Superior, Colorado

Superior Ski Accident Lawyers, When None of the Case Is Local

Superior is one of the 10 incorporated municipalities in Boulder County, and it holds no designated trauma facility and no ski area. So a ski claim from here is assembled out of 3 places at once: a resort in one county, a hospital in another city, and a courthouse in a district nobody here lives in. The work is coordination, and it starts on day 1 or it starts late. We handle Colorado Ski Safety Act claims from our Denver office at 2701 Lawrence St., and we charge no fee unless we win.

No fee unless we win

Call (303) 209-9395 Get my free ski accident case review

It's More Than Money.

Our Denver Office CGH Injury Lawyers 2701 Lawrence St., Suite 201 Denver, CO 80205 (303) 209-9395 Se habla espanol

5-star rated on Google ABOTA trial advocate on the team Trial lawyers, not a settlement mill 8 attorneys, bilingual EN / ES

A statute written for skiing governs the injury before general negligence law is reached.
Lift injuries and injuries on a run travel under different provisions, damages included.
A release is a contract, and no contract excuses recklessness or gross negligence.
The deadline is 2 years either way, from a different statute depending on who is sued.
The consultation is free, and the fee is taken only out of a recovery.

That group appears at C.R.S. 33-44-103, in a definition drafted to take in a great deal. Weather that changes. Snow in each of its conditions, listed as ice, hard pack, powder, crust, slush, cut-up snow, and machine-made snow. What sits on and beneath the surface, meaning bare spots, forest growth, rocks, stumps, streambeds, cliffs, extreme terrain, and trees. Steepness that varies, whether nature produced it or slope design, snowmaking, and grooming did. Impact with lift towers, signs, posts, fences, hydrants, water pipes, and other man-made structures. An injury inside that group belongs to the skier.

The section then narrows itself twice, and the narrowing is where claims become possible. Inherent dangers and risks of skiing do not include the negligence of a ski area operator as set forth at C.R.S. 33-44-104(2). And nothing in the section limits an operator's liability for injury caused by the use or operation of ski lifts.

Since weak summaries of the Act are easy to come across, 1 point belongs early. The statute rests on the term "ski area" and on sliding downhill or jumping on snow or ice. It does not sort resorts by style of skiing, and it imposes no helmet requirement on a skier of any age.

Inherent dangers (no recovery)

Ice, hard pack, powder, crust, slush, cut-up snow, machine-made snow, and thin cover
The weather, and how much of a run it leaves visible
Terrain the mountain already held: rocks, stumps, streambeds, cliffs, forest growth, trees
Steepness that varies, by nature or through slope design, snowmaking, and grooming
Striking a lift tower, sign, post, fence, hydrant, or water pipe in its normal position

Operator negligence (recovery possible)

Lifts that malfunction, load badly, stop hard, drop riders, or injure at unload
Required signage that was gone, incorrect, or unreadable
Grooming or snowmaking equipment on an open trail without the statutory warning
Man-made obstacles inside a skiing area left unpadded or unmarked
Careless work by patrol, instructors, or other resort employees

Keep the first answer provisional. A lift tower collision looks inherent and moves to the second column outright if the padding the Act requires was missing from that tower. Somebody should ask before the file settles on a conclusion.

Speed, course, and lookout

A skier owes a duty to control speed and course at all times and to keep a proper lookout for other skiers and objects. Above that sits the primary duty on the person skiing downhill, the skier descending from above, to avoid collision with any person or object below them. Determining who was in which position drives most of these disputes.
Signs and closed trails

Posted information and warnings are binding, and a run posted as closed may not be skied. The statute presumes a skier saw and understood what was posted at base area lifts, on the tramways, and on the trails in use.
Starting and joining

Starting from a stopped position, or entering a trail from the side, brings a duty to avoid skiers already descending.
Devices for loose equipment

Skis and boards require a strap or comparable device capable of stopping the equipment after a release. Cross country skis are excluded.
Impairment, and leaving a collision

Using a lift or a trail while impaired by alcohol or a controlled substance is prohibited, and so is leaving the vicinity of an injury collision without giving a name and current address to a resort employee or a patroller. A departure to secure aid is allowed, provided the information follows.
What the current penalties actually say

The penalty subsection was revised and superseded reproductions remain easy to find, so the wording matters here. C.R.S. 33-44-109(12)(a) makes it a civil infraction, punishable by a fine of not more than $1,000, to violate the closed-trail provision, the impairment provision, or the provision on knowingly entering closed adjoining lands. C.R.S. 33-44-109(12)(b) makes leaving the scene of an injury collision a petty offense, a separate classification that sits outside that $1,000 group.
Comparative fault

Blame is then divided. C.R.S. 13-21-111 permits recovery only where the claimant's negligence was not as great as the negligence of the party sued, and reduces the award by the claimant's share. Once that share reaches half, recovery ends. Insurers understand exactly where that line sits, which explains the push for an early statement.

