Kalispell attorney joins Attorney General race

Kalispell bankruptcy attorney Jim Cossitt has announced his candidacy for the position of Montana attorney general.

Cossitt has lived in and practiced law in Kalispell for 20 years, with a focus on assisting financially troubled consumers, small businesses and their creditors in resolving their financial problems, either by agreement or by legal proceedings. His legal experience spans over four decades in the areas of bankruptcy, insolvency, reorganization, workouts, secured transactions, commercial litigation and consumer finance and business law.

Cossitt is a Democrat and said in a press release he is running on Teddy Roosevelt’s Republican platform based on the “Three Cs” of the Square Deal: conservation of natural resources; control of corporations, and consumer protection. He said Roosevelt’s Square Deal in 1910 and his campaign 110 years later are based on the same goals of helping Montana citizens get a fair shake in the marketplace, leveling the playing field with fair laws, attacking predatory pricing, monopoly and oligopoly economic power and protecting consumers from being victims of these business practices.

Originally from central Iowa, Cossitt attended law school at the University of Iowa. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Iowa State in 1982 and his law degree from the University of Iowa in 1986. He started his career in bankruptcy law with the FDIC in central Iowa, liquidating banks during the agricultural and savings and loan problems in the mid – late 1980s, then served as a Chapter 7 trustee and was in private practice in central Iowa.

He has lived and practiced in Montana’s Flathead Valley since 1998. Cossitt is admitted to practice law in the state and federal courts of Montana, Colorado and Iowa, and is board-certified in both business and consumer bankruptcy law by the American Board of Certification.

Cossitt unsuccessfully challenged Rep. Frank Garner, R-Kalispell, for the House District 7 seat in 2018.

Cossitt joins other Democratic primary candidates Kimberly Dudik and Raph Graybill and Republican primary candidates Jon Bennion and Austin Knudsen for Montana attorney general. Current Republican Attorney General Tim Fox cannot run for re-election due to term limits, and is running for governor.