Colorado Personal Injury Laws
How long you have to file, what happens when you were partly at fault, and how much a Colorado court can award for pain and suffering: the rules that decide most injury claims, with the statute each one comes from.
Checked September 26, 2026. HB24-1472 rewrote Colorado’s damages caps for claims accruing on or after January 1, 2025; the figures below are the current ones.
Filing Deadlines (Statutes of Limitations)
The deadline depends on how you were hurt and whom you are suing
Most injury claims: 2 years
C.R.S. § 13-80-102 is the catch-all for negligence and most personal-injury claims not covered by a more specific period. Two years from when the claim accrues.
Motor-vehicle claims: 3 years
C.R.S. § 13-80-101(1)(n) gives “all tort actions for bodily injury or property damage arising out of the use or operation of a motor vehicle” three years, not two. Strict-liability and failure-to-warn claims, such as a product-defect claim against a vehicle manufacturer, fall under different, shorter periods.
Wrongful death: 2 years from the death
C.R.S. § 13-80-102(1)(d) sets two years, and § 13-80-108(2) fixes accrual at the date of death, not the date of the underlying injury.
Medical malpractice: 2 years, 3-year outer limit
Two years from when the injury and its cause were known or should have been known (C.R.S. §§ 13-80-102.5, 13-80-108(1)). But no action may be brought more than three years after the act or omission, regardless of discovery, apart from narrow exceptions for concealment, a foreign object left in the body, and children under eight.
Claims against a city, county, school district or the State have a much shorter clock: written notice within 182 days of discovering the injury (C.R.S. § 24-10-109(1)), a jurisdictional prerequisite. A late notice “shall forever bar” the claim.
Partly at Fault? Colorado’s Modified Comparative Negligence Rule
Under C.R.S. § 13-21-111, your damages are reduced in proportion to your own share of the fault, unless your fault is equal to or greater than the defendant’s, in which case you recover nothing. In a case against one defendant, that is the familiar 50% bar: a plaintiff found 30% at fault recovers 70% of the damages; a plaintiff found 50% at fault recovers nothing.
The percentages are decided by the jury, or by the judge in a trial without one.
Damages Caps After HB24-1472
Economic damages such as medical bills and lost income are not capped; non-economic damages are
HB24-1472 took effect January 1, 2025. Figures published before then, including the $468,010 cap that still circulates online, are superseded for claims accruing on or after that date.
Non-economic damages: $1,500,000
C.R.S. § 13-21-102.5(3)(a)(II) caps non-economic damages at $1,500,000 for any action filed in 2025 or any claim accruing on or after January 1, 2025. The first inflation adjustment comes January 1, 2028, then every two years (§ 13-21-102.5(3)(c)(III.5)). The cap has never been adjusted annually. Pre-reform tiers, by accrual date: $366,250 (1998 to 2008), $468,010 (2008 to 2020), $613,760 (2020 to 2022), $642,180 (2022 to 2024) and $729,790 (2024).
Wrongful death: $2,125,000
C.R.S. § 13-21-203(1)(a) caps non-economic wrongful-death damages at $2,125,000 on the same trigger, with no cap at all where the death resulted from a felonious killing, and the same biennial adjustment from January 1, 2028 (§ 13-21-203.7). Claims against a public entity or employee are excluded and fall under the Governmental Immunity Act cap instead.
Medical malpractice: three per-patient figures
HB24-1472 also amended C.R.S. § 13-64-302. The total cap is now the greater of $1,000,000 or 125% of the wrongful-death non-economic cap in § 13-21-203(1)(b), per patient and aggregated across all defendants: not per provider, and no longer a flat $1,000,000. The non-economic sub-cap follows a fixed schedule by the date of the act or omission: $415,000 from January 1, 2024, $530,000 for 2026 to 2027, then $645,000, $760,000 and $875,000 in the following years, inflation-adjusted every two years from January 1, 2030. A new medical-malpractice wrongful-death cap runs $555,000 (2025 to 2026), $810,000 (2026 to 2027) and up to $1,575,000 (2029 to 2030) on the same schedule.
Government entities: $505,000 / $1,421,000
For claims accruing from January 1, 2026 through December 31, 2029, the Governmental Immunity Act cap under C.R.S. § 24-10-114 is $505,000 per person and $1,421,000 per occurrence, as certified by the Colorado Secretary of State. The $387,000 and $1,093,000 figures still quoted on many websites applied to claims accruing from 2018 to 2022; $424,000 and $1,195,000 applied from 2022 to 2026.
