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Broomfield, Colorado. CGH Injury Lawyers represents people with spinal cord injuries from crashes on US 36, Northwest Parkway, and I-25.
Broomfield, Colorado

Broomfield Spinal Cord Injury Lawyers Who Build Cases Sized to a Lifetime of Care

Paralyzed or seriously injured in a crash on US 36, Northwest Parkway, or any Broomfield corridor? The first insurance offer almost never reflects what 40 to 60 years of care actually costs. We build the case from the injury up, using life care planners, neurologists, and economists to put the real number on the table. Serving Broomfield County from our Denver office. No fee unless we win.

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Serving Broomfield from our Denver office CGH Injury Lawyers 2701 Lawrence St., Suite 201 Denver, CO 80205 (303) 209-9395 Se habla espanol
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  • A spinal cord injury suffered in a Broomfield crash on US 36, Northwest Parkway, or I-25 can carry lifetime care costs ranging from approximately $3 million for paraplegia to more than $6.2 million for a high cervical injury at age 25, based on the National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center's 2025 data sheet, in 2024 dollars. Colorado families should expect the higher end because of elevated healthcare costs, accessible housing demands, and Craig Hospital's Englewood location just south of Broomfield.
  • Colorado follows a modified comparative fault rule (C.R.S. 13-21-111). You can recover damages as long as your share of fault is less than 50 percent. If you are found 50 percent or more at fault, you recover nothing. Insurers on high-impact crashes routinely inflate the injured person's share of fault to cut or eliminate a payout.
  • General tort claims for a spinal cord injury carry a two-year deadline (C.R.S. 13-80-102). Motor vehicle crash claims carry a three-year deadline (C.R.S. 13-80-101(1)(n)). If a government entity or road defect contributed, written notice must reach the government within 182 days of the date you discovered the injury (C.R.S. 24-10-109(1)), not the date of the crash.

CGH Injury Lawyers represents people living with paraplegia and tetraplegia, and their families, throughout Broomfield County. We serve Broomfield from our Denver office at 2701 Lawrence St., Suite 201. We work with life care planners, neurologists, spinal specialists, and forensic economists to build a damages model that reflects decades of real cost. Free first consultation, no fee unless we win.

Medical framework

Injury level, ASIA grade, and why both drive the value of a Broomfield SCI claim

The spinal cord has four regions. Where the injury occurs decides what functions are lost and what lifetime care costs look like. Insurers use optimistic projections to justify low offers. We use verified injury-level data and ASIA grading to put the real number on the record.

  1. Cervical (C1 to C8): tetraplegia and the highest care costs

    Cervical injuries affect all four limbs. C1 through C4 injuries often require ventilator support and 24-hour attendant care. C5 through C8 allow progressively more arm and hand function, but even the lower cervical levels carry substantial long-term costs for equipment, attendant care, and home modifications. National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center data places high cervical lifetime care costs above $6.2 million at age 25 (2025 data sheet, in 2024 dollars). These are the injuries most likely to outrun any settlement that is accepted before a full life care plan is built.

  2. Thoracic (T1 to T12): paraplegia with intact arm function

    Thoracic injuries paralyze the legs while preserving arm and hand function. Upper thoracic injuries affect trunk stability and sitting balance; lower thoracic injuries preserve more trunk control. Most people with thoracic injuries can live independently with home modifications and adaptive equipment, but the lifetime cost for a power wheelchair replaced roughly every five years, vehicle conversion, and ongoing medical management still reaches well into the seven-figure range.

  3. Lumbar and sacral (L1 to S5): partial function, ongoing management

    Many people with lumbar or sacral injuries retain some leg movement and may walk with braces. Bowel and bladder dysfunction, medication, and periodic surgery remain ongoing costs. Lifetime totals are lower than cervical or thoracic injuries but still significant and routinely undervalued in early settlement offers.

  4. ASIA Impairment Scale: complete versus incomplete

    The ASIA scale grades injuries from A to E. ASIA A is a complete injury with no motor or sensory function below the neurological level. ASIA B through D are incomplete injuries with varying preserved sensation or movement. Incomplete injuries create a valuation problem because the extent of recovery often is not known for 12 to 18 months after the injury. Insurance companies exploit that uncertainty, offering settlements based on optimistic recovery projections that rarely hold. A sound life care plan accounts for the realistic plateau, not the best-case outcome.

