A job site can bring several companies together, and when a contractor's heater, torch, or line fails, a worker nearby can be badly burned. Workers' compensation may pay benefits, but it isn't necessarily the only claim. We look at whether another business shares the blame for a Lafayette burn, and we work on these cases from our Denver office.
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You showed up to do your job in Lafayette, and equipment another company brought to the site burned you. Now there's a workers' comp claim number, a stack of discharge instructions, and a supervisor asking for an incident report.
You may be wondering whether a Lafayette burn injury lawyer should look at what happened and what Colorado law allows when the company at fault isn't the one that signs your paycheck.
Questions can go straight to CGH Injury Lawyers by phone at (303) 209-9395. If typing is easier, our contact page takes a description of the incident.
Job-site, product, vehicle, and property burns each involve a different part of Colorado law.
Construction, maintenance, and industrial jobs can put crews from different employers side by side. Say an HVAC subcontractor leaves a pressurized line leaking near your work area, or a rental company delivers a heater with a damaged valve.
Against your own employer, workers' compensation is generally the only claim, and it may pay benefits (C.R.S. 8-41-102). Under C.R.S. 8-41-203(1)(a), an employee hurt through the negligence or wrong of someone "not in the same employ" may take workers' compensation and also pursue that other party for damages above the compensation available.
Picture two separate tracks. One is the workers' comp claim, handled with your employer's carrier, where benefits may be paid.
The other is a possible claim against the outside company, handled with that company and its own insurer. Each claim has its own paperwork. Keep copies of everything from both in one folder from the first week.
MedlinePlus lists electrical burns and chemical burns among the causes of burns. On a site where one trade is cutting, welding, or testing circuits while another is working nearby, those hazards can cross from one crew to the next. Picture a subcontractor's cleaning solvent left open beside a live panel, or a temporary power cord laid across a wet slab. Note whose crew set up the hazard and who was supposed to control it. Names, photos, and the incident report written that day help answer that later.
Industrial equipment is on MedlinePlus's list of burn causes. When a torch, generator, battery pack, or pressure vessel is designed or made badly, the manufacturer may be responsible. Negligence and strict liability are both theories a Colorado product claim can use (C.R.S. 13-21-401(2)). Strict liability asks two things about the equipment: was it defective, and did that defect cause the burn?
Some burns happen behind the wheel, on the way to a site or during a delivery. When another driver's negligence caused the collision, the burn can be part of a claim against that driver.
A burn from a building's condition, like an exposed electrical panel or a boiler room with no warning signs, brings in the Premises Liability Act (C.R.S. 13-21-115). The Act reaches anyone legally responsible for the property's condition, including a property owner who isn't your employer. The owner's duty turns on your status there, a question for the court.
Colorado law on a burn claim covers deadlines, property duties, shared fault, and damage limits.
Negligence and premises claims. These are tort claims, generally two years (C.R.S. 13-80-102(1)(a)).
Product claims. Strict liability claims generally fall under the same two-year rule (C.R.S. 13-80-102(1)(b)).
Motor vehicle claims. Tort claims arising out of the use or operation of a motor vehicle generally have three years (C.R.S. 13-80-101(1)(n)), except that a claim in strict liability over a defective part of the vehicle generally stays at two years (C.R.S. 13-80-101(1)(n)(II)).
When the clock starts. For both periods, a claim generally accrues once you knew, or through reasonable diligence should have known, about the injury and what caused it (C.R.S. 13-80-108(1)).
Public entities. A claim against a public entity or one of its employees on the job carries a separate written notice rule with a short deadline (C.R.S. 24-10-109(1)) and its own recovery limits (C.R.S. 24-10-114).
A child's claim may run under separate rules. Get your specific deadline confirmed by a lawyer.
A property owner's duty under C.R.S. 13-21-115 depends on your status as a trespasser, licensee, or invitee, and a judge makes that call from the facts. An invitee is on the land for business that matters to both sides, or because the owner signaled the public was expected or invited. That group gets the strongest protection: recovery for dangers the owner actually knew about or should have known about when the owner unreasonably failed to exercise reasonable care.
