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Englewood, Colorado. CGH Injury Lawyers represents catastrophic injury victims across Arapahoe County from our Denver office.
Englewood, Arapahoe County

Englewood Catastrophic Injury Lawyers Who Build Life Care Plans and Take Cases to Trial

A spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injury, amputation, or severe burn changes everything at once. Englewood sits adjacent to Craig Hospital, one of the world's leading catastrophic rehabilitation centers, and HCA HealthONE Swedish, a Level I Trauma Center. CGH Injury Lawyers serves Englewood and all of Arapahoe County from our Denver office, builds the Life Care Plan that documents your lifetime costs, and files in the 18th Judicial District when an insurer will not pay what your case is worth.

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Serving Englewood From Our Denver Office CGH Injury Lawyers 2701 Lawrence St., Suite 201 Denver, CO 80205 (303) 209-9395 Se habla espanol
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Englewood is home to Craig Hospital, a federally designated Traumatic Brain Injury Model System and Spinal Cord Injury Model System, and HCA HealthONE Swedish, one of only three Level I Trauma Centers in Colorado. When a crash or incident in or near Englewood produces a catastrophic injury, the medical record and the Life Care Plan built from it are the foundation of every significant damages claim. CGH Injury Lawyers builds those plans and tries these cases.

  • Economic damages such as lifetime medical costs, attendant care, and a Life Care Plan are never capped under Colorado law. Compensation for physical impairment or disfigurement is also not capped under C.R.S. 13-21-102.5(5). Those two uncapped categories are where the largest value sits in a catastrophic case.
  • The filing deadline for most catastrophic injury claims in Colorado is two years from the date of injury under C.R.S. 13-80-102. Catastrophic injuries caused by a motor vehicle crash carry a three-year deadline under C.R.S. 13-80-101(1)(n). If a government entity was involved, a written notice of claim must be filed within 182 days of the date you discovered the injury (C.R.S. 24-10-109).
  • Englewood catastrophic injury lawsuits are filed in the 18th Judicial District, Arapahoe County District Court. Defense firms and adjusters who cover Arapahoe County cases know this court well. So do we.

CGH Injury Lawyers represents people living with traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, amputations, and severe burns across Englewood and all of Arapahoe County. We advance the cost of Life Care Planning, bring certified planners and forensic economists to build a defensible damages case, and serve Englewood clients from our Denver office at no cost unless we win.

Englewood, Arapahoe County

Englewood has two of Colorado's most important catastrophic care facilities, and courts and carriers know it

Catastrophic injury cases in Englewood are shaped by the medical environment on the ground. Here is the local picture that governs every claim we handle in this city.

Specialized Rehabilitation

Craig Hospital, 3425 S. Clarkson Street, Englewood

Craig Hospital at 3425 S. Clarkson Street is a federally designated Traumatic Brain Injury Model System and Spinal Cord Injury Model System, recognized by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research, and serves as the TBI Model Systems National Data and Statistical Center. Craig's rehabilitation protocols set the standard that Colorado courts and insurance adjusters recognize when a Life Care Plan is built. When your Craig Hospital records document the full scope of your functional impairments, from acute stabilization through years of outpatient rehabilitation, those records form a credible, Colorado-grounded basis for a lifetime damages claim that defense experts have difficulty challenging. A Life Care Plan built against the Craig standard carries weight in the 18th Judicial District that generic national software cannot match.

Level I Trauma Center

HCA HealthONE Swedish, 501 E. Hampden Ave, Englewood

HCA HealthONE Swedish at 501 E. Hampden Avenue is a CDPHE-designated Level I Trauma Center and Burn Center and one of only three Level I Trauma Centers in Colorado. It was designated Colorado's first Comprehensive Stroke Center in 2004. When a crash on I-25, US 285, or Santa Fe Drive produces a catastrophic injury, Swedish is the initial trauma destination for many Englewood-area patients. The emergency records, surgical notes, and intensive care documentation from Swedish create the acute medical record that anchors the Life Care Plan's baseline. Those records, combined with the long-term rehabilitation record from Craig Hospital, give a Life Care Plan its two-stage foundation: what immediate intervention cost, and what long-term care will require.

