What It Takes to Win a Car Accident Lawsuit in Denver

This page provides general information 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.

What It Means to Win a Car Accident Lawsuit

When you picture winning, you may picture a courtroom and a verdict. That’s one way a claim can end. A claim can also end in a settlement, an agreement to resolve it for a set amount, before or after a lawsuit is filed.

Here’s how the stages fit together:

Stage	What happens	How it can end
Insurance claim	You or your lawyer will present the claim to the insurance company.	A settlement, a denial, or an offer you decide not to take
Lawsuit filed	The case goes into court, and both sides exchange evidence.	A settlement, or a ruling by the judge
Trial	A judge or jury hears the evidence and decides.	A verdict for you or for the defendant

So “winning” can mean a verdict, or it can mean a settlement you decided was fair. We explain the difference in more detail on our page about a settlement versus a verdict in a Colorado personal injury case. The proof you need is the same either way.

What You Have to Prove in a Colorado Car Accident Case

The first thing to know is how much proof the law asks for. In a civil case, Colorado law states that “the burden of proof in any civil action shall be by a preponderance of the evidence” (C.R.S. 13-25-127). The civil jury instructions explain that the term “means to prove that it is more probably true than not” (Instruction 3:1).

Colorado’s civil jury instructions, published on the state courts’ website, spell out what a jury has to find on a negligence claim (Instruction 9:1):

1. You had injuries, damages, or losses. Medical records, bills, and proof of missed work show these facts.
2. The other driver was negligent. The instructions define negligence as failing to do what “a reasonably careful person would do,” or doing what a reasonably careful person would not do, under the same or similar circumstances (Instruction 9:6).
3. That negligence was a cause of your losses. The instructions describe a cause as something “without which the claimed injury would not have happened” (Instruction 9:18).

Each of the three has to be proven. If one is missing, the instruction tells the jury its verdict must be for the defendant.

The third point is often the hardest to prove. An insurance company may agree its driver ran the light and still argue that your back pain came from something else. Our guide to proving negligence in a Colorado personal injury claim walks through each piece.

How Your Share of Fault Changes a Car Accident Lawsuit

You don’t have to be blameless to recover in Colorado. The statute says that negligence on your part doesn’t bar recovery “if such negligence was not as serious as the negligence of the person against whom recovery is sought” (C.R.S. 13-21-111). Your damages are then “diminished in proportion” to your share.

There’s a hard stop, though. If your share is “equal to or greater than” the other driver’s, the same statute tells the court to enter judgment for the defendant. In a crash between two drivers, that plays out like this:

Your share of fault	What the statute does
None	Your damages aren’t reduced for fault.
Less than the other driver’s	Your damages are reduced by your percentage.
Equal to or greater than the other driver’s	Judgment is entered for the defendant.

Here’s an example of the math, and it’s only an example. Say a jury set your losses at $100,000 and found you 20 percent at fault. The court would reduce the award to $80,000.

An insurance adjuster may ask about your speed, your phone, and where you were looking. Fault placed on you lowers what the claim can recover, and enough of it can end the claim. You can read more in our posts on partial fault in a Colorado car accident and comparative negligence in Colorado.

What Can Make a Car Accident Lawsuit Harder

Some facts make a claim tougher to prove. None of them rules a claim out. They’re the places where the other side may push.

• Fault is disputed. You and the other driver tell different stories, and no neutral witness or video backs either one.
• There’s a gap in your medical care. If weeks passed between the crash and your first appointment, the insurer may argue something else caused the injury.
• You had an earlier injury to the same part of your body. The claim then turns on what the crash changed, and your records have to show it.
• You gave a statement before you knew how hurt you were. What you tell an adjuster in the first few days can come back up later.
• The damage to the cars was light. An insurer may point to photos of a small dent to question an injury.
• Insurance coverage is limited. A strong claim can still exceed the limits of the policies available to pay it.

If one of these describes your situation, please discuss it with someone before deciding to drop the claim.

What Can Make Your Case Stronger

A claim rests on proof, and you can start gathering it now. These records can help:

• The police report and the name of the responding agency
• Photos of the vehicles, the road, and your injuries
• Names and phone numbers of witnesses
• Medical records that begin soon after the crash and continue without long breaks
• Pay stubs or a letter from your employer showing missed work
• Every letter and email from an insurance company

If your crash was recent, these steps can help you keep a clear record:

1. Get a doctor to check you, and tell them about every symptom, even a mild one.
2. Follow the treatment plan and keep your appointments.
3. Keep bills, receipts, and repair estimates in one place.
4. Write down what you remember about the crash while it’s fresh.
5. Read our guide on what not to say to an insurance company after a Colorado accident before you give a recorded statement.

None of this decides the outcome. It gives the person evaluating your claim, whether that’s an adjuster, a judge, or a jury, something solid to work from.

How Long Does a Car Accident Lawsuit Take?

There’s no fixed timeline, and you should be cautious of anyone who promises one. How long a case takes depends on its facts. These tend to matter:

• Your medical recovery. It’s difficult to value a claim until your doctors know what care you’ll need.
• Whether fault is disputed. A contested crash takes more evidence and more time.
• The insurance company’s response. Some claims draw a reasonable offer early, and some don’t.
• The court’s schedule. Once a lawsuit is filed, the court’s calendar sets much of the pace.

What has a fixed limit is the time you have to start. Colorado requires tort actions “for bodily injury or property damage arising out of the use or operation of a motor vehicle” to be started within three years after the claim accrues (C.R.S. 13-80-101). The statute excludes actions for strict liability, absolute liability, or failure to instruct or warn, so the three years doesn’t cover every case tied to a crash.

If a city bus, a state truck, or another vehicle driven by a public employee on the job hit you, the timing is different. Colorado’s two-year statute lists all “actions against any public or governmental entity,” with exceptions, so the deadline may be as short as two years (C.R.S. 13-80-102). The law also requires 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).

Colorado law also makes a public entity immune from tort claims except where the statute waives that immunity. The waivers include the operation of a publicly owned or leased vehicle by a public employee on the job, with an exception for some emergency vehicles (C.R.S. 24-10-106). Check these rules early if a government vehicle was involved.

Our posts on the Colorado car accident statute of limitations and the Colorado car accident settlement process and timeline go deeper into both topics.

How to Win a Car Accident Lawsuit: There’s No Formula, but Some Things Are in Your Control

You can’t control what the other driver says or how an insurance company responds. You can control the record you build. If you’re asking about your chances of winning a car accident lawsuit, these are the parts you can influence:

• Be consistent. Tell your doctor, the police, and the insurer the same facts.
• Be accurate. Don’t guess at speeds or distances. “I’m not sure” is a fine answer.
• Be on time. Missed deadlines can end a claim no matter how strong the facts are.
• Be careful online. Photos and posts can be used to question how badly you were hurt.

The rest depends on evidence and on how Colorado law applies to it. That’s the part a lawyer can evaluate with you.

How We Look at a Car Accident Case

When you call CGH Injury Lawyers about a crash, the conversation starts with what happened and how you’re doing. From there, a review usually covers:

• The police report and any photos or video
• Your medical records and what your doctors expect going forward
• The insurance policies that may apply, including yours
• Anything that might put part of the fault on you
• The deadlines that apply to your claim

You’ll hear plainly what we see, including the parts that could be hard. You decide what to do next.

Talk to a Denver Car Accident Lawyer

If you’re weighing a claim after a crash, a Denver car accident lawyer can look at the facts, the fault questions, and the deadlines with you. Our Colorado car accident injury page explains more about 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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