Roughly 120 restaurants line Pearl Street, and the Hill sits directly across from a large university campus, which gives Boulder a nightlife density that most Colorado cities do not have. Boulder County cases are heard at the Boulder County Combined Court on 6th Street, in the Twentieth Judicial District. CGH Injury Lawyers serves Boulder from our Denver office, with no fee unless we win.
No fee unless we winIt's More Than Money.
There are two claims hiding in most Boulder restaurant and bar injuries, and they run on different rules. One is against whoever caused the harm directly. The other is against the licensed venue that kept serving them, under Colorado's Dram Shop Act at C.R.S. 44-3-801.
They also run on different clocks. The claim against the venue must be filed within one year of the service itself (C.R.S. 44-3-801(3)(a)(II)), while the general injury deadline is two years (C.R.S. 13-80-102(1)(a)) and the motor vehicle deadline is three. Missing the short one does not affect the others, which is precisely why it gets missed.
Two things shape Boulder overservice cases. The pedestrian mall means most patrons leave on foot into a street full of other pedestrians, and the university means a meaningful share of the drinking population is under 21, which changes the legal test. CGH Injury Lawyers moves early in these cases, because video and point-of-sale records are usually the proof and they do not sit waiting to be collected.
Two different bodies of law are in play, depending on whether the harm came from a person the venue overserved or from the state of the premises itself.
One limit matters more than any other. Colorado does not allow the intoxicated person to sue the venue for their own injuries, because C.R.S. 44-3-801(3)(b) bars a claim by the person served or by their estate, guardian, or dependent.
A premises claim by an injured guest is not subject to that bar, which is why the two routes are pleaded differently. See our Boulder premises liability page for how those claims work.
Because C.R.S. 44-3-801(1) abolished the common law claim against vendors, the statute is not one route among several. It is the only route, and its requirements are strict.
Because the year is written into C.R.S. 44-3-801(3)(a)(II) itself, it behaves like a condition of the claim rather than a limitations period. The practical consequence is blunt. A claim that would have succeeded on the evidence fails on the calendar, and nothing about the merits changes that.
Hosts and licensees are not held to the same duty. Serving a visibly intoxicated adult exposes a licensee but generally not a private host. Where the drinker is under 21, C.R.S. 44-3-801(4) reaches the host too, and the adult's apparent sobriety is beside the point. Our statewide Colorado dram shop and restaurant injury page covers the statute in more depth.
The courthouse
Boulder cases arising in Boulder County are filed at the Boulder County Combined Court, 1777 6th Street, Boulder, CO 80302, in the Twentieth Judicial District. The court hears the case, decides the local rules, and the judges and, in practice, the defense firms and adjusters on the other side. The court's listed number is (303) 441-3750. Court details change, so we confirm the division and filing requirements for each case rather than working from a saved note.
Emergency and trauma care
Boulder Community Health Foothills Hospital: Boulder's trauma hospital sits at 4747 Arapahoe Avenue, minutes from the eastern dining corridor. Published trauma-level descriptions for this facility vary by source, so confirm the current designation with the hospital rather than relying on a secondary listing. Intermountain Health Good Samaritan Hospital, Lafayette: Corroborated as a Level II trauma center, reverified by the American College of Surgeons and designated by the state, and the closest Level II facility east of Boulder. Trauma designations in Colorado are made by the state health department, and hospitals are periodically redesignated and renamed. We confirm the current designation for each case rather than relying on an older listing.
Where Boulder drinking and dining concentrates
Pearl Street Mall: Four walkable blocks of pedestrian mall with more than 200 storefronts and roughly 120 restaurants. Because the mall is closed to cars, patrons leaving a venue at closing time are on foot, and the conflict point is where the mall meets the surrounding streets. University Hill: The Hill sits beside the University of Colorado campus and carries a dense, student-heavy bar and music-venue scene. Service to patrons under 21 is a live question here in a way it is not in most districts. The east Pearl and Arapahoe corridor: Newer taprooms and food halls east of the mall draw drivers rather than walkers, and they empty onto Arapahoe Avenue and 28th Street. The 29th Street and 28th Street retail area: Chain restaurants and bars near the retail district put departing patrons directly onto Boulder's busiest north-south arterial. We name districts here, not individual businesses. Whether any particular venue overserved anyone is a question of evidence in a specific case, not a general statement about a street. More on how we work in this city is on the Boulder injury page.
