After a burn, the first bills cover the ambulance and the emergency room. Grafts, therapy, pressure garments, and months away from a paycheck may still be ahead. From our Denver office, we help people burned in Broomfield add up every part of getting well.
No fee unless we winIt's More Than Money.
A grease fire on an apartment stove can spread across a kitchen in moments, and the burns it leaves can reshape your days for a long time afterward. If your family went through that in Broomfield, you may be holding discharge instructions in one hand and a landlord's email in the other, unsure who is responsible or whether to call a Broomfield burn injury lawyer.
When you'd like to talk to a person, CGH Injury Lawyers picks up at (303) 209-9395. Or send us a short description of the fire through our contact page.
Different Colorado rules apply depending on where and how the burn happened.
An apartment kitchen fire can start with a range that was wired wrong or grow worse because a smoke alarm had a dead battery that management had been told about. When the condition of a building contributes to a burn, the duty owed to you comes from the state's Premises Liability Act, C.R.S. 13-21-115. It reaches whoever is legally responsible for the building's condition, and a landlord can fit that description. A judge settles whether you count as an invitee or a licensee. For an invitee, what the landlord reasonably should have known can matter; a licensee generally has to show the landlord truly knew about the hazard.
Stoves, microwaves, space heaters, and lithium batteries can catch fire when they're designed or built badly. You can frame a Colorado product claim against a maker or seller under more than one legal theory, negligence and strict liability among them (C.R.S. 13-21-401(2)). Strict liability keeps attention on the product, asking whether it was defective and whether that defect caused your burn.
Against the company that employs you, workers' compensation is generally the only claim (C.R.S. 8-41-102). That changes when a machine's manufacturer, or a property owner who isn't your employer, caused the burn. In that situation Colorado allows you to receive workers' compensation benefits while bringing a separate claim against that outside party for damages in excess of the compensation available (C.R.S. 8-41-203(1)(a)).
A collision can rupture a fuel line or cause electrical and chemical burns. If another driver's negligence caused the collision, the claim against that driver can include your burn along with your other injuries.
Four parts of Colorado law apply to a burn claim: what the property owner owed you, what the damages limit covers, how fault gets divided, and how long you have to act.
The Premises Liability Act ties an owner's duty to your reason for being on the property. It sorts people into three categories: trespasser, licensee or invitee. You're an invitee when you enter for business that matters to both you and the owner, or when the owner has let the public know it's welcome. Invitees are owed the highest level of care, and an invitee can be compensated when the owner unreasonably failed to guard against a hazard the owner knew about or should have known about.
Licensees, and a social guest counts as one, generally must prove the owner had actual knowledge of the hazard (C.R.S. 13-21-115(4)(b)). Where the land is classified for property tax purposes as agricultural or vacant, an invitee faces that same actual knowledge requirement (C.R.S. 13-21-115(4)(c)(II)). The court decides which category fits you, looking at the facts (C.R.S. 13-21-115(6)).
Compensation for pain, emotional stress, and a diminished quality of life counts as non-economic damages. Colorado sets a $1.5 million ceiling on that category for claims arising on or after January 1, 2025, with separate rules for medical malpractice and wrongful death. The figure is to be adjusted for inflation starting January 1, 2028.
Because subsection (3) limits only noneconomic damages, it doesn't reach hospital charges and missed pay (C.R.S. 13-21-102.5(3)). Under C.R.S. 13-21-102.5(5), compensatory damages for physical impairment or disfigurement fall outside the section's limits altogether. Scarring may be compensated as disfigurement.
Colorado's comparative negligence statute applies to negligence claims. The jury, or the judge in a trial without a jury, assigns each side a percentage. When yours is smaller than the percentage belonging to the party you're claiming against, the award is cut by your share. Once yours matches theirs or goes higher, the statute calls for judgment against you (C.R.S. 13-21-111).
Imagine a jury decides you were 25 percent responsible for leaving a pan on a burner, and your landlord was 75 percent responsible for a range hood that tenants had reported as broken. Your damages would be reduced by 25 percent.
Those two-year and three-year clocks generally start once you learned, or with reasonable diligence should have learned, about the injury along with its source, as C.R.S. 13-80-108(1) provides. A burned child's claim can run on different timing rules. Ask a lawyer to pin down your date.
Where a case may be heard
The City and County of Broomfield is its own county. The Broomfield Combined Courts are at 17 Descombes Dr., Broomfield, CO 80020, and Broomfield belongs to the 17th Judicial District, which it shares with Adams County. Where a lawsuit is filed depends on the facts.
Hospital care
UCHealth Broomfield Hospital sits at 11820 Destination Drive in Broomfield, and it appears as a Level IV trauma facility on the Colorado health department's designated facility list. That list also shows St. Anthony North Hospital in Westminster, at 14300 Orchard Parkway, as Level III. Keep copies of your records from every visit, starting with the emergency room.
Fire and rescue
North Metro Fire Rescue District runs seven fire stations serving residents in Broomfield, Northglenn, and unincorporated parts of Adams, Boulder, Jefferson, and Weld counties. The district's records request page includes a form for an incident report, which may help show where a fire started.
Our office
We don't keep an office in Broomfield; the firm works out of Suite 201 at 2701 Lawrence St. in Denver.
We don't publish burn settlement figures. What a claim is worth depends on the burn's depth, how much skin it covers, where on the body it is, and what it has cost you at work and at home.
Early bills cover the ambulance, the emergency room, and a hospital stay. Later costs can include more surgery, pressure garments, therapy, counseling, and a change in the work you're able to do. To estimate that future care, we assemble a life care plan with input from vocational experts, burn surgeons, and medical economists.