High-Impact Corridors

I-25, US 285, Santa Fe Drive, and South Broadway

Englewood sits at the convergence of four major corridors where crashes producing catastrophic injuries are documented. I-25 through Englewood carries heavy daily volume, and the I-25 and Hampden Avenue interchange is identified by CDOT as requiring full driver attention. US 285 and Hampden Avenue was the subject of a multi-agency Mobility and Safety Study due to documented safety concerns, including a fatal 2023 motorcycle crash west of South Broadway. Santa Fe Drive (US 85) is a six-lane arterial serving heavy commercial truck traffic. South Broadway is a dense commercial strip with high vehicle, cyclist, and pedestrian volumes. A crash at highway speed on any of these corridors can produce the kind of force that severs a spinal cord, causes a severe traumatic brain injury, or results in an amputation or major burn requiring months of inpatient care at Swedish and Craig Hospital.

Courthouse

18th Judicial District, Arapahoe County District Court

Catastrophic injury lawsuits arising in Englewood are filed in the 18th Judicial District, Arapahoe County District Court. The court sits at the Arapahoe County Justice Center, 7325 S. Potomac Street in Centennial, and the Arapahoe County Courthouse, 1790 West Littleton Blvd in Littleton. Arapahoe County juries, the defense firms that cover this district, and the adjusters who evaluate Arapahoe County catastrophic injury claims are a known quantity to our team. CGH Injury Lawyers files and tries cases in the 18th Judicial District directly from our Denver office.

What qualifies

What counts as a catastrophic injury in an Englewood case?

Not every serious injury is legally catastrophic. The classification determines which damage categories apply and whether the uncapped categories that drive the largest recoveries are available to you. The legal question is not how painful the injury was, but whether it is permanent and fundamentally alters your ability to sustain an independent life.

Injury categories that most often qualify

  • Traumatic brain injury (TBI) with lasting cognitive deficits, memory impairment, behavioral change, or a need for lifetime supervision or attendant care
  • Spinal cord injury (SCI), including complete and incomplete paraplegia or quadriplegia requiring ongoing mobility assistance and daily attendant care
  • Major limb amputation requiring prosthetics with replacement cycles, home modifications, and vocational retraining
  • Severe burns covering significant body surface area, requiring multiple surgeries, skin grafts, and long-term reconstructive care
  • Permanent organ damage requiring transplant evaluation, dialysis, or lifetime medical monitoring

Why the classification matters for your Englewood case

  • It determines whether economic damages, including a Life Care Plan for lifetime costs, are calculated and projected as a distinct uncapped category
  • It governs whether compensation for physical impairment or disfigurement is available as a separate, uncapped category under C.R.S. 13-21-102.5(5)
  • It sets the expert requirements: a Life Care Plan built by a certified planner must survive a Shreck or Daubert admissibility challenge in Arapahoe County District Court
  • It shapes how an insurer values the claim from the first demand letter, because a defensible impairment rating built against Craig Hospital records is very different from a treating physician's letter

The AMA Guides connect the medical diagnosis to the legal claim

Colorado courts require medical experts to translate a clinical diagnosis into a whole-person impairment rating using the AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment. That rating is not a threshold that unlocks any cap or lifts any limit. It is a measurement tool that describes the degree of permanent impairment, which in turn shapes how the Life Care Plan is built and what future care is medically necessary. A defensible impairment rating, supported by Craig Hospital functional evaluations, supports a defensible damages claim. The rating is the bridge between what the doctor documents and what the lawyer argues.

How we build your case

How a Life Care Plan is built for an Englewood catastrophic injury case

A Life Care Plan is not a wish list or a treating physician's best guess. It is a forensic economic document that connects your clinical diagnosis to a legally defensible dollar amount. The Englewood medical environment gives these plans a specific advantage: Craig Hospital protocol costs provide a Colorado-grounded benchmark that generic national software cannot replicate.

  1. Certified Life Care Planner, not a treating letter

    Qualified Colorado Life Care Planners hold credentials such as CLCP (Certified Life Care Planner) or CNLCP (Certified Nurse Life Care Planner). They review your full medical record from HCA HealthONE Swedish and Craig Hospital, interview your treating physicians, and conduct functional capacity evaluations to determine your future needs. A note from a treating doctor that says you will need future care is not sufficient under Colorado's Shreck and Daubert admissibility standards.

