IT'S MORE THAN MONEY.
A stolen truck, a shop that had to close its doors, and a denial letter that cites a clause you've never seen. When the company you insured with won't pay what the policy promises, phone (303) 209-9395 and tell us what happened.
No fee unless we winCommerce City, Adams County
CGH Injury Lawyers represents Commerce City 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 insurer is supposed to be on your side of the ledger after a loss. When it isn't, a Commerce City bad faith insurance lawyer can check whether its handling of your claim had any reasonable footing and what Colorado allows you to do about it.
CGH Injury Lawyers is a Denver firm, formerly known as Cheney Galluzzi & Howard, founded in 2016. Talk to us at (303) 209-9395 or leave a message on our contact page.
A claim can start with a car that disappeared overnight and a comprehensive claim that has been "in investigation" ever since. Another can start with a small business whose covered loss shut it down, and whose business interruption claim is getting picked apart line by line.
Whatever the loss, the statutory question comes first: whether your insurer had a reasonable basis for what it did or was simply holding on to money the policy says is yours.
We also want to hear how the claim felt from your side. Being told to wait while a car payment keeps coming due, or while a business sits dark, can bear on the noneconomic losses a jury may consider.
Colorado law recognizes two separate routes. The jury instructions describe the statutory right as existing "in addition to and separate from" the older claim that grew out of the courts.
| Claim under the insurance code | Claim under Colorado case law | |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | Delay or denial without a reasonable basis | Unreasonable conduct plus knowledge or reckless disregard |
| Legal home | C.R.S. 10-3-1115 and 10-3-1116 | The Savio decision of 1985 |
| Remedy | Twice the covered benefit, reasonable attorney fees, and court costs | Damages flowing from the conduct |
Case law: Savio
In the 1985 case Travelers Insurance Co. v. Savio, the Colorado Supreme Court held that the standard "includes two elements: unreasonable conduct and knowledge that the conduct is unreasonable or a reckless disregard for the fact that the conduct is unreasonable." You carry the burden on both parts.
The insurance code
The statute's core rule is short. Under C.R.S. 10-3-1115(1)(a), a company can't hold up or turn down a first-party claimant's covered benefits unreasonably.
Unreasonable, for this purpose, means acting with no reasonable basis. The jury instructions explain that the statutory claim needs only that showing, which makes it easier to prove than the common-law claim.
The statute's protection belongs to first-party claimants, the people claiming benefits under a policy. When your own comprehensive coverage is supposed to pay for a stolen car, or your business policy is supposed to cover lost income, you fit that description.
Adams County names Commerce City among its cities on the county's Cities & Towns page. The county's courthouse is the Adams County Justice Center, 1100 Judicial Center Dr., Brighton, CO 80601, in the 17th Judicial District.
The court for a particular lawsuit is a fact question. Your residence and the insurer's business locations both factor in, and we sort that out before anything is filed.
Ambulance and fire records
The South Adams County Fire Department says it serves all residents within Commerce City along with areas of unincorporated Adams County. Its open records request page offers request forms, including a HIPAA release of medical information.
Trauma care records
Colorado's trauma facility list has no trauma center in Commerce City itself. Facilities it lists elsewhere include HCA HealthONE Mountain Ridge, Level II, in Thornton, and Denver Health Medical Center, Level I, in Denver, and records from either can help when an insurer questions your treatment.
If a fire or medical call is part of your claim, asking for these records early saves time later. If an insurer disputes how badly you were hurt or how a fire started, the responders' own paperwork can help show what they found.
Commerce City loss types that can turn into a bad-faith fight:
We prepare each case as if it will be tried.
Kevin Cheney is a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA).
We go through your policy, the correspondence, and the timeline of the claim.
Spanish speakers can call (303) 835-9177.
We read the policy, the letters, and the claim timeline side by side.
We decide whether the facts support the common-law claim, the statutory claim, or both.
A formal written demand goes to the insurer.
We gather claims-file materials and documentation, plus outside expert input where it helps.
