Alexander Blewett III
About Alexander Blewett III
Alexander "Zander" Blewett III co-founded Hoyt & Blewett PLLC in 1985 and has spent more than five decades representing injured Montanans. The University of Montana School of Law was renamed the Alexander Blewett III School of Law in his honor. He holds an AV Preeminent Peer Review Rating from Martindale-Hubbell and is the only Montana lawyer admitted to the Lawdragon Hall of Fame. He is the only Montana member of the Inner Circle of Advocates, a national organization limited to the top 100 trial lawyers in the United States. He has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America since 1991 and was the Montana Trial Lawyers Association Trial Lawyer of the Year in both 1993-1994 and 2006-2007. Certified as a Civil Trial Advocacy Specialist by the National Board of Trial Advocacy since 1983, he has tried more than 100 jury trials and obtained numerous record-setting verdicts.
Notable case results
Jeremy Vangsnes, a 21-year-old cross-country athlete who was left quadriplegic and brain-injured after a 2009 rollover on Interstate 90 near Belgrade, Montana, settled for $26 million against the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention after a judge ruled the driver was acting within the scope of his agency with the organization.
Steve Seltzer, a Western art authenticator sued for his expert opinion on a painting's true authorship, won an $11.25 million jury verdict for malicious prosecution after Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher pursued him on behalf of a collector who could not find a single expert to support his position.
A Butte federal jury returned a $2.5 million verdict for the families of two women killed when a Patrol Helicopters fuel-truck driver failed to signal before turning on a Park County road, and the Ninth Circuit unanimously affirmed the award.
The Montana Supreme Court reversed a 50% contributory-negligence deduction and restored the full $969,797 jury verdict for the widow of welding supervisor Andre Woods, who was killed when a hy-rail vehicle traveled more than four miles past its authorized track warrant limits and collided with an oncoming train.
In a brain injury case (Vangsnes vs. North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, Inc. et al.) -- largest reported individual personal injury settlement in Montana history
In a Great Falls malicious prosecution case (Seltzer v. Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher)
In a Billings railroad crossing accident (Dorn v. BNSF)
Against the US government after a fire destroyed a ranch (Hughes v. USA)
In a Missoula brain injury claim (Ginn v. Smurfit Stone Container)
In a Great Falls auto accident (Bumgarner v. Farmers Union Mutual Insurance)
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.
