Is a Slip and Fall Lawsuit Worth It? How to Weigh a Denver Claim

The content on this page is provided 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.

Three Questions That Decide Whether a Slip and Fall Lawsuit Is Worth It

You don’t need a law degree to get a first read on your claim. You need honest answers to three questions.

Question	What you’re checking	What helps you answer it
How badly were you hurt?	Whether the fall cost you medical care, income, or lasting problems	Medical records, bills, time missed from work
Can the owner be shown to be at fault?	Whether Colorado’s Premises Liability Act gives you a path	Photos of the hazard, an incident report, witnesses
What will a claim take?	The time, the paperwork, and the fees and costs involved	A conversation with a lawyer about how fees and costs work

The rest of this page takes those one at a time. It doesn’t cover dollar amounts. For that, see our post on average slip and fall settlement amounts in Colorado.

How Serious Is the Injury?

Start here, because it shapes everything else. A claim asks to be paid back for what the fall cost you. If you were sore for a few days and didn’t need treatment, there may be little to claim, even if the store was careless.

These are the kinds of losses a claim is meant to address:

• An emergency room visit, surgery, or ongoing treatment such as physical therapy
• A broken bone, a head injury, or a back or neck injury
• Missed work or a change in the work you can do
• Pain or limits that have lasted for weeks or months
• Medical bills you’re now paying yourself

Don’t decide too fast, though. Some injuries look minor in the first week and turn out not to be. If you’re still hurting, see a doctor before you rule anything out.

Can I Sue for a Slip and Fall in Colorado? What the Law Asks You to Show

Falling on someone’s property doesn’t by itself make the owner responsible. In Colorado, a claim for an injury on another person’s property runs through one statute, the Colorado Premises Liability Act. It says the landowner “is liable only as provided” in the Act (C.R.S. 13-21-115).

“Landowner” is broader than it sounds. The Act defines it to include “a person in possession of real property” and a person “legally responsible for the condition of real property.” A store that leases its space may be treated as a landowner under that definition.

Your reason for being there sets the standard

The Act ties what you have to prove to why you were on the property. The court decides which group you fall into.

Who you were	How the Act defines it	What you may recover for
Invitee	Someone on the land “to transact business in which the parties are mutually interested,” or there because the public was invited in.	The owner’s unreasonable failure to use reasonable care to protect against dangers the owner “actually knew about or should have known about”
Licensee	Someone there for their convenience or interests with the owner’s permission. The Act says a licensee “includes a social guest.”	The owner’s unreasonable failure to exercise reasonable care with respect to dangers the owner created and “actually knew about,” or an unreasonable failure to warn of dangers the owner didn’t create that are “not ordinarily present on property of the type involved” and that the owner actually knew about
Trespasser	Someone on the land “without the landowner’s consent”	Only damages “willfully or deliberately caused by the landowner.” The Act keeps a separate doctrine in place for children under fourteen.

Shopping, eating at a restaurant, and picking up a prescription are the kinds of visits the invitee definition describes. That’s the broadest standard, and “should have known about” is the phrase that matters. A spill that staff found on the floor is different from one that happened seconds before you stepped in it.

One limit to know about: for land classified as agricultural or vacant for property tax purposes, an invitee’s claim covers only dangers the owner “actually knew about.”

What tends to prove the owner knew or should have known

• Photos or video of the hazard and the area around it
• An incident report made at the time
• Names of employees or other people who saw the hazard or the fall
• Cleaning or inspection logs, which a lawyer can request
• Earlier complaints about the same spot

Surveillance video doesn’t always get saved for long. If your fall happened in a store, asking for it in writing early can matter.

Our page on premises liability claims in Colorado explains the Act in more depth.

What If the Fall Was Partly Your Fault?

The owner’s side may raise this. Maybe you were looking at your phone, or you walked past a wet floor sign. The Premises Liability Act says Colorado’s comparative negligence statute applies to these cases (C.R.S. 13-21-115).

Under that statute, you can still recover if your negligence “was not as great as the negligence of the person against whom recovery is sought,” and your damages are “diminished in proportion” to your share (C.R.S. 13-21-111). If your share is equal to or greater than the owner’s, the court enters judgment for the defendant.

Being partly at fault doesn’t automatically make a claim not worth it. It does lower what the claim can recover, so factor it in.

When a Slip and Fall Claim May Not Be Worth Pursuing

Here’s the other side. A claim is harder to justify when:

• The injury was minor and healed quickly. There’s little loss to recover.
• Nothing shows what caused the fall. If you can’t say what you slipped on, proving the owner should have known about it is very difficult.
• The hazard was brand new. An owner who had no reasonable chance to find it may not have breached the standard.
• You were somewhere you weren’t allowed to be. A trespasser can generally recover only for harm the owner caused willfully or deliberately.
• The deadline has passed. A late claim can be barred no matter how strong it was.

If one of these fits, it doesn’t always end the conversation. It does mean you should get a clear answer before putting more time into it.

What Does It Cost to Bring a Slip and Fall Claim?

Cost is part of the question. Two kinds come up:

• Your time. A claim means gathering records, going to appointments, and answering questions. If a lawsuit is filed, it can mean giving testimony.
• Fees and case costs. Lawyers charge in different ways, and cases carry costs such as records and filing fees.

Ask any lawyer you speak with to explain, in writing, how fees and costs would work in your case before you agree to anything. Our guide to what a personal injury lawyer costs in Colorado answers the questions you should ask.

A Slip and Fall Claim Can Start With Insurance

A slip and fall claim and a slip and fall lawsuit aren’t the same thing. A claim can begin with the property owner’s insurance company and end there in a settlement. A lawsuit is what’s filed in court when a claim doesn’t resolve or a deadline is getting close.

If you’re weighing your options, the steps generally run in this order:

1. Get medical care and follow through with treatment.
2. If you haven’t already, please report the fall to the property owner or manager.
3. Gather your photos, records, and bills.
4. Have the claim evaluated.
5. Present the claim to the insurance company.
6. File a lawsuit if the claim doesn’t resolve and the facts support one.

Having a claim evaluated doesn’t commit you to filing anything.

Deadlines That Can Decide the Question for You

Colorado requires tort actions, “including but not limited to actions for negligence,” to be started within two years after the claim accrues (C.R.S. 13-80-102).

If your claim is against a public entity or one of its employees, there is an earlier step. The law calls for written notice “within one hundred eighty-two days after the date of the discovery of the injury” and says failure to comply “shall forever bar any such action” (C.R.S. 24-10-109). That’s about six months.

Colorado law also makes a public entity immune from tort claims except where the statute waives that immunity (C.R.S. 24-10-106). Please check these rules early if a government body may be responsible for your fall.

Our post on how long you have to sue after a Denver slip and fall covers the timing in detail.

Talk to a Denver Slip and Fall Lawyer

If you’re still not sure whether your fall is worth pursuing, a Denver slip and fall lawyer can look at the injury, the property, and the deadlines with you. Our Colorado slip and fall accident page has more information on how these claims work. To schedule a consultation, call (303) 209-9395 or send a note through our Denver contact page.

Frequently Asked Questions

 

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