IT'S MORE THAN MONEY.
A disability check that suddenly stops, or a business claim that sits unpaid while the bills pile up, can shake your whole year. Colorado holds insurers to a duty of good faith toward the people they cover. Call (303) 209-9395 to talk through what your insurer has done.
No fee unless we winGreenwood Village, Arapahoe County
CGH Injury Lawyers represents Greenwood Village residents against insurers that deny, delay, or underpay claims without a reasonable basis. Your first conversation with us is free, and we do not get paid unless we win.
Your disability benefits were cut off after one short review, or your office sat closed for weeks, and the business interruption claim is still “pending.” A Greenwood Village bad faith insurance lawyer can compare what your policy promised with what the insurer actually did and tell you whether Colorado law gives you a claim.
We’re CGH Injury Lawyers, a Denver firm founded in 2016 under the name Cheney Galluzzi & Howard. Reach us at (303) 209-9395, or describe the problem on our contact page.
This page provides content for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Reading this page does not create an attorney-client relationship. Laws vary by jurisdiction and change frequently. Always consult a licensed attorney for advice specific to your situation.
Your company paid for coverage so a fire, a break-in, or a burst sprinkler line wouldn’t sink the quarter. Instead, the adjuster keeps asking for another month of financials, and the payment never comes.
Individual policies can stall the same way. Long-term disability payments can end after a file review, a health plan can refuse a procedure your doctor ordered, and an auto carrier can refuse to pay on your coverage after a crash.
Under the statute, the question in each case is whether the insurer had a reasonable basis for its decision at the time it made it.
Colorado law allows a policyholder to bring a statutory claim, a common-law claim, or both. The pattern jury instructions describe the statutory version as “in addition to and separate from” the common-law one, so pursuing one doesn’t give up the other.
| Question | Statutory (C.R.S. 10-3-1115 and 10-3-1116) | Common law |
|---|---|---|
| Core showing | Benefits were delayed or denied without a reasonable basis. | The insurer acted unreasonably and knew it, or recklessly disregarded the fact. |
| Leading authority | The insurance code, as explained in the jury instructions | Travelers Insurance Co. v. Savio (Colo. 1985) |
| Burden on you | Lighter | Heavier |
| Remedy | The right to seek two times the covered benefit, plus reasonable attorney fees and court costs | Actual damages, and in some cases punitive damages |
C.R.S. 10-3-1115 protects “any first-party claimant,” meaning a person or business claiming benefits owed under a policy. An insurer violates it by delaying or denying a covered benefit without a reasonable basis.
The protection doesn’t reach someone who is claiming against another person’s liability coverage. Among its other limits, it doesn’t apply to workers’ compensation, title insurance, or life insurance issued under Article 7 of Title 10.
The Savio court required proof of unreasonable conduct and proof that the insurer knew its conduct was unreasonable or acted in reckless disregard of that. The statutory claim drops the knowledge requirement, which makes the common-law claim the tougher of the two.
Greenwood Village is one of the 13 cities and towns Arapahoe County lists as its own. That puts it in the 18th Judicial District.
District court
The Arapahoe County Justice Center houses the county’s district court at 7325 S. Potomac Street, Centennial, CO 80112. Where your case is filed still depends on the facts, for example, the places the insurer conducts business and where you live.
Medical records
The state’s designated trauma facility list shows that there is no trauma facility in Greenwood Village itself. In Arapahoe County, the list includes HCA HealthONE Swedish in Englewood at Level I and AdventHealth Littleton in Littleton at Level II, and records from any hospital that treated you can help show what care was needed when an insurer questions a bill.
Fire and rescue records
South Metro Fire Rescue names Greenwood Village among the cities it serves. Its records request page takes both medical and non-medical requests, which is one way to obtain the incident paperwork an insurer may want after a fire.
Claims that can end in a dispute here include:
Every case is prepared as if it will be tried.
Our managing partner, Kevin Cheney, is a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates.
Call our Spanish line at (303) 835-9177.
We’re at 2701 Lawrence St., Suite 201, Denver, CO 80205.
We start with your policy, every piece of correspondence, and a timeline of the claim.
The facts point to the common-law claim, the statutory claim under C.R.S. 10-3-1116, or both.
The insurer receives a written demand setting out the claim.
Claims-file materials and supporting documents come next, with outside expert input where it helps.
For a Greenwood Village case, the proper venue is the district court for Arapahoe County, located at the Arapahoe County Justice Center, but the venue is confirmed first.
We seek the underlying benefit, statutory damages, and attorney fees where they apply.
Every case is different, and value talk starts after we’ve read the file. These categories come straight from Colorado’s statute and jury instructions.
