IT'S MORE THAN MONEY.
Your insurer took your premiums for years, and now the check isn’t coming. If a covered claim has been stalled, refused, or paid at a fraction of the repair bill, Colorado gives policyholders real tools. Call (303) 209-9395 and walk us through the claim.
No fee unless we winParker, Douglas County
CGH Injury Lawyers represents Parker 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.
Maybe the adjuster stopped returning calls after the inspection, or the denial letter cites a policy clause that doesn’t seem to fit. A Parker bad faith insurance lawyer can test the insurer’s stated reason against your policy and the Colorado rules that govern first-party claims.
CGH Injury Lawyers represents Parker homeowners, drivers, and business owners from our office in Denver. Reach us at (303) 209-9395, or use our contact page if you’d rather write it out first.
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.
Picture a hail claim on your roof where the insurer’s estimate covers a patch and your contractor’s bid covers a full replacement. Or a burst pipe that soaked the basement, followed by a letter calling the damage “wear and tear.” Or a crash with a driver who carried too little coverage, and your own underinsured motorist claim now sits unanswered.
A few thousand dollars held back on a roof, or a benefit check that stopped without explanation, can upend your household budget.
Under the statute, each of those turns on one question: whether your insurer had a reasonable basis for what it did. We read the file, compared it with the policy, and told you plainly what we see.
Colorado lets a policyholder sue an insurer for bad faith under two separate theories. The jury instructions put the statutory claim alongside the older common-law claim, calling it “in addition to and separate from” that claim. Both are explained further on our Colorado bad faith insurance lawyer page.
| Question | Court-made claim | Insurance code claim |
|---|---|---|
| Source | Travelers Insurance Co. v. Savio, decided by the state Supreme Court in 1985 | Sections 10-3-1115 and 10-3-1116 |
| Proof needed | Unreasonable handling, plus the company knowing that or recklessly ignoring it | A delay or denial—the company had no reasonable basis for |
| Possible recovery | Whatever harm the insurer’s conduct caused | Double the covered benefit, with reasonable attorney fees and court costs |
Section 10-3-1115(1)(a) bars an insurer from unreasonably holding up or refusing payment of benefits owed to a first-party claimant. Subsection (2) supplies the test, treating the company’s action as unreasonable when it lacked a reasonable basis.
The protection belongs to the person claiming under the policy. It carves out anyone pursuing someone else’s liability coverage, which generally leaves a demand on the other driver’s carrier outside the statute (10-3-1115(1)(b)). Claims against a driver who caused a crash are covered on our Parker car accident lawyer page.
Savio set out two elements: unreasonable conduct and the insurer’s knowledge that the conduct was unreasonable, or its reckless disregard of that fact. Because the statutory claim needs only the first element, it is the easier of the two to prove.
The Town of Parker describes itself as “located in Douglas County.” The right court for a suit against your insurer turns on details like where you live and where the company operates.
Douglas County’s courthouse
The Douglas County Courthouse is in Castle Rock, at 4000 Justice Way Ste. 2009, Castle Rock, CO 80109. Douglas County belongs to the 23rd Judicial District, which the Judicial Branch says was established on January 14, 2025, and also includes Elbert and Lincoln counties.
Hospital records
If your claim involves an injury, the emergency and hospital records can help show what care was needed when an insurer disputes a medical bill. AdventHealth Parker, at 9395 Crown Crest Blvd in Parker, is listed as a Level II facility on the Colorado health department’s trauma facility list.
Where Parker disputes begin
A Parker dispute can start with a claim like one of these:
We go through your policy, the correspondence, and the timeline of the claim.
Kevin Cheney, our Managing Partner, belongs to the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA), and the firm prepares each case as if it will be tried.
We’re at 2701 Lawrence St., Suite 201, Denver.
Call (303) 835-9177 to speak with us in Spanish.
We go through your coverage, every letter and email, and the dates that show how the claim moved.
Your facts may fit the court-made claim, the insurance code claim, or both, and we sort out which.