  2. Craig Hospital costs as the Colorado benchmark

    National Life Care Plan software defaults to U.S. average costs and consistently underestimates Colorado expenses. Craig Hospital's published care protocols and regional vendor pricing for home attendant care, adaptive vehicles, and home modification in the Denver and Arapahoe County metro area create a credible, Colorado-specific cost basis. A plan built to that standard is far harder for defense experts to attack as speculative than one built on national averages.

  3. Medical inflation, not general CPI

    General inflation runs approximately 2 to 3 percent per year. Medical inflation consistently outpaces it, closer to 5 to 7 percent. A plan that uses the wrong inflation rate can underestimate lifetime costs by millions of dollars for a young client with a long life expectancy. Our certified planners use medical-specific inflation modeling, which is especially critical for spinal cord and brain injury clients whose care needs increase as they age.

  4. Built to survive Shreck and Daubert in Arapahoe County

    Colorado courts apply strict standards for expert testimony under the Shreck test, Colorado's adoption of Daubert, and Colorado Rule of Evidence 702. An Arapahoe County District Court judge can exclude a Life Care Plan that lacks defensible methodology, proper Colorado cost data, or qualifications from the certifying planner. We prepare every plan and every expert to withstand cross-examination, so the projection holds up through trial.

  5. We advance the cost

    A comprehensive Life Care Plan typically takes 60 to 90 days, depending on the complexity of the injury and the availability of medical records from Craig Hospital and Swedish. We advance the cost of building yours. You pay nothing unless we win.

Compensation

What compensation can you recover after a catastrophic injury in Englewood?

Colorado law lets injured people recover two broad categories of damages: economic losses you can document, and non-economic losses for the human cost. In a catastrophic case, the categories that matter most are the uncapped ones, because they are typically where the largest values live.

Economic damages (never capped)

  • Past and future medical expenses, including Craig Hospital rehabilitation and outpatient costs
  • Lifetime attendant care and nursing support
  • Home modifications including ramps, widened doorways, and accessible bathrooms
  • Adaptive vehicles and specialized mobility equipment
  • Lost wages and permanent loss of earning capacity
  • Vocational rehabilitation and job retraining costs
  • Life Care Plan projection of all future care needs

Non-economic damages (subject to Colorado's cap)

  • Pain and suffering
  • Loss of enjoyment of life
  • Emotional distress
  • Loss of consortium for a spouse or family member

Physical impairment or disfigurement (not capped)

  • Compensation for permanent physical impairment or disfigurement is not capped at all under C.R.S. 13-21-102.5(5) and is separate from both economic damages and the non-economic pain-and-suffering category

Colorado's cap, explained for Englewood catastrophic cases

For claims accruing on or after January 1, 2025, Colorado caps non-economic damages such as pain and suffering at $1,500,000 under C.R.S. 13-21-102.5. That cap does not touch economic damages or compensation for physical impairment or disfigurement, which are separately not capped under C.R.S. 13-21-102.5(5). In a catastrophic injury case, economic losses documented in a Life Care Plan, including decades of attendant care, rehabilitation, home modification, and adaptive equipment, often represent the largest share of a recovery. Those losses are never capped, and the physical impairment category adds a further uncapped layer specific to the permanent nature of the injury. The non-economic cap is real but is not the primary driver of value in most catastrophic cases.

Fault and filing deadlines

Colorado comparative fault and filing deadlines for Englewood catastrophic injury claims

Two legal rules close more catastrophic injury claims than any other: the comparative fault bar and the statute of limitations. Understanding both before you do anything else is critical.

Modified comparative fault: the 50 percent rule

Colorado follows a modified comparative fault rule under C.R.S. 13-21-111. You can recover damages as long as your share of fault is less than 50 percent. Your award is reduced by your percentage of fault. If you are found 50 percent or more at fault, you recover nothing. For a catastrophic injury, this rule matters even more than in a typical case, because the defendants and their insurers have every incentive to inflate your share of fault. If your claimed fault rises to 50 percent, the entire claim disappears regardless of how severe the injury is. A defense attorney on the other side in an Arapahoe County courtroom will build toward that number from the moment litigation starts. We build our case to defeat it.

