Bozeman Family Law Attorney

Most people who call us are not looking for a lawyer. They are looking for an answer to one specific question that has been keeping them up: whether they are going to lose the house, whether they are going to see their kids on weekends only, whether the business they built is about to be split in half.

We are here to provide you with real answers to these important questions. Our firm knows what Montana law actually says, what a Gallatin County judge is likely to do with facts like yours, and what it will take to get there.

Skyler Anderson leads family law for the firm. She came to law from a business background, and most of her work now involves divorces where a business, a ranch, or valuable real estate is at the heart of the issue.

Family law covers every legal question that comes out of a marriage ending, a child needing a parenting plan, or a family changing shape. In Gallatin County, that means dissolution, parenting plans, child support, adoption, and the agreements couples sign before and after they marry. All of it runs through the Eighteenth Judicial District Court.

Montana divides marital property equitably, which means fairly, not automatically in half. Under MCA § 40-4-202, a district court can apportion property belonging to either or both spouses, however and whenever it was acquired, and regardless of whose name is on the title. There is no 50/50 default here.

If you moved to Bozeman from California, Washington, Nevada, Idaho, or Arizona, you came from a community property state, and the rules you absorbed there do not apply to you anymore.

Two differences catch transplants off guard. First, there is no automatic even split, so a judge weighing the length of the marriage, each spouse’s earning capacity, and what each of you contributed can land well away from half. Second, and this is the bigger one, Montana’s statutes may include property that other states may not consider to be a part of the marital estate. Assets you owned before the marriage, an inheritance, a gift, and property acquired after you separated are all potentially a piece of the marital estate the court can divide.

That does not mean your premarital ranch or your grandmother’s cabin gets handed to your spouse. Montana courts do treat the source and timing of an asset as relevant. It means the protection is not automatic, and you have to make the argument. Our guide to how Montana courts divide marital property walks through it in more detail.

Montana law does not use the words custody and visitation. Title 40, Chapter 4, Part 2 of the Montana Code talks about a parenting plan and parenting time instead. A judge deciding your plan applies the best interest of the child factors in MCA § 40-4-212.

The change was not cosmetic. Custody sounds like a prize one parent wins. A parenting plan is a written schedule and a set of decision-making rules that both parents live under, covering the regular week, holidays, summers, travel, and how the two of you settle disputes without going back to court.

The statute lists the factors a judge weighs, including each child’s adjustment to home and school, continuity and stability of care, the mental and physical health of everyone involved, and any history of physical abuse or chemical dependency. Montana also starts from the presumption that frequent and continuing contact with both parents serves the child, unless the court finds after a hearing that contact would be harmful.

If you are searching for a custody lawyer, you are in the right place.

You need 90 days of Montana residence before a district court can dissolve your marriage, under MCA § 40-4-104. Montana is a pure no-fault state, so the only ground is that the marriage is irretrievably broken. After your spouse is served, a decree cannot be entered for 21 days.

Your case is heard in the Eighteenth Judicial District Court, which sits at the Gallatin County District Courthouse at 515 South 16th Avenue in Bozeman.

That 21-day figure is a floor, not a forecast. An uncontested dissolution where both of you agree on everything can finish in a couple of months. A contested case with a business to value, a house to appraise, and a parenting plan in dispute usually runs closer to nine to eighteen months. What drives the timeline is not the court. It is how far apart the two of you are.

If minor children are involved, they generally need to have lived in Montana for six months before a Montana court can decide parenting. That catches families who just moved to Bozeman, and it is worth checking early.

A recent result from our family law team

Dissolution, Missoula County. A long-term marriage with minor children and significant marital assets, where our client had been the primary earner throughout. The case resolved at mediation without litigation. Our client received more than half of the marital estate, kept the marital home and most of his retirement, and came away with a parenting plan giving him equal parenting time.

Every case turns on its own facts. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

If you own a business or significant real estate here, valuation is the case. Two honest appraisers can land hundreds of thousands of dollars apart on a closely held company or a property bought before the market moved, and that gap is the difference between a fair settlement and a bad one.

Bozeman produces a specific kind of divorce. Construction firms, outfitting and guiding operations, software companies, restaurants, and short-term rentals all show up in the marital estate, and none of them come with a clean number attached.

Real estate is the same problem in a different shape. A house bought in 2016 and a house bought in 2023 sit in completely different positions, and so do the people who own them. Second homes near Big Sky, land held with family, and property in Park or Madison County all add questions about how something gets valued, when it gets valued, and whether it should be sold at all.

This is the part of the practice Skyler built her career on. She handles high-asset dissolutions, joint business assets, and complex property division, and her results in those cases come from the financial records: the books, the accounts, and the valuations, worked through before anyone sits down to negotiate.

Contested high-asset dissolution, Flathead County. Our client, the wife, was facing a highly contentious divorce involving several marital businesses, multiple high-value real estate holdings, and a significant marital trust. After extensive financial analysis and focused settlement negotiation, she was awarded all of the marital businesses and kept the income-producing assets her long-term security depended on, without the cost and uncertainty of a trial.

Every case turns on its own facts. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

Family law is billed hourly, against a retainer you pay up front. It is not a contingency practice. No firm can quote you a flat price for a divorce before knowing whether your spouse is going to fight, because their behavior drives most of your bill. If a firm tries to, be wary.

To be direct about it, because the personal injury side of this firm works differently and we do not want that to confuse anyone: there is no “no fee unless we win” arrangement in family law. That structure does not exist in this area of practice, at this firm or any other.

What we can tell you is where the money goes. An uncontested dissolution with two parties on the same page is the lower-cost version. Costs climb when there is a business or property to value, because experts charge their own fees. They climb hardest in a contested parenting dispute that goes to a hearing.

Two things reliably lower the number: settling anything you can settle, even partially, and answering discovery on time. Clients who do both spend far less than clients who fight every point, and they often end up in a similar place.

At the consultation, tell us your budget. If your case does not need a lawyer, or does not need one for the whole thing, we will say so.

Skyler Anderson leads family law for the firm. She grew up on her family’s farm and ranch in Fairfield, Montana, graduated with honors in business marketing from the University of Montana, and negotiated corporate contracts in professional sports marketing before earning her law degree and an MBA, both from the University of Montana. Her practice now centers on divorces involving business assets, complex real estate, and high-asset property division.

→ Meet Skyler Anderson

Emily Rogers, Skyler’s paralegal, brings nearly ten years of family law experience, across dissolutions, parenting plans, child support, custody disputes, and post-decree matters.

Holloway & Hulling was founded in early 2023 by Nate Holloway and Nathan Hulling. Nate was voted best attorney in the Missoulian’s Best of Missoula in 2025. Holloway & Hulling was voted Missoula’s best law firm in 2026. Bozeman is the firm’s second office.

The Bozeman office serves Bozeman and all of Gallatin County, including Belgrade, Four Corners, Gallatin Gateway, Big Sky, Manhattan, and Three Forks. We also handle cases in Park County, including Livingston.

The firm’s original office is in Missoula, at 255 West Front Street, and the two offices share resources on larger cases.

There is no charge for it and no obligation after it. Call (406) 898-0550 or send us a short note about what is going on, and we will get you on Skyler’s calendar.