We put the insurer on written notice of the claim and what it owes.
Claims-file materials and your paperwork come first, and we add outside expert input where it strengthens the file.
We file where the case belongs. For a Parker policyholder, that could be the district court for Douglas County, at the Douglas County Courthouse, depending on the facts.
We ask for the benefit that went unpaid, the statutory recovery and, where available, attorney fees.
Your recovery depends on the policy, the losses, and the insurer’s conduct. We look through the file first, then talk about figures.
A claimant who wins under 10-3-1116(1) can collect double the covered benefit, plus reasonable attorney fees and court costs. According to the instruction notes, an unreasonably delayed benefit paid before judgment doesn’t shrink that doubled figure.
A jury weighing the court-made claim can consider:
Punitive damages. They’re possible in some cases, though the instruction notes say a bad faith finding isn’t enough, by itself, to support them.
A court measures the company’s decision against the information in front of it on the day it decided. The instructions rely on Schultz v. GEICO Casualty Co. here, so we rebuild what the adjuster had in hand on each date.
A company may challenge a fairly debatable claim, even if its decision to deny coverage ultimately turns out to be mistaken. That debatability counts against a bad faith finding, but the instructions say that, without more, it isn’t outcome-determinative. With no reasonable basis, the claim wasn’t fairly debatable to begin with.
What we look for is the point where the questions stopped and the waiting kept going. The jury instructions also allow conduct that Colorado’s insurance code prohibits to be considered as evidence of unreasonable delay or denial (C.R.S. 10-3-1113).
Keep a record of what you sent and the date you sent it, so a repeated request is on the record. Upload confirmations and mailing receipts are worth saving for the same reason.
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The court-made claim is treated as a tort. The instructions apply 13-80-102 to it, with two years counted from when you knew, or with reasonable diligence should have known, both the harm and what caused it.
The insurance code claim is different. The Colorado Supreme Court’s Rooftop Restoration decision took the one-year limit in C.R.S. 13-80-103(1)(d) off the table for a suit under 10-3-1116(1). Have a lawyer confirm your deadline.
Underinsured motorist claims add a wrinkle. Per the instructions, a bad faith claim over unpaid UIM benefits can’t accrue until you’ve obtained a judgment against, or settled with, the underinsured driver. A Parker uninsured motorist lawyer can review that part of your claim with you.
Keep the first denial letter, the claim number, and a list of the dates you spoke with the adjuster. Those records help pin down when a deadline may have started to run.
For a bad faith insurance claim in Colorado under the statute, the issue is whether the company held up or refused benefits you were owed with no reasonable basis (10-3-1115). The court-made version also requires proof that the insurer knew its handling was unreasonable or recklessly ignored that.
It might be. Under the statute, a delay is unreasonable when the insurer has no reasonable basis for it, so the question is the reason behind the delay. We line up the dates and the insurer’s explanations before giving you a view.
It can apply to first-party health and disability claims. Colorado also voids any clause in a health or disability policy issued in Colorado that gives the insurer discretion to read the terms or decide who is eligible (10-3-1116(2)). Once administrative remedies run out, a health, life or disability claimant denied under a policy issued in Colorado is entitled to de novo review and a jury trial in court (10-3-1116(3)).
Generally no. The statute protects people claiming under their own coverage, not someone pursuing another person’s liability policy. Your own uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage is the kind of policy it can reach.
That depends on the policy, the benefit and the harm. The insurance code lets you seek double the covered benefit with reasonable attorney fees and court costs (10-3-1116), and a court-made claim can include financial and nonfinancial damages.
That turns on the facts, such as your address and the places the insurer operates. For a Parker policyholder, one possibility is the district court for Douglas County, at the Douglas County Courthouse in Castle Rock.
No. Parker clients work with us 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 review the letters, the estimates, and the timeline with you. Phone (303) 209-9395, or describe the claim on our contact page.
Other injury claims are covered on our Parker personal injury lawyers page.
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.