Filing deadlines you cannot miss

  • Most catastrophic injury claims not involving a motor vehicle are subject to the two-year general tort statute of limitations under C.R.S. 13-80-102. The clock starts from the date of injury.
  • Catastrophic injuries caused by a motor vehicle crash carry a three-year filing deadline under C.R.S. 13-80-101(1)(n).
  • If a government entity or government vehicle was involved, a written notice of claim must be filed within 182 days of the date you discovered the injury under the Colorado Governmental Immunity Act (C.R.S. 24-10-109). This is not a 180-day deadline. Missing it extinguishes your claim against that entity.
  • The collateral source rule protects your full award: the at-fault party cannot reduce what it owes because you carry health insurance. The Life Care Plan establishes the total lifetime cost of care regardless of who ultimately pays part of it.

After the injury

What to do after a catastrophic injury in Englewood

The first days and weeks after a catastrophic injury produce evidence that shapes the entire case. These steps protect your ability to recover the full value of the harm done.

  1. Get to the right facility immediately

    Englewood is uniquely positioned. HCA HealthONE Swedish at 501 E. Hampden Ave is a Level I Trauma Center that handles the most severe injuries from Arapahoe County crashes. Craig Hospital at 3425 S. Clarkson Street specializes in spinal cord and traumatic brain injury rehabilitation. Getting transferred to Craig quickly, when medically appropriate, creates the rehabilitation record your Life Care Plan is built from. Do not delay acute care in order to reach a specific facility, but discuss Craig Hospital admission with your medical team as early as possible if your injury involves the brain or spine.

  2. Authorize medical record collection immediately

    A Life Care Plan is only as strong as the medical record it is built from. That means complete records from HCA HealthONE Swedish, Craig Hospital, and every subsequent treating facility. Authorizing your attorney to collect those records early prevents gaps that defense experts use to challenge a plan as incomplete or speculative.

  3. Preserve the scene and the cause

    Surveillance footage from corridors like I-25, US 285, and Santa Fe Drive is often overwritten within 24 to 72 hours. Witness memories fade. Physical evidence from a crash scene disappears. An attorney can issue evidence preservation letters immediately and retain an accident reconstructionist for high-speed corridor crashes where force calculations matter to the damages argument.

  4. Do not speak to the at-fault insurer

    The at-fault party's insurer will contact you or your family quickly in a catastrophic case because the potential liability is large. Do not give a recorded statement, accept a preliminary offer, or sign any release. A release signed in the early days of a catastrophic injury almost always undervalues permanent impairment because the full scope of lifetime costs has not yet been established.

  5. Contact a catastrophic injury attorney early

    The filing deadlines are real: two years for most general tort claims (C.R.S. 13-80-102), three years for motor vehicle crash claims (C.R.S. 13-80-101(1)(n)), and 182 days for government entity notice requirements (C.R.S. 24-10-109). Building a defensible Life Care Plan for a 60 to 90-day process takes time. Starting late compresses the investigation window and increases the risk of a rushed plan that gets challenged at trial.

Real Colorado results

Verdicts and settlements we have recovered for Colorado clients

  • $3,000,000 Car crash settlement, Montrose County
  • $2,527,546 Car crash verdict, Jefferson County
  • $1,654,629 Car crash verdict, Boulder County
  • $1,500,000 Car crash settlement, Summit County

Verdicts and settlements published on our case results page. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Every case depends on its own facts.

5-star rated on Google

I wish I could leave more than 5 stars!

Grace Macaluso, 5-star Google review

Your team

The team handling your Englewood catastrophic injury case

CGH Injury Lawyers is a eight-attorney Colorado firm founded in 2016, formerly Cheney Galluzzi and Howard. Managing Partner Kevin Cheney is a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA) and has tried over 25 cases to verdict. Timothy G. Tarr has been recognized by Best Lawyers every year since 2023. Catastrophic injury cases require a team willing to invest in certified Life Care Planners, forensic economists, and accident reconstructionists, and to try the case when an insurer refuses to value a permanent injury fairly. That is exactly what CGH Injury Lawyers does. We serve Englewood and all of Arapahoe County from our Denver office at no cost to you unless we win.

ABOTA member on the team Tim Tarr: Best Lawyers in America since 2023 Over 25 cases to verdict 18th Judicial District coverage Bilingual EN / ES We advance Life Care Plan costs No fee unless we win

Frequently asked questions

Englewood catastrophic injury, frequently asked questions

How long do I have to file a catastrophic injury lawsuit after an Englewood incident?