Local knowledge

Broomfield courts. Broomfield trauma care. Broomfield corridors.

A Broomfield spinal cord injury case runs through Broomfield institutions: the courthouse where your lawsuit is filed, the trauma centers that stabilize you, and the high-speed corridors where these crashes happen. This is the ground we work on.

Courthouse

Broomfield Combined Courts, 17th Judicial District

Broomfield is Colorado's 64th county, a consolidated city-county incorporated on November 15, 2001. Personal injury lawsuits arising in Broomfield are filed in the Broomfield Combined Courts, which house the District Court, County Court, and Municipal Court under one roof at 17 Descombes Drive, Broomfield, CO 80020, within the 17th Judicial District. Spinal cord injury cases are large, complex claims with significant jury-pool considerations. CGH Injury Lawyers handles Broomfield Combined Court cases directly from our Denver office.

Trauma Care

Intermountain Health Good Samaritan Hospital and Intermountain Health Lutheran Hospital (both Level II) and Craig Hospital

Broomfield's seriously injured have access to two CDPHE-designated Level II Trauma Centers. Intermountain Health Good Samaritan Hospital has received recertification as a Level II Trauma Center from the American College of Surgeons. Intermountain Health Lutheran Hospital achieved its Level II designation from CDPHE in June 2021, upgraded from Level III. Both facilities are proximate to Broomfield's US 36 and I-25 corridors and stabilize acute spinal cord injuries. Craig Hospital in Englewood, one of the nation's top spinal cord rehabilitation centers, is roughly 30 minutes from Broomfield. Families seeking rehabilitation at Craig often face relocation costs and lost community support on top of the injury itself, all of which belong in a proper life care plan.

High-Risk Corridors

US 36, Northwest Parkway, SH 121 (Wadsworth Blvd), and I-25

Broomfield's road network concentrates high-speed traffic in ways that produce catastrophic injury crashes. US 36 (the Denver-Boulder Turnpike) is a high-speed commuter corridor where freezing drizzle has formed black ice before snow accumulation, with fatal crashes documented near the Church Ranch Boulevard exit. The Northwest Parkway is a 9.05-mile limited-access toll road with both termini in Broomfield and documented fatal and serious-injury crashes, including a road-rage incident at the southbound I-25 to E-470 ramp on April 8, 2024. SH 121 (Wadsworth Boulevard) and the 120th Avenue corridor are flagged in Broomfield's Transportation Plan as high-crash locations. High speeds, merging traffic, and large commercial vehicles on these corridors create the force necessary to produce cervical and thoracic spinal cord injuries.

Government Entity Notice

182-day CGIA notice requirement

When a road defect, failed signal, or dangerous condition maintained by a government entity contributed to a Broomfield spinal cord injury, the Colorado Governmental Immunity Act (C.R.S. 24-10-109(1)) requires written notice within 182 days of the date you discovered the injury. That clock is separate from and shorter than the standard lawsuit deadline. A crash on a government-maintained road near FlatIron Crossing, on US 36 near the Church Ranch Boulevard exit, or at a documented high-crash Broomfield intersection can trigger this requirement. Missing it forfeits your claim against the public entity entirely.

Colorado law and your recovery

What a Broomfield spinal cord injury victim can recover under Colorado law

Colorado law lets you pursue every category of loss caused by the at-fault party. For a spinal cord injury, the largest part of the claim is usually economic, and economic damages carry no cap. Understanding how the damages framework and comparative fault rule work together is critical before you consider any settlement.

Economic damages (no cap)

  • Medical bills: emergency surgery, ICU, acute rehab, follow-up care
  • Power wheelchair replaced roughly every five years
  • Attendant care, often 12 hours daily in the Denver metro, part of ongoing yearly expenses the National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center puts at $55,900 to $244,879 depending on injury level (2024 dollars)
  • Vehicle modification with hand controls and a lift, and accessible home modification
  • Supplies, medication, equipment maintenance, and ongoing therapy over decades
  • Lost wages, lost benefits, and permanently reduced earning capacity

Non-economic damages (pain and suffering capped; physical impairment and disfigurement uncapped)

