ClickCease

IT'S MORE THAN MONEY.

Commerce City Brain Injury Lawyers Who Prove the Injury an Insurer Says Is Not There

A traumatic brain injury from a truck collision on I-270, a high-speed crash on Brighton Boulevard, or an impact near the Suncor refinery corridor can change a life permanently. Insurers attack TBI claims by pointing to a normal CT scan and calling the injury minor. We counter that with advanced imaging, neuropsychological testing, and the full force of Colorado law. Serving Commerce City and Adams County from our Denver office. No fee unless we win.

No fee unless we win
Get My Free Case Review How TBI Claims Work Here
Or speak with our team now (303) 209-9395

Tell us what happened

100% confidential. No fee unless we win.

5-star rated on Google ABOTA trial advocate on the team Built for trial No fee unless we win

Commerce City carries some of the heaviest freight traffic in Colorado. When a crash on I-270, Brighton Boulevard, or Vasquez Boulevard causes a traumatic brain injury, the medical and legal challenges are unlike any other personal injury claim. A normal CT scan does not mean a normal brain. We build the case the insurer hopes you never bring.

  • A traumatic brain injury is classified on the Glasgow Coma Scale from mild (GCS 13 to 15, often called a concussion) through moderate (GCS 9 to 12) to severe (GCS 3 to 8). A mild score does not mean a small case. Post-concussion syndrome affects an estimated 15 to 30 percent of people with a mild TBI and can persist for months or years.
  • Colorado caps non-economic damages such as pain and suffering at $1.5 million for claims accruing on or after January 1, 2025 (C.R.S. 13-21-102.5). Economic damages, including medical bills, lost income, and life-care plans, are never capped and often make up the majority of a serious TBI recovery. Compensation for physical impairment or disfigurement is also uncapped.
  • For Commerce City TBI cases involving a motor vehicle, Colorado gives you three years from the date of the crash to file a lawsuit (C.R.S. 13-80-101(1)(n)). If the crash involved a government vehicle or a road defect caused by a public entity, a written notice of claim must be filed within 182 days of discovering the injury (C.R.S. 24-10-109(1)). Do not wait.

CGH Injury Lawyers represents brain injury victims and their families in Commerce City and all of Adams County. We handle the medical proof, the insurance fight, and the trial in Adams County District Court when an insurer refuses to value the injury fairly. Free first consultation, and no fee unless we win.

Why these cases are harder

Why a Commerce City TBI claim is harder to prove than a broken bone

A fracture shows up on an X-ray. A brain injury often does not. That gap is exactly where insurance companies attack after high-speed freight crashes on I-270 or the Brighton Boulevard corridor. Adjusters argue that if the CT scan looks clear, the injury is not real. The truth is that many traumatic brain injuries are functional, not structural, and proving them takes a different kind of evidence than any other Commerce City personal injury case.

The negative-scan problem in Commerce City crash cases

Standard CT and MRI scans detect bleeding, fractures, and structural damage. They routinely miss the microscopic axonal tears that cause lasting symptoms after a mild or moderate TBI. After a Commerce City truck crash or a rear-end collision on Vasquez Boulevard, an adjuster may point to a normal hospital scan and offer a few thousand dollars for an injury that will affect you for years. We counter that with advanced imaging, neuropsychological testing, and the testimony of the people who knew you before the crash.

  • The speed and mass of commercial freight vehicles on I-270 and Brighton Boulevard make the forces involved in a Commerce City crash far greater than a typical urban fender-bender, which increases the severity and complexity of resulting TBI cases.
  • Cognitive symptoms, chronic headaches, memory problems, and mood changes are real, documented harms that a Commerce City jury can understand once the case is built correctly.
  • Brain injuries rarely happen in isolation after a serious Commerce City crash. A TBI may accompany spinal trauma, internal injuries, or fractures, and the correct legal pathway depends on all of it together.

TBI classifications

How doctors grade a traumatic brain injury and what that grade means for your Commerce City case

Medical teams classify a TBI using the Glasgow Coma Scale, a 15-point assessment of eye opening, verbal response, and motor response recorded within hours of the injury. That initial score becomes evidence in your Commerce City claim, but it describes day one, not the rest of your life.

