surgeon recommends a fusion, that recording becomes the insurer’s evidence that you were fine. You have no obligation to give a recorded statement to the other side’s insurer, and you should not do so without an attorney.

The Fast Offer

The second tactic is speed. Some insurers make a settlement offer within days, sometimes before you’ve left the hospital. The number may sound significant when medical bills are piling up and you can’t work.

The problem is that a settlement is final. Once you sign, you cannot come back for the second surgery, the lost year of income, or the chronic pain that never resolves. Early offers are priced on what the insurer knows before your injuries are understood, which is exactly why they come so quickly.

Blame-Shifting and the Fault Line That Decides Everything

The most consequential tactic is the quietest. Both Idaho and Montana follow modified comparative fault, which means your compensation is reduced by whatever percentage of blame is assigned to you, and cut off entirely past a certain point.

Idaho draws the line at 50 percent. If you are found half or more at fault, you recover nothing. Montana draws it at 51 percent. You can recover at exactly half the blame, but one point more and the claim is gone.

Adjusters understand this arithmetic better than anyone. Every percentage point they push onto you saves them money, and on our roads they have a ready argument: the weather. Black ice on Lookout Pass, whiteout conditions on Highway 95, a sudden squall on the Flathead. “It was the conditions, not our driver” is a familiar refrain, and it works when no one is gathering evidence that the truck was speeding for the conditions, riding worn brakes, or running a driver past legal hours.

A Montana Rule That Shrinks Claims

Montana changed how medical expenses are counted in 2021. Under a law that took effect that spring, an injured person can recover only the amount actually paid to satisfy their medical bills, not the higher amounts originally billed. Because health insurers and Medicare negotiate deep discounts, the “paid” number is often a fraction of the “billed” number.

For a Montana truck crash claim, the medical damages an insurer will acknowledge are smaller than the bills in your hand, and how treatment is documented and paid becomes a strategic question. Idaho does not follow the same rule, which is one of several reasons that where a cross-border case is filed matters.

The Caps You Should Know About

Idaho limits non-economic damages, the compensation for pain, suffering, and lost enjoyment of life. The cap is adjusted every July and currently sits above half a million dollars. It does not apply when the conduct that caused the crash was reckless or willful, which in a trucking case can include knowingly violating federal safety rules.

Montana does not cap pain and suffering, but it does limit punitive damages to the lesser of $10 million or three percent of the defendant’s net worth, and requires proof of actual fraud or actual malice to get them at all. Insurers know these numbers and value claims accordingly. So should you.

Your Own Policy May Be the Safety Net

Here is what the adjuster will never mention: your own auto insurance may be one of the most important sources of recovery in the case.

Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage exists for exactly this situation. When the trucking company’s coverage is disputed, exhausted, or tied up in finger-pointing among the driver, the carrier, and the broker, your UM/UIM policy can step in to cover the gap. Both Idaho and Montana require insurers to offer this coverage, and many people carry it without realizing what it does.

Two things matter here. First, check your policy limits now. Idaho’s minimum liability requirement is $25,000 per person, and Montana’s is $25,000 per person and $50,000 per crash. Those figures would not cover a night in a trauma unit, and if the driver who hit you carried the minimum, your UIM coverage is the difference. Second, if you have multiple vehicles or policies, stacking those coverages may be possible depending on how your policy is written, and insurers fight hard to prevent it.

Your own insurer is not your ally either. UM/UIM claims are adversarial, and the same tactics apply.

Protect the Claim Before It’s Shaped for You

Don’t give a recorded statement. Don’t accept an early offer. Keep every medical record and bill, and locate your own auto policy so you know what protection you already have.

Then talk to someone who has sat across the table from trucking insurers before. An experienced truck accident attorney knows the tactics, the state-specific rules, and where every dollar of coverage may be hiding. Powell Law Firm has spent decades fighting lowball offers on behalf of seriously injured people across Idaho and Montana. If you’ve been hurt in a truck crash, a free consultation costs nothing and may keep the insurer from writing the story of your case for you.