  • Pain and suffering: capped at $1,500,000 for claims accruing on or after January 1, 2025 (C.R.S. 13-21-102.5)
  • Physical impairment and disfigurement: these categories are not capped under Colorado law, and in catastrophic spinal cord injury cases they are where much of the real value lives
  • Loss of enjoyment of life
  • Emotional distress
  • Loss of consortium for a spouse or family member

Comparative fault and the 50-percent bar

Colorado's modified comparative negligence rule (C.R.S. 13-21-111) means your recovery is reduced by your share of fault, and a finding of 50 percent or more at fault bars any recovery at all. Insurers who know a Broomfield crash produced a catastrophic injury have a powerful financial incentive to push fault toward 50 percent. Common tactics include claiming you were speeding, failed to brake, or missed an evasive maneuver. A life care plan that documents what the injury actually costs, paired with an accident reconstruction that counters the fault argument, is the combination that holds the claim together.

Insurance realities

Why early settlement offers fall short in Broomfield SCI cases

In the weeks after a catastrophic crash, when a Broomfield family is dealing with acute rehabilitation, a disrupted home, and a missing income, insurers present offers that sound substantial. Those offers almost always reflect a fraction of real lifetime cost, and once accepted a settlement is final.

Common insurer tactics in spinal cord injury cases

  • Offering a quick settlement before the ASIA grade is confirmed and before the recovery plateau is known, often 12 to 18 months away.
  • Using optimistic ASIA grade projections to argue the injury is incomplete and will substantially recover, lowering the lifetime cost calculation.
  • Disputing the need for quality-of-life equipment, arguing a less expensive manual wheelchair is sufficient when custom power seating is medically necessary to prevent pressure sores.
  • Arguing that family members can provide attendant care for free, ignoring that unpaid family caregivers give up income and cannot sustain 24-hour care indefinitely.
  • Inflating the injured person's share of fault under C.R.S. 13-21-111 to reduce or eliminate the payout, particularly in high-speed corridor crashes on US 36 or Northwest Parkway where speed is disputed.

A $1.5 million settlement may feel transformative, but for someone with C5 tetraplegia facing more than $4.5 million in lifetime care costs, it falls short by more than $3 million. Once the settlement is signed, there is no reopening it when funds run out years later. The purpose of a life care plan is to put the real 40-to-60-year number on the record before any settlement conversation begins.

After the crash

What to do after a spinal cord injury crash in Broomfield

The hours and days after a catastrophic crash shape both the medical outcome and the legal case. Family members who know these steps can protect a loved one's rights while medical care takes priority.

  1. Emergency care and stabilization

    Spinal cord injuries require immediate immobilization and trauma care. Intermountain Health Good Samaritan Hospital and Intermountain Health Lutheran Hospital, both Level II Trauma Centers designated by CDPHE, serve the Broomfield area and provide the acute stabilization that an SCI demands. The trauma records from the first hours are foundational evidence. Keep every record, every discharge summary, and every imaging report.

  2. Preserve the crash evidence

    Photograph the scene, the vehicles, and road conditions before anything is moved. On US 36, Northwest Parkway, and the I-25 corridor, CDOT cameras and toll-road systems may have captured the crash, and that footage is overwritten on a short cycle. We act quickly to preserve it. The Colorado Traffic Crash Report from the Broomfield Police Department or Colorado State Patrol is the first official record and a central piece of evidence in determining fault.

  3. Know your deadline and the 182-day notice rule

    Motor vehicle crash claims carry a three-year deadline (C.R.S. 13-80-101(1)(n)). If a Broomfield city road, a state highway surface, or a signal defect contributed to the crash, a written notice must reach the government entity within 182 days of the date you discovered the injury (C.R.S. 24-10-109(1)). Missing that notice eliminates the government-entity claim entirely. This is one of the most unforgiving deadlines in Colorado personal injury law.

  4. Do not give a recorded statement

    The at-fault driver's insurer will call quickly. In a catastrophic injury case, they may have already begun evaluating the claim before the family has had time to process what happened. Do not give a recorded statement and do not accept any offer before speaking with an attorney. A single statement can shift the comparative fault calculation under C.R.S. 13-21-111 and reduce recovery significantly.

  5. Call CGH Injury Lawyers

    We begin the liability investigation, preserve evidence, identify every insurance source, and assemble the life care planning team. Our attorneys handle direct communication with the insurer so the family can focus on rehabilitation. Call (303) 209-9395. No fee unless we win.