Under C.R.S. 10-3-1116(1), a first-party claimant whose claim was unreasonably delayed or denied may sue in district court to recover twice the covered benefit plus reasonable attorney fees and court costs. Paying an unreasonably delayed benefit before judgment doesn’t lower the two-times amount, according to a note in the jury instructions.
A jury weighing common-law bad faith may consider:
Punitive damages. These may be available in some cases. The jury instruction notes are clear that a bad faith finding alone isn’t enough.
For a health or disability policy issued in Colorado, two more rules matter. A clause reserving discretion to the insurer is void (C.R.S. 10-3-1116(2)), and after you exhaust administrative remedies on a denied health, life, or disability claim under a policy issued in Colorado, you’re entitled to de novo court review and a jury trial (C.R.S. 10-3-1116(3)).
Your insurer can ask for the financial records it needs. When the requests keep changing or repeating, a dated record of each one and each response can help show the pattern.
Colorado allows an insurer to challenge a claim that is “fairly debatable,” even where the denial “ultimately turns out to be mistaken.” That factor weighs against bad faith, but without more it isn’t outcome-determinative or necessarily sufficient to defeat a bad faith claim as a matter of law, and a claim the insurer had no reasonable basis to deny isn’t fairly debatable.
Your insurer can deny a loss under an exclusion that properly applies. We read the exclusion the insurer cited against the actual policy wording and the facts of your loss, and we ask the insurer to show how the two connect.
Colorado measures an insurer’s decision by the information it had when it decided. The jury instructions cite Schultz v. GEICO Casualty Co. for that rule.
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A common-law bad faith claim is a tort under Colorado law. The jury instructions say C.R.S. 13-80-102 bars it “unless brought within two years” after you knew, or through reasonable diligence should have known, of both the injury and its cause.
The statutory claim has its own history. The Colorado Supreme Court ruled in Rooftop Restoration, Inc. v. American Family Mutual Insurance Co. that C.R.S. 13-80-103(1)(d), the one-year limit for penalty actions, does not govern claims under section 10-3-1116(1).
If the dispute involves underinsured motorist benefits, a bad faith claim for nonpayment can’t accrue until you’ve obtained a judgment against, or settled with, the underinsured driver. Ask a lawyer to confirm the deadline on your own claim.
Yes, when the business is claiming benefits under its own policy. A bad faith insurance claim in Colorado under C.R.S. 10-3-1115 belongs to first-party claimants, and the statute’s definition covers corporations, partnerships and other entities as well as individuals.
Start by requesting the insurer’s reasons in writing and keeping every letter. A disability benefit denied without a reasonable basis can support a statutory claim, and a health or disability policy issued in Colorado can’t reserve discretion to the insurer over eligibility; such a clause is void (C.R.S. 10-3-1116(2)).
No. The statute targets delays without a reasonable basis, so the question is whether the insurer had a reasonable basis for the delay. We review the full timeline before we can tell you whether the delay is unreasonable.
Generally the statute won’t help there, because it excludes claims made against an insured under a liability policy. Your own uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage is a first-party policy, and a bad faith claim can arise from how that claim is handled.
That depends on the facts, such as where the insurer does business and where you live. For a Greenwood Village policyholder, the district court for Arapahoe County, at the Arapahoe County Justice Center in Centennial, is a possible venue.
It’s the statutory remedy in C.R.S. 10-3-1116(1). A first-party claimant whose claim was unreasonably delayed or denied can sue in district court to recover twice the covered benefit, plus reasonable attorney fees and court costs.
Keep the policy, profit and loss statements, payroll records, and anything showing orders or appointments you lost while closed. Log every request the insurer makes and the date you answered it, since that timeline can matter later.
No. We work with Greenwood Village clients from our Denver office at 2701 Lawrence St., Suite 201. Call (303) 209-9395 to reach us.
It's More Than Money.
A bad faith insurance attorney can tell you where your claim stands and what Colorado law allows. Call (303) 209-9395 or reach us through the contact page.
More reading: our Colorado bad faith insurance lawyer overview, our Denver bad faith insurance lawyer page, and, for claims that began on the road, the Greenwood Village car accident lawyer and Greenwood Village uninsured motorist lawyer pages. Our Greenwood Village personal injury lawyers page covers the rest of our work there.
Prefer to read first? See how Colorado bad faith law works.
CGH Injury Lawyers · 2701 Lawrence St., Suite 201, Denver, CO 80205
Cheney Galluzzi & Howard, LLC, d/b/a CGH Injury Lawyers. Attorney advertising. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Every case turns on its own facts, injuries, and available insurance coverage. This site is for general information and is not legal advice. Reading this page does not create an attorney-client relationship.