We file in the court where the case belongs, which may be the district court for Adams County, at the Adams County Justice Center, for a Commerce City policyholder.
We go after the underlying benefit, statutory damages, and attorney fees where applicable.
What a case is worth turns on the coverage you bought, the harm you suffered, and what the insurer did. We look at the file before talking numbers.
C.R.S. 10-3-1116(1) lets you seek double the covered benefit, plus reasonable attorney fees and court costs. According to the jury instructions, that award may not be reduced by the amount of an unreasonably delayed benefit the insurer paid before judgment.
The jury instruction for common-law damages lists:
Punitive damages are available only in some cases. A bad faith finding, the instructions explain, doesn't carry a punitive award on its own.
Your insurer can ask for documents it needs. When the list keeps growing, a dated record of every item you sent can help show the pattern.
For a claim against the at-fault driver's liability coverage, that's generally correct under the statute. Your own uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage is different, because there you are the first-party claimant.
Your insurer can rely on an exclusion that fits the facts, and we'll tell you if one does. When the insurer points to a clause that doesn't match what happened or doesn't explain how it applies, that gap goes to whether it had a reasonable basis for the denial.
Colorado judges an insurer by the information it had when it decided, a point the jury instructions draw from Schultz v. GEICO Casualty Co..
An insurer may challenge a fairly debatable claim even if its decision later turns out to be mistaken. That factor weighs against bad faith but, without more, is not outcome-determinative, and a claim the insurer had no reasonable basis to deny wasn't fairly debatable.
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For the common-law claim, the jury instructions point to C.R.S. 13-80-102 and its two-year limit. The period generally starts once you know, or with reasonable diligence should know, about the injury and its cause.
The statutory claim escapes the one-year penalty-action period found in C.R.S. 13-80-103(1)(d), as the Colorado Supreme Court decided in 2018 in the Rooftop Restoration case. Which period does apply to your facts is a question for a lawyer.
If the dispute is over underinsured motorist benefits, the claim can't accrue until you've obtained a judgment against, or settled with, the underinsured driver, per the jury instructions.
Start with your insurer's reasons. A bad faith insurance claim in Colorado under C.R.S. 10-3-1115 asks whether the insurer delayed or denied benefits without a reasonable basis, and a common-law claim asks the same thing plus whether the insurer knew, or recklessly disregarded, that its conduct was unreasonable.
Keep a dated record of every request and response, and send the insurer what it reasonably asks for. If the delay has no reasonable basis, the statute may apply, and a lawyer can review the file with you.
It can, if you are claiming benefits under your own business policy. The statute protects first-party claimants whose benefits were unreasonably delayed or denied.
The statute can reach health claims. Under C.R.S. 10-3-1116(2), a health or disability policy issued in Colorado can't keep a clause giving the insurer discretion over what the terms mean or who is eligible, and any such clause is void. For a health, life, or disability policy issued in Colorado, subsection (3) gives a denied claimant who has used up administrative remedies a fresh review in court, with a jury.
The facts decide it, including your home and the insurer's business locations. A Commerce City case may land in the district court for Adams County, at the Adams County Justice Center in Brighton.
Only in some cases, and a finding of bad faith isn't enough on its own to support them, according to Colorado's jury instructions.
You can, and staying responsive to reasonable requests helps your record. Put important points in writing, keep copies of what you send, and write down the date of each call.
We don't have an office in Commerce City. We serve Commerce City clients from 2701 Lawrence St., Suite 201, in Denver, and you can call (303) 209-9395.
It's More Than Money.
Tell us what your insurer has done, and a bad faith insurance attorney will go over the claim with you. Call (303) 209-9395 or send a note through our contact page.
You can also read our Colorado bad faith insurance lawyer overview or our Denver bad faith insurance lawyer page. When a claim grows out of a collision, our Commerce City uninsured motorist lawyer information and the Commerce City car accident lawyer page may help. Injuries of other kinds are covered by our Commerce City personal injury lawyers.
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.