An overservice claim and a crash claim usually meet on the road between the venue and wherever the patron was going. These are the routes that matter here.
Enters the city as 28th Street and carries most traffic leaving Boulder for the metro.
Runs the length of the city past the Hill and the mall's western end.
The main east-west route past the hospital and the eastern dining corridor.
The fast link toward Longmont, and the route where impairment and speed combine badly.
The pattern in Boulder is consistent: patrons leave Pearl Street Mall and join U.S. 36, the Denver-Boulder Turnpike within minutes. Reconstructing that short window, rather than the whole evening, is usually what decides whether the venue is answerable.
Where a drunk driver is involved, the claim against the driver runs alongside the claim against the venue. Our Boulder DUI accident page explains that side.
If the injury was a fall rather than an overservice case, the evidence is different and so is the deadline. Our Boulder slip and fall page sets out that route.
The medical file is the damages case, and untreated weeks are read as uninjured weeks.
It fixes the date, the location and the account while everything is fresh.
If the night involved more than one licensee, the sequence of service is the whole question.
In Pearl Street Mall a meaningful share of any crowd will not be findable a week later.
Video and point-of-sale records are the proof, and both are on a deletion cycle.
A Boulder case moves through six stages. The first two are the ones that decide most cases, and they both happen in the first weeks.
CGH Injury Lawyers establishes who may be liable, what has to be proved and how much time is left. There is no fee for this stage and no commitment.
Written preservation demands go out and the liquor license is pulled to confirm which entity served. Delay here is usually irreversible, because footage is overwritten on a rolling cycle. The license check matters as much as the footage, since the business trading under a name is not always the entity that holds the license.
The transaction record, the footage and the accounts of staff and other patrons are put together to show the patron's visible condition at the point of service. Where an evening crossed several venues, the same exercise establishes which licensee served someone who was already showing it.
Records, imaging and wage evidence are collected as care progresses, with expert opinion on future treatment and earning capacity where it is needed. Consistent treatment is part of the proof, not just part of the recovery.
Every identified insurer receives a demand, including any separate liquor liability carrier. What is actually payable turns on each policy's terms and limits, and the first response is rarely the measure of what a claim is worth.
If negotiation does not produce a fair result, the case is filed at the Boulder County Combined Court in the Twentieth Judicial District. Managing Partner Kevin Cheney, a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates, leads the firm's trial work.
What can be recovered divides along a single line: losses with a receipt behind them, and losses without one. Each is subject to its own cap.
Two caps apply. Total liability in a dram shop action against the venue is capped by statute at $465,730 for claims accruing on or after January 1, 2026 and before January 1, 2028, under C.R.S. 44-3-801(3)(c) as certified by the Colorado Secretary of State. That figure is adjusted for inflation every two years.
Separately, non-economic damages in most Colorado civil actions are capped at $1.5 million for claims accruing on or after January 1, 2025, under C.R.S. 13-21-102.5(3)(a)(II). Economic losses are not capped by that section, and a recovery from the intoxicated person is not limited by the dram shop cap. Which caps apply, and to what, depends on the facts of the individual case.
Premises claims follow a different framework again, set out on our statewide premises liability page.
Where the same night involves a vehicle, the driver's own liability is handled in parallel. See our Boulder car accident page.
The response is documentary: till timing, footage, and the accounts of people who were present.
Multiple licensees can share responsibility, and establishing the sequence is routine investigative work.
C.R.S. 13-21-111 makes this financially significant, since damages fall with your share and stop entirely once it matches the defendant's.