Colorado analyzes a release as a contract, so contract rules govern it. The terms have to be clear and unambiguous, and they cover only the conduct they identify. A clause directed at ordinary negligence covers ordinary negligence and nothing past it.

The exclusions do the work. Willful and wanton conduct, recklessness, and gross negligence sit outside any release. When a resort knew of a hazard and left it, passed on an inspection it owed, or ran equipment it knew to be defective, the document does not carry the weight placed on it.

Minors are covered separately. C.R.S. 13-22-107(3) permits a parent to release or waive a child's prospective negligence claim on the child's behalf, and subsection (4) provides that nothing in the section permits a parent to waive a child's claim for a willful and wanton act or omission, a reckless act or omission, or a grossly negligent act or omission.

The frequent misstep is reading the paperwork by itself and concluding there is nothing to pursue. Bring it in so it can be read against the facts.

Venue

What Superior does and does not have

Superior is 1 of the 10 incorporated municipalities Boulder County lists, alongside Boulder, Erie, Jamestown, Lafayette, Longmont, Louisville, Lyons, Nederland, and Ward. On the state health department's designated facility list there is no designated trauma facility in Superior, and there is no ski area within the town.

That leaves a ski claim with 3 separate locations from the first day, and they rarely overlap.

None of those 3 is in Superior. That is unremarkable and it is worth stating plainly, because the practical work of a claim from here is coordination across institutions that have no relationship to one another and no reason to talk.

Where the injury happened. A resort, in a mountain county, holding the lift logs, grooming records, incident reports, patrol notes, and any video.
Where the treatment happened. Usually more than 1 facility, each holding its own chart and releasing it on its own terms.
Where the case is heard. Venue generally follows the resort and the site of the injury, so the courthouse sits in the county where the crash occurred.

Trauma Care

The treatment side

The designated facilities in the neighboring Boulder County cities sit at 2 different levels.

Boulder County holds no Level I center, so an injury severe enough to require one leaves the county. A Level III facility receives, stabilizes, and transfers onward where the injury calls for more; a Level II has the surgical and specialty coverage for definitive care in major trauma.

Which of those a patient reaches is a clinical decision made at the time, based on the injury and the transport available, and it is not made by proximity to a house. So the honest answer to "where will they take me" is that it depends, and the useful consequence is that the starting point of a medical record is not predictable in advance. Establishing where someone actually went, and in what order, is the first records task in every one of these files.

Intermountain Health Good Samaritan Hospital in Lafayette and Foothills Hospital in Boulder are each designated Level II.
AdventHealth Avista Hospital in Louisville, and Longmont United Hospital and Longs Peak Hospital in Longmont, are each designated Level III.

Courthouse

The court side

Boulder County is the 20th Judicial District, which covers Boulder County alone. District matters go to the Boulder County Justice Center, 1777 6th Street in Boulder, with a second location at 1035 Kimbark Street in Longmont.

For a ski claim that courthouse comes into play only when the injury happened in Boulder County, which for practical purposes means Eldora, reached by driving through Boulder and up Boulder Canyon on SH-119 past Nederland. Every other common destination is outside the district. The resorts closest to the I-70 corridor are in Clear Creek County, part of the 5th Judicial District together with Eagle, Lake, and Summit counties.

Venue

Why the coordination is the job

Put the 3 locations together and the shape of the work is clear. Preservation demands have to reach a resort operator in a mountain county quickly, because lift maintenance logs, grooming records, and video are all subject to retention schedules that do not pause for an injured person. Medical records have to be requested facility by facility. Witnesses, who on a ski trip are often friends and family who scattered afterward, have to be located while they are still easy to reach. And the venue has to be identified correctly at the beginning, since it governs where suit is filed.

None of that is exotic. It is ordinary work, and it goes better when it starts in week 1 than in month 8, which is the practical argument for making a call early even when the injury still seems manageable.