  1. Mild TBI (GCS 13 to 15): the concussion Commerce City insurers undervalue

    A mild TBI involves brief loss of consciousness under 30 minutes, or confusion immediately after impact, with a GCS score of 13 to 15. After a Commerce City vehicle crash, the ER may discharge a patient within hours with a concussion diagnosis. Insurers use the word "mild" to justify low offers. For workers in Commerce City's distribution and manufacturing sectors whose jobs demand physical stamina and mental focus, even a mild TBI can mean weeks or months away from work, reduced earnings capacity, and ongoing treatment. Post-concussion syndrome affects an estimated 15 to 30 percent of people with a mild TBI and can produce chronic headaches, vertigo, mental fog, and emotional volatility for months or years after the initial injury.

  2. Moderate TBI (GCS 9 to 12): weeks of recovery and lasting effects

    A moderate TBI involves loss of consciousness lasting 30 minutes to 24 hours, often with abnormalities visible on a CT or MRI scan. Victims typically face cognitive deficits, personality changes, and physical impairments that require months of rehabilitation and ongoing therapy. After a Commerce City commercial truck collision, moderate TBI patients may be transported to HCA HealthONE North Suburban Medical Center, Adams County's Level II Trauma Center, where the initial acute care takes place. The records from that facility become the foundation of your damages case.

  3. Severe TBI (GCS 3 to 8): permanent disability and lifetime care needs

    A severe TBI involves extended unconsciousness or coma, often with skull fracture or brain bleeding. Survivors can face permanent disability affecting movement, speech, memory, and executive function. These cases require a life-care plan projecting decades of medical needs, including ongoing physician care, rehabilitative therapies, durable medical equipment, and attendant care. The forces involved in I-270 freight corridor crashes at highway speeds make severe TBI a real outcome when a commercial truck or tanker strikes a smaller vehicle.

Your GCS score is the starting point of your Commerce City TBI case, not the ceiling of your recovery. A mild TBI that ends a warehouse supervisor's ability to manage shifts, track inventory, or operate equipment may warrant more compensation than a moderate TBI in someone who recovers fully. What matters is how the injury changed your capacity to work and live.

Colorado law

Colorado statutes that shape your Commerce City brain injury case

A few Colorado rules quietly decide how much time you have, how fault affects your award, and which damages have limits. Here is what matters most for a TBI claim in Commerce City.

Filing deadline (C.R.S. 13-80-101)

For most Commerce City TBI cases that arise from a motor vehicle crash, Colorado gives you three years from the date of the accident to file a lawsuit (C.R.S. 13-80-101(1)(n)). That deadline sounds distant after a crash, but brain injury symptoms can emerge or deepen weeks or months later, and evidence such as intersection camera footage from the I-270 interchanges or Vasquez Boulevard is often overwritten within days. An attorney should be contacted within months of the crash, even while you are still treating.

If a government vehicle or a public-entity road defect caused your TBI, a separate and shorter deadline applies. Under C.R.S. 24-10-109(1), a written notice of claim must be filed within 182 days of discovering the injury. That clock runs from the date you discovered the injury, not necessarily the date of the crash. Miss it and the claim against the government entity is barred regardless of what the general three-year deadline says.

Comparative fault (C.R.S. 13-21-111)

Colorado follows a modified comparative negligence rule. You can recover damages even if you were partly at fault, as long as your share of the fault is less than 50 percent. Your award is reduced by your percentage of fault. For example, a person found 20 percent at fault recovers 80 percent of total damages. If you are found 50 percent or more at fault, you recover nothing. Trucking companies and their insurers invest heavily in shifting fault onto the injured driver after Commerce City freight corridor crashes. Early legal action preserves the crash scene evidence, black-box data, and witness statements that push back on those arguments.

Damage caps and what is not capped

  • Colorado caps non-economic damages such as pain and suffering at $1.5 million for TBI claims accruing on or after January 1, 2025, under C.R.S. 13-21-102.5. This cap applies to subjective losses, not to everything.
  • Economic damages, including all past and future medical bills, lost wages, lost earning capacity, and the full projection of a life-care plan, are never capped. In severe TBI cases, these figures often exceed the non-economic cap by a wide margin.
  • Compensation for physical impairment or disfigurement is also not capped under Colorado law. These two uncapped categories frequently carry the most value in serious Commerce City TBI cases.
  • If a driver caused the crash through willful and wanton conduct, such as driving drunk on I-270 or running a red light at highway speed, you may pursue punitive damages in addition to compensatory recovery.

Building your case

How we prove a traumatic brain injury in Commerce City when the scan looks normal

Insurers defend Commerce City TBI claims by arguing that a clean hospital scan means no injury. A winning TBI case is built in layers, combining objective medical testing with the human story of how the crash changed your life in Adams County and beyond.

