Thueson Law Office

The Thueson Law Office specializes in representing people who have been injured or who have had their rights infringed. It does not represent or defend corporate or government interests. The backgrounds of key personnel and the record we have achieved are summarized below.

Erik Thueson

Erik Thueson is the lead attorney. He has been a trial lawyer for almost 40 years. He has successfully tried a wide variety of cases, including trials based on railroad workplace injuries (FELA), automobile accidents, negligence, defective products, toxic chemicals, fraud, wrongful discharge, insurance bad faith and railroad misconduct.




Erik B. Thueson

Erik has been recognized in Best Lawyers in America for two decades. He has maintained an "AV" peer rating for skill and integrity in Martindale-Hubbell for three decades. His peers selected him to become a member of the American Board of Trial Lawyers. He is a past-President and Director of the Montana Trial Lawyers.

Erik graduated with honors from the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland in 1970. He served as an officer in the United States Marine Corps from 1970 to 1975. He graduated with high honors from the University of Montana School of Law in 1979. He was a member of the Montana Law Review. After graduation, he was a law clerk for the federal courts, assisting judges with research and opinions written for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. In 1980, he joined the Hoyt & Trieweiler Law Firm in Great Falls, Montana. He started his own firm in 1983.

Erik is a member of the Montana Trial Lawyers Association and the American Association for Justice. He has written articles in Trial, The Journal of the American Association for Justice and Clinics in Occupational and Environmental Medicine. Over the past two decades, he has lectured on a variety of legal topics.

Elayne Johnson

Elayne Johnson has been Erik's legal assistant and the office manager for over thirty years. She was born and raised in Dutton, Montana. Her organizational skills, work ethic, calm demeanor and constant cheerfulness have been indispensable. When clients need help or have questions, she is the first person they talk with. She gets things done.

What We Believe In

We are honored that so many Montanans have trusted us with their legal matters over the years and that in the vast majority of cases, we have achieved success for them. We attribute this to hard work, thorough preparation and a trained and dedicated legal staff. We believe that a commitment to justice and a "never-give-up attitude" are the hallmarks of every good trial lawyer.

We try more cases than all but a few lawyers in Montana. We believe this is necessary to protect our clients. Our opponents need to realize we will take them to the mat in front of a Montana jury if they do not deal fairly with our clients. A lawyer who does not have this mind set is like a sheriff in an old western town who is afraid to draw his six shooter on the bad guys. Sooner or later the bad guys figure this out and take over.

We cannot say enough about Montana juries. Our philosophy has been that if you appeal to people's goodness and sense of fairness, they will respond in kind. As the jury foreman in one of our recent cases wrote in the Great Falls Tribune:

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Jury Duty Rewards

When it came to jury duty, I had developed my own negative attitude about it. I would say, "Don't confuse me with the facts. I've already made up my mind."
Sure enough, I got my summons in the mail to appear. My significant other advised me to go in with an "open mind." So, as I walked up the stairs of the courthouse, I reminded myself of that. . . .

After listening to testimony for seven days, I learned what an excellent group I was part of. As we deliberated for four hours, I further discovered how each of us could communicate and express ourselves in a highly effective manner.

The judge (Sandefur), recorders, bailiff, attorneys, and clerks all handled themselves in a highly professional manner. I'm now refreshed with a reminder of one of our responsibilities of living in a democratic society, and that is to serve on jury duty. When the verdict was read and seeing how the plaintiff responded, I knew in my heart, as did the other jurors, that we made the right decision.

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This is how it should be.


Motivated by their own interests in money and power, however, many have been trying to do away with the citizen's right to a day in court before a jury. For our part, we have waged a battle against them both inside and outside the courtroom.


Inside the courtroom, our efforts are reflected in the decisions by the Montana Supreme Court in several of our cases. In White v. State3, the Court agreed with our position that every Montanan has a fundamental constitutional right to access the court for every injury to person, property or reputation. In Trankel v. State4, the Court agreed that the government of Montana cannot negligently injure servicemen and then claim that federal laws prevent soldiers from exercising their constitutional right to seek a remedy before a Montana jury. In Winslow v. MRL5, the Court agreed that railroad companies cannot harass and maliciously fire workers and then claim that federal labor laws take away the workers' rights to sue for compensatory and punitive damages. In Reidelbach v. Burlington Northern Railroad Co.6, the Court agreed that railroad companies cannot deprive workers of compensation for workplace injuries and then claim that federal laws immunize them from being sued for bad faith practices in adjusting claims.


Successful or not, we have strived to conduct ourselves in a manner that benefits our clients, our community and our fellow citizens.