Economic damages

Getting off the mountain, air transport included where it was necessary
Emergency treatment, surgery, and specialist care through discharge
Income lost during recovery, and earning capacity lost afterward
Physical and occupational rehabilitation
Treatment still to come, with a life care plan where the injury warrants one
Costs the household paid directly because of the injury

Non-economic damages

Pain and suffering following orthopedic, spinal, or head trauma
Permanent impairment, or physical function that does not return
Loss of enjoyment of life, the sport included
In a death case, funeral costs and the loss of companionship

The operator cap, and the lift exception inside it

A statute caps what a ski area operator pays. C.R.S. 33-44-113 sets a total ceiling of $1,000,000 present value, holds a derivative claim by another claimant to $250,000, and holds non-economic loss to $250,000. Four features of the section decide how it lands.

Injuries occurring to a passenger while riding on a passenger tramway are excluded from the cap by the statute's own terms, and that is why a chairlift case gets analyzed on its own footing.
The ceiling reaches operators only. A claim against the skier who caused a collision is not subject to it.
On good cause shown a court may award beyond the ceiling, confined to excess future lost earnings or excess future medical and other health-care costs, and only where the limit would work unfairly.
Neither the limits nor the exceptions to them are disclosed to the jury.

For a claim against a ski area operator or its employees, where the damage came from the maintenance, supervision, or operation of a passenger tramway or a ski area, C.R.S. 33-44-111 governs and requires the action to be brought within 2 years after the claim for relief arises. That section speaks to operators, so it does not reach a claim against another skier. There the period comes from C.R.S. 13-80-102(1)(a), the general 2-year limit on tort actions.

When the clock starts has its own provision. C.R.S. 13-80-108(1) provides that a cause of action accrues on the date both the injury and its cause are known or should have been known through reasonable diligence. In most ski crashes that is the day of the crash. The statute reads that way because some injuries, head and spine trauma in particular, declare themselves slowly. Waiting to learn how bad the damage is buys no extra time.

Fault gets measured on its own track. C.R.S. 13-21-111 permits recovery while the claimant's negligence stays under that of the party sued, cuts the award by the claimant's share, and ends recovery once the split is even. Insurers work toward that line, and the record that keeps a claimant clear of it comes from witnesses and documents gathered in the first few weeks.

Trial-Ready

Built for trial.

A file assembled as though a jury will read it carries a different value in negotiation.

The Statute

Ski claims run on their own rules.

Inherent risk, the duties in 33-44-109, the operator cap, and release language behave nothing like ordinary negligence.

Fast Evidence Action

Proof expires.

Lift maintenance logs, grooming records, incident reports, patrol notes, and signage conditions all change or disappear. Preservation demands go out early.

No Win, No Fee

No fee unless we win.

The consultation costs nothing and the fee comes from a recovery. Case costs are set out in the fee agreement before signing.

Local Reach

Three locations get worked at once.

The resort in a mountain county, the treating facilities across the Front Range, and the correct venue are handled in parallel instead of one after another.

Free consultation.

Describe what happened and get a direct answer about whether a claim exists, including when the answer is no.
Preservation.

Written demands reach the resort for lift logs, grooming records, incident reports, and video before retention windows close.
Investigation.

Witnesses are located, patrol and clinic records obtained, and where the mechanism of injury is contested an accident reconstruction expert is retained.
Medical picture.

Records come in from every facility involved, and in serious cases treating physicians and life care planners set out what recovery requires.
Demand and negotiation.

The claim is presented with its evidence attached.
Litigation where needed.

Where the offer falls short of the harm, suit is filed in the proper venue and the case is worked up for trial.

5-star rated on Google

I wish I could leave more than 5 stars!
Grace Macaluso, 5-star Google review

Is there a hospital in Superior?

No designated trauma facility appears in Superior on the state health department's list. Elsewhere in Boulder County, Intermountain Health Good Samaritan Hospital in Lafayette and Foothills Hospital in Boulder are designated Level II, and AdventHealth Avista in Louisville plus Longmont United and Longs Peak in Longmont are Level III.

Where would an ambulance take me?

That is a clinical decision made at the time, based on the injury and the transport available. It is not decided by which facility is closest to your house, which is why the starting point of a medical record is hard to predict in advance.

Which judicial district is Superior in?

The 20th, which covers Boulder County alone. District matters go to the Boulder County Justice Center, 1777 6th Street in Boulder, with a second location at 1035 Kimbark Street in Longmont.

Will my case be heard in Boulder?