Four More Rules That Decide Colorado Injury Cases
Premises liability: three kinds of visitor
Under the Premises Liability Act, C.R.S. § 13-21-115, a trespasser recovers only for damages willfully or deliberately caused; a licensee for an unreasonable failure to exercise reasonable care regarding dangers the landowner actually knew about, or to warn of known dangers the landowner did not create; and an invitee for an unreasonable failure to exercise reasonable care against dangers the landowner knew or should have known about. Agricultural and vacant land carries a more restrictive standard.
Dog bites: strict liability for serious injury
C.R.S. § 13-21-124 makes an owner strictly liable for economic damages, whatever the dog’s history, where the victim suffers serious bodily injury or death as defined in § 18-1-901(3)(p); lesser injuries are judged under ordinary negligence. The statute excuses unlawful trespassers, clearly posted property, provoked dogs, police and military dogs, working hunting, herding, farm, ranch and predator-control dogs, and injuries to veterinary, grooming or shelter professionals acting in that role.
Seat belts: pain and suffering only
Under C.R.S. § 42-4-237(7), failure to wear a seat belt “shall be admissible to mitigate damages,” but that is “limited to awards for pain and suffering” and “shall not be used for limiting recovery of economic loss and medical payments.” It can reduce non-economic damages; it cannot touch medical bills or lost income.
Prejudgment interest: 9% a year
C.R.S. § 13-21-101 adds interest at 9% per year on personal-injury damages from the date the claim accrued, meaning the date of injury rather than the filing date, compounding annually from the date suit was filed.
What an Injury Award Is Made Of
A Colorado injury award has up to three parts. Economic damages repay measurable losses: medical expenses, future medical costs, lost wages, lost earning capacity and property damage; they are not capped. Non-economic damages compensate pain and suffering, emotional distress and loss of enjoyment of life, and are subject to the caps above. Exemplary (punitive) damages are available only in limited cases involving fraud, malice, or willful and wanton conduct, and must be proved by clear and convincing evidence.
Colorado Personal Injury Law at a Glance
| Rule | Detail | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Negligence and most injury claims | 2 years | C.R.S. § 13-80-102 |
| Motor-vehicle injury or property damage | 3 years | C.R.S. § 13-80-101(1)(n) |
| Wrongful death | 2 years from the date of death | C.R.S. §§ 13-80-102(1)(d), 13-80-108(2) |
| Medical malpractice | 2 years from discovery; 3 years from the act at most | C.R.S. §§ 13-80-102.5, 13-80-108(1) |
| Notice to a government entity | 182 days from discovery of the injury | C.R.S. § 24-10-109 |
| Comparative fault bar | No recovery if your fault equals or exceeds the defendant’s | C.R.S. § 13-21-111 |
| Non-economic damages cap | $1,500,000 for claims accruing on or after Jan. 1, 2025 | C.R.S. § 13-21-102.5(3)(a)(II) |
| Wrongful-death cap (non-medical) | $2,125,000; no cap for a felonious killing | C.R.S. § 13-21-203(1)(a) |
| Medical-malpractice non-economic sub-cap | $530,000 per patient for acts in 2026 | C.R.S. § 13-64-302(1)(c)(I) |
| Medical-malpractice wrongful-death cap | $810,000 per patient for acts in 2026 | C.R.S. § 13-64-302(1)(b) |
| Government-entity cap | $505,000 per person / $1,421,000 per occurrence, claims accruing 2026–2029 | C.R.S. § 24-10-114 |
| Prejudgment interest | 9% per year from the date of injury | C.R.S. § 13-21-101 |
What Changed Recently, and What Changes Next
The cap figures move on fixed dates, not every year
January 1, 2025
HB24-1472 took effect: the non-economic cap rose to $1,500,000 and the wrongful-death cap to $2,125,000 for any action filed in 2025 or any claim accruing on or after that date, and the medical-malpractice caps were restructured.
January 1, 2026
Governmental Immunity Act caps stepped up to $505,000 per person and $1,421,000 per occurrence for claims accruing through December 31, 2029; the medical-malpractice non-economic sub-cap moved to $530,000 and its wrongful-death cap to $810,000.
January 1, 2028
First inflation adjustment of the $1,500,000 and $2,125,000 caps, then every two years (C.R.S. §§ 13-21-102.5(3)(c)(III.5), 13-21-203.7). These caps are never adjusted annually.
January 1, 2030
The medical-malpractice schedule ends at $875,000 (non-economic) and $1,575,000 (wrongful death) for 2029 to 2030; those figures are then adjusted for inflation every two years.
Colorado Personal Injury Law FAQs
Short answers, with the statute each one rests on
Related Pages
This page is general information about Colorado law, not legal advice for your situation, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. The facts here were checked on September 26, 2026.
Injured in Colorado?
The deadlines above are not flexible. Talk to us about your claim early.