By Brennan D. Heuser, Partner
You have a personal injury case in Colorado when three things line up. Someone else caused the accident, and you can prove it. You were hurt. And there is insurance or another source of money to pay the claim. If one of the three is missing, even a serious crash may not lead to a case.
How badly you were hurt matters. So does how carelessly the other driver acted. Neither one is enough by itself. This guide walks through each element under Colorado law, along with two steps that protect a claim in the first days after an accident.
| What a claim needs | The question to ask | What helps show it |
|---|---|---|
| Fault | Did someone else cause this, and can I prove it? | Photos, witness names, the police report, video |
| Injury | Was I hurt, and what has it cost me? | Medical records, bills, proof of missed work |
| Coverage | Is there insurance or other money to pay the claim? | The other driver’s policy, your own UM/UIM coverage, a household member’s policy |
Who caused the accident, and can you prove it?
The first element is liability. Liability means legal responsibility for the accident. Another driver, person, or business has to have caused it, and you have to be able to show that with evidence.
In a Colorado civil case, you must prove your claim by a preponderance of the evidence (C.R.S. § 13-25-127). That means showing your account is more likely true than not.
Proof is where many claims run into trouble. Picture two drivers at an intersection who both say they had the green light. If it comes down to your word against theirs, with nothing else to back you up, proving fault gets hard.
That is why evidence from the scene matters so much. For example, photos of the vehicles and the intersection help. So do the names and phone numbers of witnesses, the police report, and video from a dash camera or a nearby business.
Related reading: How Do I Prove That I Was Not at Fault? and What to Do After a Car Accident That’s Not Your Fault.
What if the accident was partly your fault?
You can still recover in Colorado if you were partly at fault, as long as your share of the fault is smaller than the other side’s. Lawyers call this comparative negligence (C.R.S. § 13-21-111). The court reduces your award by your percentage of fault.
Say a jury decides you were 10 percent at fault because you were driving a little too fast. The court cuts your damages by 10 percent. In a crash between two drivers, if you are found 50 percent or more at fault, you recover nothing.
If more than two vehicles were involved, read Whose Insurance Pays in a Multi-Car Accident?
Related reading: Can I Still Pursue Compensation if I Was Partially at Fault? and Can I Seek Compensation if I Was Partially at Fault in Pueblo?
For a free legal consultation, call (719) 520-9909
Were you actually hurt?
The second element is an injury. A personal injury claim pays for harm to you. If a crash wrecks your car but leaves you unhurt, there is no personal injury claim, though you may still have a claim for the vehicle.
We hear from people whose cars rolled several times, and they walked away with a few scratches and no need for medical care. We are glad when that happens but it also means there is no injury claim to bring.
The reverse happens too. A car can show little damage while the person inside is hurt. Light damage to a vehicle does not rule out an injury, and your medical records are what show it.
What can you recover in Colorado?
Damages are the losses the law lets you recover. In Colorado, they fall into two groups. Economic damages have a bill or a pay stub behind them. Noneconomic damages cover harm that does not come with a receipt.
Economic damages. Medical bills are the largest part for many people. Lost wages count too. If a doctor limits how much you can lift and you cannot do your job, the pay you lose is part of your claim. How to Claim Lost Wages From a Car Accident explains what records help prove it.
Some of your bills may have been paid by your own health insurance. Colorado law keeps those payments, including the insurer’s discounts and write-offs, out of evidence at trial (C.R.S. § 10-1-135). The jury hears what your providers billed. The Colorado Supreme Court applied this rule in Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Crossgrove, 2012 CO 31. There are exceptions, and the details depend on who paid your bills.
Noneconomic damages. Colorado law describes these as pain and suffering, inconvenience, emotional stress, and impairment of the quality of life (C.R.S. § 13-21-102.5). They are harder to measure because no two people will value someone else’s pain exactly the same way, whether they are lawyers, judges, or jurors. Experience gives a lawyer a sense of the range, but every jury is different. Colorado law also limits noneconomic damages in most injury cases, and the limit depends on when the claim arose.
Related reading: How Is Pain and Suffering Valued After a Car Accident? and Billed vs. Paid: What It Means for Your Personal Injury Claim
Is there insurance or money to pay the claim?
The third element is a source of payment, usually insurance. This is often the hardest piece to pin down at the start of a case and, in our experience, the at-fault driver often has too little insurance or none at all.
A verdict is a court’s decision about what you are owed. Collecting it is a separate step. If the at-fault person has no insurance and nothing else to collect from, a verdict may never turn into money.
We have seen people with severe injuries, including paralysis, where a full search turned up no coverage to pursue. Those are hard conversations and they are also why the search for coverage starts early.
Where coverage can come from
Coverage often exists in places people do not think to check and part of a lawyer’s job is to look for every policy that might apply.
The other driver’s policy. The at-fault driver’s liability insurance is the first place to look.
Your own UM/UIM coverage. Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, often called UM/UIM, can pay when the other driver has no insurance or too little. In Colorado, an auto policy includes this coverage unless the named insured turned it down in writing (C.R.S. § 10-4-609). If no one signed a written rejection, you may have this coverage without knowing it.
A family member’s policy. Many auto policies cover resident relatives, meaning relatives who live in the same household. If you live with a parent or an adult child, their policy may apply but it depends on the policy’s wording.
The at-fault person’s assets. A lawyer can also check whether the person who caused the crash has assets to collect from.
Related reading: How Does Underinsured Motorist Coverage Work in Colorado Springs?
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Why the insurance company calls so soon
An insurance adjuster may call within days of a crash and offer to settle. That offer comes before anyone knows the full cost of your care. Once you sign a release, the claim is usually over, even if your injury turns out to be worse than it first seemed.
An insurer is a business, and its adjusters are measured on keeping payouts low. Settling before your bills are in and your treatment is done can leave both your economic and noneconomic losses undercounted. Talk with a lawyer before you give a recorded statement or sign anything.
Related reading: Should I Accept the Insurance Adjuster’s Offer? and Common Insurance Adjuster Tactics
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Should you see a doctor if you feel fine?
Yes. Get checked soon after a crash, even if you feel okay. We often hear from people who felt fine at the scene and started to hurt in the neck or back two or three days later. What feels like a sprain can turn out to be something more serious.
You cannot know how badly you are hurt without an exam. Getting care protects your health first. It also builds the medical record that shows what the crash did to you, and that record matters when it is time to value your claim.
Related reading: Can I Still Seek Compensation if Symptoms Don’t Show Up Right Away? and Should I See a Doctor Even if I Don’t Feel Hurt in Colorado?
Talk with us about your situation
If you are not sure whether you have a case, that is a normal place to start. Heuser & Heuser has served injured people in Colorado Springs, Pueblo, and Southern Colorado since 1996. We can look at the facts with you and tell you where your claim stands. A case review is free, and there is no fee unless we win.
Colorado sets deadlines for filing injury claims, and they differ by the type of claim. Reach out early. Read more in How Long Do I Have to File a Personal Injury Claim in Colorado?
Call our Colorado Springs office at (719) 520-9909 or our Pueblo office at (719) 543-9999, or contact us online. You can also learn more about our Colorado Springs car accident practice and our Pueblo personal injury practice.
This article is general information about Colorado law. It is not legal advice about your situation, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.
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