The deadline depends on how the injury happened. Most catastrophic injury claims not involving a motor vehicle are subject to the two-year general tort statute of limitations under C.R.S. 13-80-102. If a motor vehicle crash caused the injury, the deadline extends to three years from the date of the crash under C.R.S. 13-80-101(1)(n). If a government entity or government vehicle was involved, a written notice of claim must be submitted within 182 days of the date you discovered the injury under C.R.S. 24-10-109(1). Missing the government entity deadline extinguishes the claim against that entity regardless of how severe the injury is. Contact an attorney immediately, because building a defensible Life Care Plan requires 60 to 90 days on its own, and rushing the investigation window increases the risk of a flawed plan.

What is a Life Care Plan and why do I need one for my Englewood case?

A Life Care Plan is a certified forensic economic document that projects the total cost of your future medical and care needs over your lifetime. It covers everything health insurance excludes: home modifications, adaptive vehicles, attendant care beyond clinical necessity, vocational rehabilitation, and the replacement cycle for prosthetics and mobility equipment. In an Englewood catastrophic injury case, the plan is anchored to Craig Hospital rehabilitation protocols and Arapahoe County-area vendor pricing, which gives it credibility that national average software cannot match. The plan must be built by a credentialed specialist (CLCP or CNLCP) and must survive Shreck or Daubert admissibility review in Arapahoe County District Court. Without a defensible Life Care Plan, an insurer will dismiss future care demands as speculative.

Does Colorado cap the damages I can recover for a catastrophic injury?

Colorado caps non-economic damages such as pain and suffering at $1,500,000 for claims accruing on or after January 1, 2025, under C.R.S. 13-21-102.5. However, two categories are not capped at all. Economic damages, including the entire dollar amount of a Life Care Plan, past and future medical bills, attendant care, lost wages, and loss of earning capacity, have no cap. Compensation for physical impairment or disfigurement is also expressly not capped under C.R.S. 13-21-102.5(5), which states that nothing in that section limits the recovery of compensatory damages for physical impairment or disfigurement. In a serious catastrophic case, those two uncapped categories are almost always the largest components of the recovery.

What if I was partly at fault for the incident that caused my catastrophic injury?

Colorado follows a modified comparative fault rule under C.R.S. 13-21-111. You can still recover damages as long as your share of fault is less than 50 percent, and your award is reduced by your percentage. For example, if you are found 25 percent at fault and the total verdict is $4,000,000, you recover $3,000,000. However, if you are found 50 percent or more at fault, you recover nothing. In catastrophic cases on Englewood's high-traffic corridors, defense teams work hard to assign as much fault as possible to the injured person. Challenging that assignment with crash reconstruction data, expert testimony, and witness statements is critical.

Can my health insurance reduce what the at-fault party owes me?

No. Under Colorado's collateral source rule, the at-fault party cannot reduce what it owes you because you have health insurance that covers part of your treatment. The Life Care Plan establishes the full economic value of your future care regardless of what insurance may cover. Health insurance also leaves major gaps in a catastrophic case: it does not pay for home modifications, adaptive vehicles, most attendant care, vocational rehabilitation, or replacement cycles for prosthetics. The Life Care Plan documents all of it, and the defendant cannot use your insurance coverage as a discount on that amount.

Does CGH have an office in Englewood?

CGH Injury Lawyers does not have an Englewood office. We represent Englewood catastrophic injury clients from our Denver office at 2701 Lawrence St., Suite 201, Denver, CO 80205. Englewood is a service-area city for our firm. We coordinate directly with treating teams at Craig Hospital and HCA HealthONE Swedish, handle communications with Arapahoe County insurers and defense firms, and file cases in the 18th Judicial District from our Denver office. You do not need to travel to us for the work to get done.

Other injury cases we handle in Englewood and the catastrophic injury cases we handle across Colorado

Other Englewood services

Catastrophic injury by injury type

Colorado catastrophic injury overview

Nearby cities

It's More Than Money.

A catastrophic injury in Englewood changes everything. We build the case for the lifetime of care you actually need.

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CGH Injury Lawyers does not have an Englewood office. We serve Englewood and Arapahoe County from 2701 Lawrence St., Suite 201, Denver, CO 80205. (303) 209-9395.