Only if the injury happened in Boulder County, which in practice means Eldora, reached through Boulder Canyon on SH-119 past Nederland. Venue generally follows the resort and the place of injury, so a crash anywhere else is normally litigated where it happened.

Where are the I-70 resorts?

The ones closest to the metro are in Clear Creek County, which is in the 5th Judicial District along with Eagle, Lake, and Summit counties.

So how many places is my claim in?

Usually 3. The resort in a mountain county holds the incident evidence, the treating facilities hold the medical record, and the court sits wherever the injury happened. None of those is Superior, and the work of the claim is running all 3 at once.

What is the hurry if my injury seems manageable?

Evidence at a resort is on retention schedules that do not pause. Lift maintenance logs, grooming records, and video can be gone before anyone asks. Witnesses on a ski trip scatter. Starting in week 1 is a different job from starting in month 8.

Does the release on my pass end my claim?

Not on its own. Colorado reads a release as a contract, so it covers only the conduct it clearly describes. It cannot reach willful and wanton conduct, recklessness, or gross negligence, and under C.R.S. 13-22-107(4) a parent cannot waive a child's claim for conduct in those categories.

Another skier hit me. Is that just part of the sport?

Not in a claim between skiers. C.R.S. 33-44-109(1) provides that a skier-skier collision is neither an inherent risk nor a risk assumed in an action by one skier against another, and the statute puts the primary duty on the person skiing downhill, the skier coming from above, to avoid people and objects below them.

I was hurt on a chairlift. Is that treated differently?

It can be. C.R.S. 33-44-103 states that nothing in the inherent-risk definition limits an operator's liability for injury caused by the use or operation of ski lifts, and C.R.S. 33-44-113 excludes injuries occurring to a passenger while riding on a passenger tramway from the damages cap.

How long do I have?

2 years. Against a ski area operator or its employees the deadline comes from C.R.S. 33-44-111, and against another skier from C.R.S. 13-80-102(1)(a). The period generally starts once both the injury and its cause were known or reasonably should have been known.

Is there a cap on what I can recover?

Against a ski area operator, yes. C.R.S. 33-44-113 sets $1,000,000 present value overall, with $250,000 on derivative claims and on non-economic loss. Passenger tramway injuries are excluded, the cap does not apply to a claim against another skier, and a court may exceed it on good cause shown for excess future earnings or future medical costs.

Do I have to wear a helmet in Colorado?

The Ski Safety Act sets no helmet requirement at any age. Wearing one is sound practice, and it is not what decides whether a claim exists.

What if I was partly at fault?

Recovery remains available while your negligence stays below the other party's, with the award reduced by your share. At half or more, C.R.S. 13-21-111 ends recovery, which is why an early account of fault deserves testing.

What will this cost me?

Nothing up front. The consultation is free and the fee is taken from a recovery. How case costs are handled is set out in the fee agreement before you sign.

Superior

Practice Area

Firm

Get Help

It's More Than Money.

You were hurt on the mountain. We handle everything else.

Call (303) 209-9395 or request a free case review. No fee unless we win.

Call (303) 209-9395 Get my free ski accident case review

Prefer to read first? See how Colorado's Ski Safety Act works.

CGH Injury Lawyers · 2701 Lawrence St., Suite 201, Denver, CO 80205

Attorney Advertising. CGH Injury Lawyers.

Superior Ski Accident Lawyers, When None of the Case Is Local

What the Colorado Ski Safety Act does to a ski injury claim

The one question that decides most of the case

Inherent dangers (no recovery)

Operator negligence (recovery possible)

Claims against another skier under C.R.S. 33-44-109

Speed, course, and lookout

Signs and closed trails

Starting and joining

Devices for loose equipment

Impairment, and leaving a collision

What the current penalties actually say

Comparative fault

How much of a claim the release actually takes

A claim with 3 addresses, and none of them in town

What Superior does and does not have

The treatment side

The court side

Why the coordination is the job

What an injured Superior skier may be able to recover

Economic damages

Non-economic damages

The operator cap, and the lift exception inside it

Two years, from whichever statute fits the defendant

Why injured Superior skiers choose CGH Injury Lawyers

Built for trial.

Ski claims run on their own rules.

Proof expires.

No fee unless we win.

Three locations get worked at once.

How we handle a Superior ski accident case

Free consultation.

Preservation.

Investigation.

Medical picture.

Demand and negotiation.

Litigation where needed.

Superior ski accident, frequently asked questions

Related pages

You were hurt on the mountain. We handle everything else.