The Act counts a social guest as a licensee, and a licensee generally needs to show the owner actually knew of the danger (C.R.S. 13-21-115(4)(b)). Under C.R.S. 13-21-115(4)(c)(II), invitees face that same actual-knowledge requirement on land classified for property tax purposes as agricultural or vacant.
C.R.S. 13-21-111 keeps a negligence claim alive when your share of fault is less than the share of the party you're suing, and the damages shrink by your percentage. A share equal to or greater than theirs means the court enters judgment for the defendant.
On a job site, that argument can sound like "he wasn't wearing the right gloves." If a jury put 15 percent of the fault on you and 85 percent on the subcontractor, a damages award would be reduced by 15 percent.
In an injury case, the noneconomic damages limit is $1.5 million for claims arising on or after January 1, 2025. Pain and suffering, emotional stress, and impaired quality of life fall in that category. Separate rules apply to medical malpractice and wrongful death claims, and the limit is adjusted for inflation starting January 1, 2028.
Because the noneconomic limit applies to only some damages, lost wages and medical costs aren't limited by it (C.R.S. 13-21-102.5(3)). The section also states, at C.R.S. 13-21-102.5(5), that it doesn't limit compensatory damages for physical impairment or disfigurement. Lost grip strength in a burned hand may be the kind of physical impairment that provision covers.
Boulder County and its courts
Lafayette is one of the incorporated municipalities on Boulder County's list. Boulder County is the 20th Judicial District. The Colorado Judicial Branch places the Boulder County Combined Court at 1777 6th St., Boulder, CO 80302, and also lists a second county location, Boulder County Combined Court - Longmont. Where a lawsuit is filed depends on the facts.
The hospital
Good Samaritan Hospital, part of Intermountain Health, is at 200 Exempla Circle in Lafayette. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment's designated trauma facility list shows it as a Level II trauma facility. Records from your first visit onward help show how serious the burn was.
The fire department
The Lafayette Fire Department describes itself as a full-service, all-hazards response agency. It runs two fire stations and takes part in county-wide hazardous materials, wildland, and technical rescue programs. When a burn involves chemicals or equipment on a site, the department's response records may help establish what happened.
Where we are
Our office sits at 2701 Lawrence St., Suite 201, in Denver.
A case's value depends on the burn's depth and size, where it is on your body, and how it affects your working life, so we don't publish burn settlement figures.
CGH Injury Lawyers, formerly Cheney Galluzzi & Howard, was founded in Denver in 2016 and prepares each case as if it will be tried. Managing Partner Kevin Cheney is a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA).
If the facts or the law won't support a claim against an outside company, we'll tell you.
On a shared site, several companies may point at each other and at you. Our answer to fault arguments is fire origin analysis, maintenance records, and expert testimony.
Tradespeople with serious burns may face grafts, therapy, and a question about whether they can return to the same work. With burn surgeons, vocational experts, and medical economists, we build a Life Care Plan that puts those future costs in writing.
Llámenos en español al (303) 835-9177.
In the first days after a job-site burn, there's a clinic or hospital visit, an incident report, a call from the comp carrier, and a site that may be cleaned up or reopened before anyone outside your employer looks at it. Write things down while they're fresh.
Call 911 in an emergency. MedlinePlus states that "Major burns need urgent medical care."
Keep a copy of what you submit.
Note the names on trucks, trailers, equipment tags, and hard hats, and who was running the equipment involved.
Ask in writing that the torch, heater, line, or machine be kept as it is and not repaired or discarded before it can be inspected.
Get contact details for coworkers who saw it, and photograph the scene and your injuries if you can.
Our number is (303) 209-9395. Before you give a recorded statement to an insurance company, you can ask to talk with a lawyer first.
Which damages apply depends on the facts. A claim against an outside company can reach losses workers' compensation doesn't.
