How to Get a State-Level Car Accident Report in Montana

Short answer

For a car accident investigated by the Montana Highway Patrol (MHP), request the report from MHP Records. Use MHP’s Car accident Release Form, mail it with the $2 non-refundable search fee, and provide details. MHP says car accident-record requests are not processed online and must be mailed; it accepts cash, check, or money order, not electronic payment. MHP’s Car accident Records page is the official starting point.

This is not described as an online statewide portal for every police agency’s report. If MHP cannot locate the report, the release form says to contact the officer or agency at the scene. Use that fallback for a car accident handled by a city police department, county sheriff, campus police, tribal law-enforcement agency, or another investigating agency.

Immediate checklist

1. Confirm which agency investigated the car accident. Look at the exchange sheet, citation, incident card, or any paperwork received at the scene.
2. For an MHP-investigated car accident, download and print the Car accident Release Form.
3. Gather the car accident date, county, location, names of drivers, and any car accident number or officer name. A car accident number helps but MHP says it is not required.
4. Identify why you may receive the record and, if you represent someone else, include written authorization where applicable.
5. Mail the completed form, payment, and any needed documentation to Montana Highway Patrol, P.O. Box 117, Boulder, MT 59632. Do not send payment electronically.
6. If the car accident was investigated locally or MHP reports no record, ask the investigating agency how to request its own report.

Keep your own photos, exchange information, repair documents, and correspondence together while you request the record. The car-accident evidence checklist can help organize those materials.

Who reports what in Montana

A request for a copy is different from the obligation to notify law enforcement or submit a car accident report. The following distinctions come from Montana’s current car accident-report statutes.

The statutes and MHP materials used here do not set one universal insurer-notice period, public-entity claim notice, or lawsuit deadline. Those are separate subjects and are not determined by the car accident-report-copy procedure.

Who may request an MHP car accident report

Montana law makes required accident reports and supplemental information confidential rather than open to general public inspection. Under MCA § 61-7-114, reports and related information filed by law-enforcement personnel may be examined and copied without a court order by people named in or involved in the car accident; their written representatives or insurance carriers; a party to a civil action arising from the car accident; and certain representatives when an involved person is deceased.

MHP’s Car accident Release Form gives practical examples: a driver, passenger, pedestrian, vehicle owner, owner of damaged property, attorney or insurance representative, and a person designated in writing by a qualifying person. MHP’s Car accident Records page also describes releases to qualifying people or entities named on a report, a person listed as suffering loss or injury, an authorized agent or a parent/legal guardian of an involved minor, and government agencies or law-enforcement officers acting officially.

There is a limited research exception in the statute for the public, including commercial entities, to research vehicle history. It does not permit disclosure of names, addresses, phone numbers, or other identifying information for reporting people, victims, officers, other people, or insurers. A vehicle-history research record is not the same as receiving an unredacted car accident report.

How to request the MHP record

Use the current MHP Car accident Release Form. The form asks for the requester’s contact information, signature, the requester’s relationship or entitlement, and car accident-identifying details. Mail the form with the $2 non-refundable search fee. MHP says it accepts cash, check, or money order only. The agency’s car accident-record instructions say that records of this kind are not processed online and that requests must be mailed with the applicable documentation and fee.

The form provides space for a car accident number and officer name, but the MHP Car accident Records page says a car accident number is not required. To improve the search, provide the car accident date, county, car accident location (such as road, street, or milepost), nearest city, and the names of drivers. If you are requesting on another person’s behalf, include the written designation or authorization the form calls for.

MHP describes the $2 as a non-refundable search fee. For report timing, MHP cautions that the 10–14-day period mentioned on the release or exchange form is not a deadline for producing records. A large request or records stored elsewhere can take longer, while the Records Department says it will try to keep requesters informed. Do not treat the 10-day statutory deadline for a driver or investigating officer to make a report as a promise that a copy will be ready by a particular date.

If the report is unavailable or another agency investigated

Start with the agency named on the scene paperwork. MHP’s release form expressly says, “No report available, contact officer/agency at the scene.” That instruction matters because a local police department or sheriff may be the agency that investigated the car accident, and MHP’s published car accident-record process does not promise an MHP copy of every local agency’s report.

For a local-agency record, contact that agency’s records unit and ask for its car accident-report request procedure. Give the same identifying information: date, precise location, names of drivers, report or incident number, and the investigating officer’s name if known. Follow that agency’s stated eligibility, identification, payment, and delivery rules. If the agency was campus, tribal, or another specialized law-enforcement agency, request the record from that agency unless it directs you elsewhere.

MHP also says it does not house city- or county-investigated car accident photos. Request those photos from the agency that investigated the car accident. If you need a nonstandard Montana Department of Justice record rather than the MHP car accident-copy process, review the DOJ’s Public Records Requests page; that page describes the Department’s separate online public-records application. The car accident-specific MHP instructions still say the Car accident Release Form itself must be mailed.

Documents and identifiers to gather

Before you complete a request, collect the following:

• The MHP Car accident Release Form, printed and signed.
• Car accident number, if one was assigned; it is helpful but not mandatory.
• Date of car accident, county, location, nearest city, and road, street, or milepost.
• Names of drivers and the investigating officer’s name, if known.
• Your mailing address, daytime phone number, and the status that makes you eligible to receive the report.
• Written authorization if you are acting for a person named in or involved in the car accident.
• The $2 non-refundable fee in an accepted form: cash, check, or money order.

For a broader step-by-step resource after a car accident, visit What to Do After a Car accident. Other public resources are available in the AccidentFiling.ai guides and resources.

Official resources

• Montana Highway Patrol Car accident Records — MHP eligibility, form, fee, mail-only instructions, timing note, and White Form information.
• MHP Car accident Release Form — request fields, authorization certification, mailing address, and local-agency fallback.
• Montana Code Annotated § 61-7-108 — immediate notice requirements.
• Montana Code Annotated § 61-7-109 — driver and officer written-report requirements.
• Montana Code Annotated § 61-7-114 — confidentiality and statutory access categories.
• Montana DOJ Public Records Requests — the Department’s general public-records application.

Sources

1. Montana Highway Patrol — Crash Records.
2. Montana Highway Patrol — Crash Release Form.
3. Montana Code Annotated § 61-7-108, Immediate Notice of Accidents.
4. Montana Code Annotated § 61-7-109, Written Reports of Accidents.
5. Montana Code Annotated § 61-7-114, Accident Reports Confidential.
6. Montana Department of Justice — Public Records Requests.