More than a few assorted Colorado laws are relevant to personal injury cases (Ryskamp, “Colorado Personal Injury Laws and Statutory Rules”). If you are engaged in a lawsuit or in the middle of an injury-connected insurance resolution, these rules can relate to your case.
Injury Lawsuit Time Limits
Colorado personal injury law has its own time limits for filing an injury-connected case in court. You have two years in Colorado to file a lawsuit subsequent to an injury. If you do not file your case inside of two years, you could be impeded from putting it on trial by any means. This time limit is identified as a statute of limitations because it is based on a state law or “statute”.
In many injury cases, this deadline of two years begins proceeding on the accident’s date or anything brought about your injury. In some cases, though, the wounded individual could not reveal immediately that injury was really endured. In these instances, the deadline of two years can proceed from the injury’s “discovery date” rather than the accident date.
Deadlines to File a Claim Against a City, County, or Colorado State Government
180 days to file an official claim. Two years to file a lawsuit.
COLORADO PERSONAL INJURY
In most injury cases, a wounded individual can request damages, just to have the person or business liable change and hold the wounded individual accountable for the accident – asserting fractional or complete fault. Colorado has a comparative fault rule that is relevant when a wounded individual actually does contribute to a little amount of lawful responsibility for an accident.
Colorado utilizes a “customized” comparative fault rule, which operates in this fashion: what if you are purchasing in a supermarket one day. You are not looking at where you are moving; therefore, you stumble on a damaged floor tile prior to you seeing it is present. It is ultimately decided that your proportion of the fault is ten percent, and that of the supermarket is ninety percent.
In these circumstances, Colorado’s customized comparative fault rule decreases your compensation award by ten percent. Therefore, if your overall compensation is $1,000 for the slip and fall accident, you would obtain $900, 0r $1,000 take away $100 that stands for ten percent of fault allocated to you. Providing your fault is below fifty percent, you can amass a decreased compensation amount; if your fault is computed at least fifty percent, though, you will be impeded from amassing something from any other at-fault participant.
Colorado personal injury courts are expected to use Colorado’s customized comparative fault rule in negligence cases. Do not be shocked, though, if an insurance adjuster brings up the likelihood of mutual fault throughout settlement concessions.
Car Insurance Laws
Ever since 2003, Colorado has been a “fault” insurance state. If you are hurt in a car accident in Colorado, you have numerous alternatives if you wish to request damages. These consist of filing a claim with an insurance company and/or filing a lawsuit in court. Colorado’s insurance and injury laws have a few integrated suppleness that you can utilize while bargaining for an insurance settlement.
“Strict” Liability for Dog Bite or Attack Cases
In most states, dog owners are safeguarded—partially – from injury accountability the initial time their dog hurts somebody if they had no cause to think the dog was unsafe. Th is is frequently termed a “one bite” rule. Though, a particular Colorado statute – Colo. Rev. Stat. § 13-21-124 – causes the owner to be “strictly liable”. This means despite the animal’s previous conduct, the dog owner is liable for a personal injury brought about by his or her dog.
Damage Caps
In injury cases, damage caps function to how much damages that a wounded individual can obtain. Some states utilize damage caps to restrict non-financial compensation, which consists of damages for “pain and suffering” and other complex-to-count destructive results of an injury. Colorado legally caps non-financial compensation in injury cases at $250,000, or $500,000 if “clear and convincing evidence” validates an upsurge is present. This law was ratified in 1986, and it permits modifications for price rises. Therefore, considering price rises, since 2014, the root non-financial compensation cap was near $540,000, and the “clear and convincing evidence” degree was about $1,080,000. You will locate this law at Colorado Statutes section 13-21-102.5.