MedlinePlus states, "Burns on the face, hands, feet, and genitals can be particularly serious." We start with your medical records, because a claim has to account for the treatment the burn requires.
Managing Partner Kevin Cheney is a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA). CGH Injury Lawyers, formerly Cheney Galluzzi & Howard, was founded in Denver in 2016. Settlement talks or not, the firm prepares each case as if it will be tried.
When the facts don't support a claim, or the law gets in the way, we'll tell you plainly.
If you'd rather speak Spanish, call (303) 835-9177.
Call 911 in an emergency. According to MedlinePlus, "Major burns need urgent medical care," and "The most serious burns can be painless."
Hold on to the appliance, cord, battery, pan, or clothing involved. Ask your landlord in writing not to replace a damaged range, heater or alarm until someone has inspected it.
Photograph the burn at each stage of healing, the room where the fire happened, and any hazard you noticed, such as scorched wiring or an alarm with no battery.
Send an email or letter to your property manager, tell your employer, or file a police report, depending on the situation.
Before you give a recorded statement to an insurance company, you can ask to talk with a lawyer first. For a Broomfield fire, that call can go to (303) 209-9395.
Save medical bills, pharmacy receipts and pay stubs, and keep short notes on the days the burn keeps you from working, sleeping or caring for your family.
Colorado divides damages into categories, and the noneconomic limit applies to only some damages. What a particular claim can include depends on its facts.
Colorado's noneconomic limit leaves compensatory damages for physical impairment or disfigurement untouched, as subsection (5) of C.R.S. 13-21-102.5 provides.
When a public entity is responsible, Colorado sets separate maximum amounts, adjusted on a four-year cycle by the Colorado Secretary of State (C.R.S. 24-10-114).
An adjuster reviewing a Broomfield burn claim may argue any of these points.
In a negligence claim, being partly responsible cuts the award by your percentage, and it bars recovery only when your percentage matches or tops the other party's. We meet that argument with maintenance records, fire origin analysis, and the testimony of experts.
A figure built on last month's bills leaves out the surgery, therapy, and lost earnings still ahead. A Life Care Plan documents those future costs.
That defense depends on your category, which the court decides from the facts. It carries less force against an invitee, whose claim can rest on what the owner should have known, than against a licensee, whose claim generally depends on the owner's actual knowledge (C.R.S. 13-21-115).
The source of payment depends on how the burn happened, and a single case can involve more than one.
Negligence and premises claims generally have two years (C.R.S. 13-80-102(1)(a)). For a fire started by a crash, tort claims arising out of the use or operation of a motor vehicle generally have three years (C.R.S. 13-80-101(1)(n)). Government involvement adds a far shorter written notice requirement (C.R.S. 24-10-109). Facts change the answer, so get your date confirmed by a lawyer.
Broomfield is part of the 17th Judicial District, and its courthouse, the Broomfield Combined Courts, is at 17 Descombes Dr. The right court for a particular lawsuit turns on its facts.
Scarring may be compensated as disfigurement. Colorado's noneconomic damages statute, C.R.S. 13-21-102.5, says in subsection (5) that it doesn't restrict compensatory damages for physical impairment or disfigurement. Hospital charges and lost income are economic losses, which the noneconomic limit doesn't cover either.
It's possible. A landlord can be a "landowner" under the Premises Liability Act (C.R.S. 13-21-115). How much the landlord owed turns on your legal category, and the court picks that category. An invitee's claim can rest on a hazard the landlord knew of or should have known of; a licensee's generally depends on proof that the landlord actually knew. Whoever manufactured the stove or heater may also be responsible.
No. Our office is at 2701 Lawrence St., Suite 201, Denver, CO 80205. Our phone line for Broomfield callers is (303) 209-9395.
Act quickly. When a city truck, a county road crew or another public entity or one of its employees on the job may be to blame, written notice must be filed within 182 days after you discover the injury. Colorado's statute says a failure to file it will forever bar the action (C.R.S. 24-10-109(1)). Money recoverable from a government body is capped too, under amounts the Secretary of State recalculates every four years (C.R.S. 24-10-114). More than one limitation rule can apply to a claim against a public entity, so have a lawyer confirm the deadline.
The manufacturer is a possible defendant. Colorado generally limits product liability claims against a seller that didn't make the product (C.R.S. 13-21-402). Exceptions include a seller that knew about the defect, and a principal distributor or seller when a court can't get jurisdiction over the manufacturer (C.R.S. 13-21-401(1), 13-21-402).
A customer who comes in to do business, or because the public was invited in, can fit the Premises Liability Act's definition of an invitee (C.R.S. 13-21-115). Invitees may be compensated for hazards the business knew of or reasonably should have known of, though the court decides your category based on the facts. A share of fault assigned to you lowers your damages by that percentage; once your share matches or exceeds the business's, recovery is barred (C.R.S. 13-21-111). Two years is generally the filing window for a store or restaurant burn under C.R.S. 13-80-102(1)(a).
Broomfield
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It's More Than Money.
Call (303) 209-9395 or describe the fire on our contact page. We'll listen, explain which Colorado rules may matter for you, and share our honest opinion.
Learn more on our Broomfield personal injury lawyers page.
For more reading, visit the page from our Colorado burn injury attorney team on statewide burn claims, our Denver burn injury lawyer page, or read about working with a Broomfield car accident lawyer or a Broomfield premises liability lawyer when a crash or a property hazard is involved.
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