When your own insurer drags out, lowballs, or flatly denies a Denver claim it knows is valid, that is not just frustrating. In Colorado it can be its own lawsuit. We hold insurers accountable for bad-faith conduct. No fee unless we win.
No fee unless we winIt's More Than Money.
If a Denver insurer has delayed, denied, or underpaid a valid claim, Colorado law may let you recover more than the original benefit. CGH Injury Lawyers keeps a physical office in Denver's RiNo and Cole area, minutes from I-70 and Colfax Ave. We document the conduct, build the underlying claim to full value, and try the case in Denver District Court when an insurer refuses to be fair. You pay nothing unless we recover for you.
A Denver bad-faith case usually runs on two tracks. Knowing which one fits, and whether both do, is the first decision that shapes the value of your claim.
A Denver bad-faith case lives in Denver: the underlying injury was treated here, and if your insurer refuses to pay fairly, the lawsuit goes to Denver District Court. Here is the ground we work on.
Courthouse
Insurance and injury cases arising in Denver County, including bad-faith disputes that cannot be resolved through negotiation, are filed in Denver District Court, the 2nd Judicial District, with civil matters heard at 1437 Bannock St. (City and County Building). Denver civil procedure differs from suburban courts, and which firm is across the table matters. We handle Denver District Court cases directly from our Lawrence St. office.
Trauma Care
Most bad-faith claims start with an underlying injury the insurer should have paid for. After a serious Denver crash, critically injured patients are typically transported to Denver Health Medical Center, the region's Level I trauma center. Those records document your injuries and become the backbone of the benefit the insurer owed. Saint Joseph Hospital, Presbyterian/St. Luke's Medical Center, and Rose Medical Center also serve Denver injury victims. Getting every record from every treating facility is core to proving up the covered benefit.
Where It Starts
Bad faith most often surfaces in claims you file with your own insurer: uninsured and underinsured motorist claims after a crash on I-25, I-70, or Colfax Ave, plus health, disability, homeowner, and life claims. The insurer controls the timeline and the payout, and an unrepresented Denver policyholder rarely has the tools to push back without counsel.
A real Denver office, trial-ready attorneys, bilingual help, and no fee unless we win. We do not publish bad-faith settlement figures, because every claim file is different.
The Statute
For unreasonable delay or denial of a first-party claim, the statute allows recovery of attorney fees, court costs, and two times the covered benefit.
Real Denver Office
Our office at 2701 Lawrence St., Suite 201 is where your attorney works. Walk in, review your policy and the claim file, and meet your team.
The Standard
A delay or denial is unreasonable when the insurer acted without a reasonable basis. We test its stated reasons against what it actually knew.
Trial-Ready
Managing Partner Kevin Cheney is a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates and has tried over 25 cases to verdict. When attorneys are genuinely ready to try a case in Denver District Court, insurers respond differently to a demand.
Bilingual
Spanish-speaking staff and attorneys serve Denver's Spanish-speaking community.
No Win, No Fee
You pay nothing out of pocket for legal fees. We advance costs and collect only from a settlement or verdict.
A bad-faith claim has two moving parts: the underlying benefit the insurer should have paid, and its conduct in handling the claim. We develop both at once, because the strength of one drives the value of the other.
We read your policy and the claim correspondence, then tell you honestly whether the conduct looks like aggressive handling or actionable bad faith. This costs you nothing.
We gather the policy, the declarations page, every letter and email, and a timeline of the insurer's decisions. In litigation, the internal claim notes often tell the real story.
We document what the insurer actually owed, with medical records, bills, estimates, and a damages calculation, so the covered benefit is established beyond dispute.
We build the record that shows the delay or denial had no reasonable basis, the standard the statute uses (C.R.S. 10-3-1115(2)), measuring the insurer's choices against industry practice.
We send a documented demand that puts the statutory exposure on the table, including attorney fees and twice the covered benefit, which often shifts the negotiation.
