Smith Oblander Meade & Mitcham, PC

06/29/2026

GREAT FALLS SCAM ALERT

We wanted to take a moment to share a scam that has recently hit Great Falls seniors. One couple has given us permission to share their story. A scammer called pretending to be their grandson. He said he was in Bozeman and had just been in a bad car accident. He said the police are holding him, and he was hoping they could talk to his attorney. He gave them a phone number to call.

Upon calling the 'attorney', the clients were informed that their grandson was in the holding room and that the attorney could keep him from being taken to jail if they could quickly post bond. The bond was $7,800. The 'attorney' told them that 1) their grandson could not answer his cellphone as he was being held, and 2) that their grandson had attorney-client confidentiality with him, and that he had promised not to tell his parents. He asked the clients to agree not to tell them either. When the clients agreed, the 'attorney' said he would find a bail bondsman in Great Falls and get back to them.

A little bit later, the 'attorney' called back and said he could not find a bail bondsman, but he knew one from Bozeman that he could send to meet them. He also told them that because their grandson was bloody from the car accident that they should give him a change of clothes to bring.

30 minutes later, the attorney called again. He said that the bail bondsman from Bozeman got stuck in Wolf Creek and cannot make it. He said that he could have them transfer money at Coinstar, but that because of the amount needed, they would have to do it in $900 segments.

Fearing for their grandson, the couple went to a Coinstar and proceeded to try and transfer the money. The first $900 worked. The second would not. They called the attorney again, who said they would have to try and do it through Western Union. He told them that Western Union may flag the transaction, and that they would need to send it to an individual in the Dominican Republic. He told them they needed to make up a story about a relative being stranded or it would not be accepted. Fortunately, Western Union flagged the transaction as fraud. After having a minute to breathe, the clients realized it may in fact be fraud. They called the scammer back, who then threatened to serve them with warrants and have them arrested. The clients hung up. They then called Bozeman law enforcement, who said the grandson had not been arrested that day. They then called their grandson, who answered. He was fine.

The clients reported the matter to the police, FBI, and Attorney General's Office. While they were fortunate that it was not the rest of the $7,800, they will probably never see the $900 again. It's a good reminder that scammers almost always have a call to urgency. They want to scare you and make something seem pressing. With developments in AI, they can often mimic people's voices. Be sure to keep an eye out for the following red flags:

• Pressure to act immediately
• Requests for secrecy from family members
• Demands for payment through Coinstar, cryptocurrency, gift cards, or wire transfers
• Requests to send money overseas
• Instructions to lie about the purpose of a transaction

The most 'clever' part of the scam was asking the clients to buy clothes. The scammer was never going to meet them in person, but it did give them a reason to think the situation was legitimate. Unfortunately, scammers keep getting better, but using the bullet points above will hopefully help others avoid this unfortunate sitaution.

A huge thank you to the clients who let us share their story! Feel free to share this story with others.

06/17/2025

Great reminder of how lucky we are to have a guy like Gregg Smith at our firm! Please support the cause if you can! https://www.krtv.com/big-brothers-big-sisters-of-central-mt-conducting-10k-raffle?fbclid=IwY2xjawK-XBVleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETFtaHZZcmtKNXlqRDA0Q1p0AR4WAbgw9VH_Jqaju1pX86a-lft_GIMp_9Z_T8DDL8L0Qo5QmPeAzJaKf0A3sg_aem_VocAVojc-7o4ufzqo2FSoQ

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Montana has helped countless children gain a valuable adult role model in their life as well as a friend.

05/07/2024

From our firm's Pickleball Extravaganza!

03/01/2024

Our own Matt Meade won the Robert Goff Pro Bono award this year. It is given out by the Cascade County Bar Association. This honor was bestowed on Matt for providing access to justice for individuals who, without his help, might not have had representation in the judicial system.

Easy pick--way to go, Matt!

01/30/2024

You’ve heard the expression: you get what you pay for? Well, based on some recent emails, we decided to offer the following to our friends.

A warning.

Over the years, we’ve had many inquiries from national, pre-paid legal plans. We recently got another one. Apparently an individual down in the Bozeman area was in some sort of construction dispute. He had joined one of these plans. You may have seen them; you pay a monthly fee for 'insurance' in case you need a lawyer. We declined this case, and they kept emailing us. Apparently, they are having a tough time finding a lawyer for their customer.