  1. Neuropsychological testing

    A multi-hour battery that measures memory, attention, processing speed, executive function, and emotional regulation against age-matched norms. It produces objective data that directly answers an adjuster's claim that you seem fine. For Commerce City workers whose jobs require operating machinery, coordinating logistics, or driving commercial vehicles, this data shows exactly what the injury took from them and for how long.

  2. Advanced imaging: DTI and functional MRI

    Diffusion Tensor Imaging maps white-matter tracts and reveals microscopic axonal tears that standard CT and MRI scans miss. Functional MRI shows the brain working harder than normal to perform tasks that used to be automatic, which is direct evidence of injury when routine imaging looks normal. These tools are especially important after the high-speed, high-force collisions that occur on I-270 and the Brighton Boulevard tanker corridor.

  3. Life-care planning for severe TBI

    A life-care plan, prepared by a certified life-care planner or rehabilitation specialist, projects every medical expense from settlement through the victim's life expectancy. It covers physician care, rehabilitation therapies including physical, occupational, speech, and cognitive, prescription medications, durable medical equipment, home modifications, and attendant care or nursing services. Colorado's proximity to Craig Hospital in Englewood, one of the nation's top-ranked rehabilitation centers for brain and spinal cord injuries, provides a recognized benchmark for projecting necessary care costs in severe TBI cases originating from Commerce City crashes.

  4. Vocational expert testimony

    A vocational rehabilitation expert reviews your work history and post-injury capabilities to show which positions you can still perform and at what wage. In Commerce City's labor economy, which includes distribution center work, refinery-adjacent industrial roles, and transportation jobs, the gap between pre-injury and post-injury earning capacity can be substantial. These expert opinions translate medical limits into real economic loss that a jury can measure.

  5. Before-and-after evidence

    Coworkers, family members, and friends who knew you before the Commerce City crash testify to the change in your memory, personality, focus, and daily capacity. Day-in-the-life documentation shows the jury what the injury looks like outside the hospital chart. This combination of objective testing and personal witness evidence is how juries understand a TBI that no scan can see.

What to do now

Steps to protect your Commerce City brain injury claim from the moment the crash happens

The decisions made in the hours and days after a crash in Commerce City or Adams County shape the strength of your TBI case months later. Here is the path we walk with every client from the first call through resolution.

  1. Get emergency medical care and follow up

    After a serious Commerce City crash, HCA HealthONE North Suburban Medical Center, Adams County's Level II Trauma Center, provides definitive care for severe TBI and multiple trauma. UCHealth also operates a freestanding emergency room in Commerce City for less severe injuries. Even if initial tests look normal, follow up with a neurologist or your primary care physician and document every symptom, because TBI symptoms can worsen in the days and weeks after the collision.

  2. Preserve crash evidence before it disappears

    Intersection camera footage along I-270, Vasquez Boulevard, and Brighton Boulevard is often overwritten within 48 to 72 hours. Commercial truck event data recorders and electronic logging device records can be overwritten quickly after a freight vehicle is returned to service. Photograph everything at the scene, get witness contact information, and contact an attorney before the trucking company's rapid-response team erases or disputes the evidence.

  3. Watch the 182-day government notice deadline

    If a Commerce City or Adams County government vehicle, a CDOT road defect, or a public-entity failure contributed to your TBI, the Colorado Governmental Immunity Act requires a written notice of claim within 182 days of discovering the injury (C.R.S. 24-10-109(1)). Missing this deadline bars your claim against the government entity entirely. It runs from discovery of the injury, which may begin before you fully understand what happened, so contact an attorney early to protect it.

  4. Free case evaluation and evidence strategy

    We review the facts of your Commerce City crash, the police and accident reports, your injury records, and the fault picture, then explain honestly what your claim is worth and what we anticipate from the insurer. This costs nothing and obligates you to nothing.

  5. Build the medical proof and project the full cost

    We coordinate neuropsychological testing, advanced imaging, and treating-physician records to document what standard scans can miss. We then work with life-care planners and vocational economists to value the lifetime cost of care and the full impact on earning capacity, not just the bills you have now.

  6. Demand, negotiate, and file in Adams County District Court when needed

    We send a documented demand and negotiate from a position of genuine trial readiness. Most Commerce City TBI cases resolve before trial, but when an insurer refuses to value the injury fairly, we file in Adams County District Court at the Adams County Justice Center, 1100 Judicial Center Dr., Brighton, CO 80601, in the 17th Judicial District, and present your case to an Adams County jury.

Settling before you reach maximum medical improvement, the point at which your TBI has stabilized and doctors can predict the long-term prognosis, frequently leaves money on the table. Future complications, ongoing therapy needs, and reduced earning capacity often have not yet shown their full picture at the time of the first settlement offer. We tell you honestly where your Commerce City case stands at every stage.