If the insurer still will not be fair, we file in Denver District Court and present your case to a jury when full recovery requires it.
A bad-faith recovery is built to do more than make you whole on the original claim. The point is to make the insurer's unfair conduct cost more than simply paying what it owed.
Insurance companies defend bad-faith claims with a predictable set of arguments. Knowing what each one requires is how we keep a strong claim from being talked down.
This is the core fight. The statute turns on whether the insurer acted without a reasonable basis (C.R.S. 10-3-1115(2)). A genuine, documented coverage dispute can be a defense. A basis invented after the fact, or one that ignores the records in the file, is not. We test the insurer's reasons against what it actually knew and when.
Policies impose cooperation duties, and insurers lean on them to shift blame onto the policyholder. We distinguish real, material non-cooperation from ordinary requests, and from demands designed to create a paper trail of delay.
The statutory remedy in 10-3-1115 and 10-3-1116 protects first-party claimants, not people bringing a liability claim against an insured (C.R.S. 10-3-1115(1)(b)). We confirm which kind of claim you have, so we pursue the statutory path only where it applies and rely on common-law remedies where it does not.
I wish I could leave more than 5 stars!
Grace Macaluso, 5-star Google review
Bad-faith claims live and die on the record the insurer creates. The earlier you involve a lawyer, the more of it we can preserve.
It is when an insurer treats a valid claim unreasonably, by delaying, denying, or underpaying it without a reasonable basis. Colorado recognizes a common-law claim for breach of the insurer's duty of good faith and fair dealing, judged by reasonableness, and a statutory claim for unreasonable delay or denial of benefits under C.R.S. 10-3-1115 and 10-3-1116. Aggressive claims handling is not automatically bad faith. The dividing line is whether the insurer acted without a reasonable basis.
Under the statutory claim, a first-party claimant whose benefits were unreasonably delayed or denied may recover reasonable attorney fees and court costs and two times the covered benefit (C.R.S. 10-3-1116(1)). A common-law claim can reach broader harm, and punitive damages where the conduct meets Colorado's high standard. The actual value depends on the policy, the conduct, and the proof, so we do not put a number on a case before reviewing the file.
Common-law bad faith is a tort based on the duty of good faith and fair dealing, judged by whether the insurer acted reasonably. Statutory bad faith comes from C.R.S. 10-3-1115 and 10-3-1116, focuses on unreasonable delay or denial, and carries a defined remedy of attorney fees, court costs, and two times the covered benefit. The statute says its action is in addition to other claims available by statute or common law (C.R.S. 10-3-1116(4)), so when the facts support both, we often pursue both.
Often, yes. A UM/UIM claim is filed against your own auto insurer, which makes it a first-party claim. When a carrier unreasonably delays or denies a valid UM/UIM claim after a Denver crash, the statutory bad-faith remedy under C.R.S. 10-3-1115 and 10-3-1116 can come into play. We frequently develop a documented bad-faith record alongside a UM/UIM claim, because the exposure tends to move a carrier off a low number.
It can be. The statute prohibits unreasonably delaying payment of a claim for benefits, not just denying it (C.R.S. 10-3-1115(1)(a)). Some delay during a genuine investigation is normal. Stalling on a claim the insurer knows it owes, or going silent after a demand, is the kind of pattern that can support a claim. We review the timeline to see which side of the line your case falls on.
Insurance cases that arise in Denver County are filed in Denver District Court, the 2nd Judicial District, with civil matters heard at 1437 Bannock St. Most bad-faith claims resolve through a documented demand before a lawsuit is filed, but where a case would be filed affects the local rules and the jury pool. We handle Denver District Court cases directly from our Lawrence St. office.
It's More Than Money.
Free consultation. No fee unless we win. Available in English and Spanish.
Prefer to read first? See how Colorado's bad faith law works.
CGH Injury Lawyers · 2701 Lawrence St., Suite 201, Denver, CO 80205