While these plans might sound great in theory, we thought you might want to see it from the lawyer's perspective. According to the email, the plan member is entitled to the following "benefits" (the following is a quote from the email):

“Legal Matter: Consumer Dispute
“Consumer Dispute Correspondence - $60.00 Paid in Full
“Description: Preparation of one Consumer Dispute Correspondence for the Member and/or Covered Family Member.”

So, if you are in a consumer dispute, the plan will pay $60.00 to a lawyer for the lawyer to write a letter to the other party. The Plan Administrator reached out to us on several occasions attempting to retain legal counsel on behalf of the plan member, offering these terms.

While we pride ourselves on having reasonable fees and fair billing practices, this is, frankly, a laughable amount. We cannot imagine any reputable law firm taking a case for such low amounts.

Let's use a hypothetical attorney fee of $200.00 per hour, which is low for most practitioners in Great Falls.

Assume I took this on, and agreed to write the letter for the client. Let’s also assume this is a very simple matter, nothing complex about it. I will have a phone call, probably at least 30 minutes, to understand the facts of the dispute. The client will email me the written documentation, which will take me at least 20 minutes to review. I'll spend, say, 60 minutes drafting a letter to the opposing party (assume this happens to fall into my exact area of expertise, so I don't even need to review the applicable statutes, let alone do research). I send a draft to the client for review, he or she makes some comments, and sends it back. I review the comments for 10 minutes, and send it to the opposing party. At this point, I have two hours into this project. At $200.00 an hour, that’s $400.00.

Yet this plan wants me to agree to do this for $60.00. Assuming I have plenty of work to do, even at a low rate for the market of $200.00/hour (and I do), why would I ever want to provide $400.00 of work for $60.00? That works out to $30.00/hour—you cannot find any trade professionals, let alone an attorney, at such a low rate. It would be hard to imagine any attorney being able to afford necessities like malpractice insurance, legal research services, and a support staff billing at such low rates. And why would an attorney want to take a $340.00 loss on his or her time so some third-party, pre-paid legal plan can charge you $30.00 a month, and make a profit on his or her reduced rate? Answer: They wouldn’t.

Who would?

Perhaps an attorney who did not have any work might be willing to do this. Who are the attorneys that don’t have any work? They are attorneys who have no experience and are trying to build a practice, or they are experienced attorneys who, for whatever reason, cannot make it in the marketplace. Is that who you want to represent you in a dispute with a construction company? Is that what you think you’re paying for when these companies advertise to you?

Here’s a better approach. Call us for a free consultation, and we’ll discuss the problem with you. If we cannot take it (whether due to lack of time, or lack of expertise), we will provide you with competent referrals. If we can take it, we will discuss fees. If they ask, we will always work with clients to give them an estimate of what their expenses will be for our initial investigation and letter. You will be working with someone YOU chose, and who knows what he or she is doing in the particular area, or we will refer you out.

Or you can spend $30 bucks a month for a lawyer who is willing to work for $30.00 per hour…

01/05/2024

We’re ready for the Griz National Championship game this weekend! Go Montana! 🐻🏈

P.S. If you’ve ever wondered why our logo is maroon and silver, it’s not a coincidence 😁😎.

07/17/2023

Firm trip to Our Lake on the Front Range! All of the attorneys who are very bold and brave went on the trip--the rest stayed home!

From the front, Gregg Smith and his lovely wife, Devan, Paralegal Amber Flesch, Paralegal Emilee Seibel, File Administrator, Megan Carper, and her husband Stephen.

04/29/2023

We’re very proud of our paralegal, Amber Flesch, who graduated Magna Cum Laude from University of Providence today!

02/24/2023

It’s starting to feel like Groundhog Day! Gregg Smith has just won another award, this time it’s the Edward C. Alexander award, which is presented to “An attorney who, by his or her professional conduct, commitment and activities, exemplified for fellow attorneys the epitome of professionalism.” Usually the award is given by a single nomination, but in Gregg’s case, over 10% of the county bar wrote to support his nomination (unbeknownst to Gregg). Be sure to give Gregg a pat on the back if you see him around town!