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Your team

The team handling your Broomfield spinal cord injury case

CGH Injury Lawyers is a Colorado firm founded in 2016, formerly Cheney Galluzzi & Howard. Managing Partner Kevin Cheney is a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA) and has tried over 25 cases to verdict. Timothy G. Tarr has been recognized by Best Lawyers every year since 2023. Every spinal cord injury case is handled by a licensed Colorado attorney working alongside the life care planners, neurologists, spinal specialists, and economists these cases require. We serve Broomfield from our Denver office, and we do not maintain a Broomfield office. CGH Injury Lawyers does not have a Broomfield office.

ABOTA member on the team Catastrophic-injury focus Works with life care planners Statewide Colorado coverage 17th Judicial District ready Bilingual EN / ES Free consultation No fee unless we win
Questions

Broomfield spinal cord injury, frequently asked questions

Where would my Broomfield spinal cord injury lawsuit be filed?

A spinal cord injury lawsuit arising from a Broomfield crash is filed in the Broomfield Combined Courts at 17 Descombes Drive, Broomfield, CO 80020, within the 17th Judicial District. Broomfield is Colorado's only consolidated city-county, so the Combined Courts handle district, county, and municipal matters in one building. Catastrophic injury cases like these involve significant jury-pool considerations and high-stakes damages arguments. CGH Injury Lawyers handles Broomfield Combined Court cases directly from our Denver office. We do not have a Broomfield office.

How long do I have to file a spinal cord injury claim in Broomfield?

If the injury came from a motor vehicle crash, the deadline is three years from the date of the crash (C.R.S. 13-80-101(1)(n)). For general tort claims, the deadline is two years (C.R.S. 13-80-102). If a government entity such as the City of Broomfield or CDOT contributed through a road defect or dangerous condition, a written notice of claim must reach the entity within 182 days of the date you discovered the injury (C.R.S. 24-10-109(1)). Missing that notice forfeits the government-entity claim entirely. Because multiple deadlines can run at the same time from different trigger dates, confirm yours with an attorney as soon as possible.

Does Colorado cap what a Broomfield SCI victim can recover?

Partially. Economic damages such as medical bills, future care costs, and lost wages are never capped. Non-economic damages such as pain and suffering are capped at $1,500,000 for claims accruing on or after January 1, 2025 (C.R.S. 13-21-102.5). Compensation for physical impairment and disfigurement is not capped at all under Colorado law. For a Broomfield spinal cord injury with permanent paralysis, the uncapped physical impairment category and the full economic claim together typically dwarf the non-economic cap, which is why a rigorous life care plan matters so much to the total recovery.

I was partly at fault in the Broomfield crash. Can I still recover?

Often yes. Colorado follows a modified comparative negligence rule (C.R.S. 13-21-111). If your share of fault is less than 50 percent, you can still recover damages, though your award is reduced by your percentage of fault. If you are found 49 percent at fault, for example, you recover 51 percent of your damages. If you are found 50 percent or more at fault, you recover nothing. In catastrophic injury cases where lifetime damages run into the millions, insurers have a large financial incentive to push fault allocation toward 50 percent. Accident reconstruction and a clear liability theory are essential to counter that effort.

What is a life care plan and why does it matter to a Broomfield SCI case?

A life care plan is a document built by certified planners, typically nurses or rehabilitation specialists, that projects every future medical and non-medical need across a person's remaining life expectancy. In a legal case it becomes the foundation for economic damages. For a Broomfield SCI case, that means projecting power wheelchair replacements, attendant care at Denver-metro rates, accessible home modifications, vehicle conversions, medication, and ongoing therapy over 40 to 60 years. Without a life care plan, the insurer's number looks like the only number. With one, the real cost is on the record.

CGH Injury Lawyers is in Denver. Can you handle my Broomfield spinal cord injury case?

Yes. CGH Injury Lawyers serves all of Broomfield County from our one office at 2701 Lawrence St., Suite 201, Denver, CO 80205. We do not maintain a Broomfield office, and we are straightforward about that. We file spinal cord injury cases in the Broomfield Combined Courts in the 17th Judicial District directly, and our licensed Colorado attorneys handle every case personally. Call (303) 209-9395 or submit your case online for a free review. No fee unless we win.

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CGH Injury Lawyers · 2701 Lawrence St., Suite 201, Denver, CO 80205 · Serving Broomfield County from Denver