The Premises Liability Act (C.R.S. 13-21-115) still holds a venue to the invitee standard for a paying customer.
There is usually more than one policy behind a venue. General liability is standard and liquor liability is common, but coverage is decided by the terms, exclusions and limits of each policy rather than by the certificate that records its existence.
The realistic picture in Boulder is layered: the venue's insurer, a liquor liability insurer, the drinker's motor insurer and your own uninsured or underinsured motorist cover. Mapping the layers early is what determines whether a serious loss is actually recoverable.
Related ground is covered on our statewide slip and fall page.
Separate from anything you file in court, a licensee answers to the bodies that grant its license. Colorado runs a two-tier system: a state licensing authority in the Department of Revenue, and a local licensing authority for the city or county where the venue sits.
The Boulder local authority is the one that reviews conduct at renewal; the state Liquor Enforcement Division deals with enforcement. Complaining to either is not a substitute for a claim, and it does not extend the one-year deadline by a single day.
Do it anyway. An agency record made close to the event is independent of both sides and can matter later. A report to the Boulder Police Department covers different ground and is worth making as well.
CGH Injury Lawyers is an eight-attorney Colorado firm founded in 2016, operating as Cheney Galluzzi & Howard, LLC d/b/a CGH Injury Lawyers. The practice is contingency-based, bilingual in English and Spanish, and run by trial attorneys rather than a settlement operation.
Managing Partner Kevin Cheney is a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates and serves as Treasurer of the Colorado Trial Lawyers Association. Timothy G. Tarr has been recognized by Best Lawyers from 2023 through 2026.
Tim Galluzzi and Nicole Greene have each been named Super Lawyers Rising Stars, Ms. Greene in 2025. Those are the awarding bodies and years as published, and we name no ranking without them.
Every case is handled by a licensed Colorado attorney. You can read more about the firm or look through our case results.
CGH Injury Lawyers has one office, at 2701 Lawrence St., Suite 201, Denver, CO 80205. We do not have a Boulder office, a Boulder mailing address or a separate Boulder phone number, and we will not tell you otherwise to look local. We travel to the Boulder County Combined Court and meet clients where it suits them.
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Yes, and it broadens the claim. Under C.R.S. 44-3-801(3)(a)(I) a licensee can be liable for willfully and knowingly serving a person under 21 whether or not that person appeared intoxicated. Visible intoxication is only required for the adult branch of the statute.
No. We work from a single Denver office at 2701 Lawrence St., Suite 201, Denver, CO 80205. We serve Boulder clients from there and appear at the Boulder County Combined Court on 6th Street. There is no Boulder office.
Only in a narrow situation. C.R.S. 44-3-801(4) makes a social host liable when they knowingly served alcohol to someone under 21, or knowingly gave a minor a place to drink. A host generally is not liable for an intoxicated adult guest.
It can be. The statute covers injury caused by an intoxicated person, not only injury caused by a vehicle. An assault or a fall caused by a patron the venue kept serving can fall inside it, depending on the facts.
It varies by venue, and many systems overwrite on a rolling cycle measured in weeks rather than months. We send preservation demands early because a request made after the footage has cycled is worth very little.
A premises liability claim generally runs two years under C.R.S. 13-80-102(1)(a). It is a different claim, under the Colorado Premises Liability Act at C.R.S. 13-21-115, with a different clock from the one-year dram shop deadline.
You have to prove the service was willful and knowing and that the patron was visibly intoxicated when served. Courts look at observable signs a reasonable person would notice. A blood alcohol figure taken later is supporting evidence, not proof of how the person looked at the bar.
More general answers are on our frequently asked questions page.
It's More Than Money.
If you were hurt by someone a Boulder venue kept serving, the clock started the night the alcohol was poured. A conversation with CGH Injury Lawyers costs nothing and there is no fee unless we win. Call (303) 209-9395 or request a free case review. You can also reach us through our contact page.
Prefer to read first? See how Colorado dram shop and premises liability law works.
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