Scarring may be compensated as disfigurement. Under C.R.S. 13-21-102.5(5), the section doesn't limit compensatory damages for physical impairment or disfigurement.
When the responsible party is a public entity, statutory maximums apply to what can be recovered. The Secretary of State adjusts those figures every four years under C.R.S. 24-10-114.
An adjuster may treat the workers' comp file as the end of the story. A claim against a different company that caused the burn is a separate matter under section 8-41-203, with its own evidence and its own insurer.
An outside company's insurer may argue your employer or a coworker was really to blame. Those arguments call for evidence about who controlled the equipment and the area where the burn happened.
In a negligence claim, a share of fault assigned to you reduces your damages by your percentage, and it bars recovery only if your share is equal to or greater than the defendant's (C.R.S. 13-21-111).
Early numbers can leave out future surgery and the earnings you may lose. A Life Care Plan documents those costs.
On a job site with several contractors, more than one insurance policy can be involved. Write down the name of every company you remember from the day of the burn, even ones that seem unrelated.
Generally, yes. Colorado's three-year period covers tort claims arising out of the use or operation of a motor vehicle (C.R.S. 13-80-101(1)(n)). If your claim is instead a strict liability claim against the company that made a defective vehicle part, the two-year period generally still applies (C.R.S. 13-80-101(1)(n)(II), 13-80-102(1)(b)). Which one fits depends on who you're suing, so have a lawyer confirm it.
Lafayette is in Boulder County, which makes up the 20th Judicial District. The Judicial Branch lists the Boulder County Combined Court at 1777 6th St. in Boulder and a second county location in Longmont. Where a lawsuit is filed depends on the facts.
Pain and suffering is a noneconomic loss, and Colorado's $1.5 million cap on those losses applies for claims arising on or after January 1, 2025, other than medical malpractice and wrongful death claims, which follow different rules (C.R.S. 13-21-102.5). Scarring may be compensated as disfigurement. The statute keeps its cap off compensatory damages for physical impairment or disfigurement (C.R.S. 13-21-102.5(5)). The cap also doesn't reach medical bills or lost wages, since those are economic damages.
Not always. Against your employer, it is generally the only claim (C.R.S. 8-41-102). When a subcontractor or other company outside your employer caused the burn, you can generally take workers' compensation and also pursue that company for damages beyond what it provides (C.R.S. 8-41-203).
No. Our office is at 2701 Lawrence St., Suite 201, Denver, CO 80205. The phone number there is (303) 209-9395.
A written notice rule applies. Written notice must be filed within 182 days after you discover the injury when a public entity or one of its employees on the job may be responsible.
That applies even before you know everything about the claim, and missing the notice forever bars the claim (C.R.S. 24-10-109(1)). Claims against government bodies also have maximum recovery amounts, adjusted every four years by the Secretary of State (C.R.S. 24-10-114).
More than one limitation rule can apply to a claim against a public entity, so have a lawyer confirm the deadline.
In some situations. Colorado generally limits product liability claims against a seller that didn't make the product (C.R.S. 13-21-402).
Exceptions include a seller that knew about the defect and a principal distributor or seller when a court can't get jurisdiction over the manufacturer (C.R.S. 13-21-401(1), 13-21-402). The manufacturer is a possible defendant as well.
It may. The workers' compensation insurer may have a right to be repaid out of a recovery from the outside party that caused the burn (C.R.S. 8-41-203(1)(b)). The details of your case shape how that works, which makes it a good early question for a lawyer.
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It's More Than Money.
Tell us about the site, the companies on it, and how the burn happened. Call (303) 209-9395, or describe what happened on our contact page. We'll talk through the companies involved, what Colorado law may allow, and our candid view of the claim.
Learn more on our Lafayette personal injury lawyers page.
Related pages cover what a Colorado burn injury attorney does statewide and how our Denver burn injury lawyer team works. If a property condition or a crash was involved, see our Lafayette premises liability lawyer and Lafayette car accident lawyer pages.
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