Compensation

What you can recover after a Commerce City brain injury and how comparative fault affects your award

Colorado law allows a Commerce City TBI victim to pursue every category of loss the injury causes. The question is how fault is divided and which insurance sources apply to your specific crash.

Economic damages (never capped)

  • Emergency and trauma center care, including treatment at HCA HealthONE North Suburban Medical Center
  • Neurological, neuropsychological, and specialist treatment
  • Rehabilitation therapies: physical, occupational, speech, and cognitive
  • Lost wages and lost earning capacity
  • Future care costs projected in a life-care plan
  • Adaptive equipment, home modifications, and attendant care

Non-economic and family damages

  • Pain and suffering (capped at $1.5 million for claims accruing on or after January 1, 2025)
  • Emotional distress and post-traumatic stress
  • Loss of enjoyment of life
  • Permanent impairment and disfigurement (not capped)
  • Loss of consortium for a spouse or partner
  • The family's loss of companionship and household support

Comparative fault in Commerce City TBI cases

Colorado's modified comparative negligence rule (C.R.S. 13-21-111) allows you to recover as long as your share of fault is less than 50 percent. Your award is reduced by your percentage of fault. If you are 49 percent at fault, you recover 51 percent of the total damages. If you are found 50 percent or more at fault, you recover nothing. Trucking companies and their insurers work aggressively after Commerce City crash investigations to assign as much blame as possible to the injured driver. We preserve the evidence that proves what actually happened on I-270 or Brighton Boulevard and keeps your recovery intact.

Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage

Minimum auto insurance limits in Colorado are often far too low for a Commerce City TBI, where trauma care and long-term rehabilitation can reach six figures or more. If you carry uninsured or underinsured motorist (UM/UIM) coverage on your own auto policy, it may pay your medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering when the at-fault driver carries insufficient coverage. We identify every available insurance source at the start of every case, including commercial trucking policies, umbrella policies, and UM/UIM coverage, to reach the full recovery the law allows.

Local knowledge

Commerce City courts. Adams County trauma care. The corridors where brain injuries happen.

A Commerce City TBI case lives in Commerce City: the road where the crash happened, the hospital that treated the injury, and the courthouse where the case may be filed. Here is the ground we work on.

Courthouse

Adams County District Court, 17th Judicial District

A Commerce City brain injury lawsuit is filed in Adams County District Court at the Adams County Justice Center, 1100 Judicial Center Dr., Brighton, CO 80601, in the 17th Judicial District. The local jury pool, the defense firms you face, and the procedural rules in the 17th Judicial District all differ from Denver and other Front Range counties. CGH Injury Lawyers handles Adams County District Court TBI cases directly from our Denver office. CGH Injury Lawyers does not have a Commerce City office: we serve Adams County from Denver and file where your case belongs.

Trauma Care

HCA HealthONE North Suburban Medical Center (Level II Trauma Center) and UCHealth Commerce City ER

HCA HealthONE North Suburban Medical Center is the Level II Trauma Center designated by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment in Adams County. It is the facility where Commerce City TBI patients with serious injuries, including those caused by commercial truck collisions on I-270 or Brighton Boulevard, typically receive acute care. UCHealth also operates a freestanding emergency room in Commerce City for less severe presentations, though it does not carry a trauma designation. Records from both facilities document the scope of injury and form the foundation of the damages claim in Adams County District Court.

Where TBI-Causing Crashes Happen in Commerce City

I-270, Brighton Boulevard, Vasquez Boulevard, and U.S. Route 85

CDOT identifies I-270 as a high-crash corridor carrying more than 100,000 vehicles daily, with 8 to 17 percent of that count made up of freight trucks. The Brighton Boulevard corridor runs directly past the Suncor refinery, generating continuous tanker and heavy-haul traffic. Vasquez Boulevard handles 40,000 or more vehicles per day and includes the complex 8-way intersection at 60th Avenue that CDOT is actively redesigning due to its safety record. Event days at Dick's Sporting Goods Park at 6000 Victory Way push surges of unfamiliar drivers onto roads near I-270 interchanges. These are the roads where Commerce City's most severe TBI-causing crashes occur, and they are the roads where our evidence investigations begin.

I wish I could leave more than 5 stars!
Grace M., 5-star CGH Injury Lawyers client review

Your team

The team handling your Commerce City brain injury case

CGH Injury Lawyers is a eight-attorney Colorado firm founded in 2016, formerly Cheney Galluzzi and 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 Commerce City brain injury case is handled by a licensed Colorado attorney, not a paralegal. TBI cases require a team that understands both the medicine and the law, and that is prepared to try the case in Adams County District Court when an insurer will not be fair.

ABOTA member on the team Tim Tarr: Best Lawyers in America since 2023 Over 25 cases to verdict Adams County coverage Bilingual EN / ES Free consultation No fee unless we win

Frequently asked questions

Commerce City brain injury cases, frequently asked questions

Can I have a brain injury if my MRI was normal after a Commerce City crash?

Yes. Standard CT and MRI scans detect structural damage such as bleeding and fractures, but they regularly miss the microscopic axonal tears that cause lasting cognitive symptoms after a mild or moderate TBI. Colorado courts recognize that the absence of visible structural damage on a routine scan does not mean the absence of injury. Your Commerce City case may require advanced imaging such as Diffusion Tensor Imaging, neuropsychological testing, and specialist expert testimony to prove functional impairment despite a normal initial hospital scan.

How long do I have to file a brain injury lawsuit after a Commerce City crash?

For most Commerce City TBI cases involving a motor vehicle, Colorado gives you three years from the date of the crash to file a lawsuit (C.R.S. 13-80-101(1)(n)). If a government vehicle, a city road defect, or a public-entity failure contributed to your injury, a separate written notice of claim must be filed within 182 days of discovering the injury under the Colorado Governmental Immunity Act (C.R.S. 24-10-109(1)). Miss that shorter deadline and the claim against the government entity is permanently barred, even if the general three-year deadline has not run. Contact an attorney as soon as possible after the crash because evidence on Commerce City roads such as intersection camera footage can be overwritten within days.

Does Colorado cap what I can recover for a brain injury in Commerce City?

Colorado caps non-economic damages such as pain and suffering at $1.5 million for TBI claims accruing on or after January 1, 2025, under C.R.S. 13-21-102.5. Economic damages, including all medical bills, lost wages, lost earning capacity, and the full projection of a life-care plan, are never capped. Compensation for physical impairment or disfigurement is also not capped. In serious Commerce City TBI cases, the uncapped economic and impairment categories often represent the largest portion of the total recovery and can substantially exceed the non-economic cap.

What if I was partly at fault for the Commerce City crash that caused my brain injury?

Colorado follows a modified comparative negligence rule (C.R.S. 13-21-111). You can recover damages as long as your share of fault is less than 50 percent. Your award is reduced by your percentage of fault. For example, if you are found 30 percent at fault, you recover 70 percent of total damages. If you are found 50 percent or more at fault, you recover nothing. Trucking companies and commercial insurers investigate Commerce City crashes aggressively to push fault onto the injured driver. Early legal action to preserve crash-scene evidence and black-box data from the commercial vehicle is the most effective counter to those arguments.

Where would my Commerce City brain injury lawsuit be filed?

A brain injury lawsuit arising from a Commerce City crash is filed in Adams County District Court at the Adams County Justice Center, 1100 Judicial Center Dr., Brighton, CO 80601, in the 17th Judicial District. CGH Injury Lawyers handles Adams County District Court cases directly from our Denver office. CGH Injury Lawyers does not have a Commerce City office. Most cases resolve before a lawsuit is filed, but knowing where the case would be tried shapes how we negotiate with the at-fault insurer from day one.

What is post-concussion syndrome and does it affect my Commerce City TBI claim?

Post-concussion syndrome is a set of symptoms that linger for months or years after a mild TBI, affecting an estimated 15 to 30 percent of people who sustain one. Symptoms include chronic headaches, dizziness, mental fog, emotional volatility, and sleep disturbances. For Commerce City workers whose jobs require operating equipment, driving, managing logistics, or sustained mental focus, these symptoms can prevent them from performing essential job duties long after the initial ER visit. Post-concussion syndrome supports a claim for lost earning capacity and ongoing medical care in addition to the immediate injury costs, and it is a central argument we develop for mild-to-moderate TBI cases from Commerce City crashes.

Related Commerce City and Colorado injury cases we handle

Commerce City

Practice Areas

IT'S MORE THAN MONEY.

You suffered a brain injury. We handle everything else.

Free consultation. No fee unless we win. Serving Commerce City and Adams County from Denver.

Free brain injury case review

100% confidential. No fee unless we win.

(303) 209-9395

Read next: How Colorado brain injury law works statewide

CGH Injury Lawyers · Serving Commerce City and Adams County from 2701 Lawrence St., Suite 201, Denver, CO 80205