A civil claim lets survivors of sexual assault and abuse seek compensation and hold negligent institutions accountable on a separate track from criminal prosecution. CGH Injury Lawyers serves Englewood and all of Arapahoe County from our Denver office with a confidential, trauma-informed approach. Your first conversation with us is free and protected by attorney-client privilege.
No fee unless we winYou are in control
There is no obligation and no public record when you reach out. We listen, explain your options, and move at a pace that respects where you are. Nothing happens that you have not chosen.
A civil sexual assault claim is a separate legal path from the criminal courts. Survivors in Englewood and throughout Arapahoe County can pursue compensation and force institutional accountability through the civil system, regardless of whether any criminal charges were ever filed or how a criminal case ended.
CGH Injury Lawyers represents survivors across Englewood and Arapahoe County from our Denver office. We handle the legal process with a confidential, trauma-informed approach. Every step is yours to control, and your first consultation is free and protected by attorney-client privilege.
Justice beyond the criminal courts
Criminal prosecution and a civil lawsuit are two separate systems with different goals, different timelines, and different outcomes. Understanding the difference is the foundation for understanding your options as a survivor.
Criminal case
The District Attorney, not the survivor, controls whether charges are filed. The state must prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, an extremely high bar. Even a conviction provides no direct financial compensation to a survivor. You are a witness, not the party in charge.
Civil case
You decide whether to file. You must show that harm occurred and that a defendant is responsible, using the preponderance-of-the-evidence standard. The purpose is compensation for your losses and accountability from the people and organizations whose failures contributed to the assault.
For many Englewood survivors, the criminal process did not deliver accountability. The DA may have declined to prosecute, the criminal deadline may have passed before you were ready, or the jury may not have reached a conviction despite compelling evidence. None of those outcomes closes your civil path. A civil claim is yours to pursue on a separate track, and you keep control of every decision along the way.
Colorado time limits
Colorado has fundamentally changed the rules for sexual misconduct civil claims in recent years. The short answer is that there is no deadline, but the full analysis of your specific timeline is still worth a confidential review before anything is filed.
If you have been carrying the belief that it happened too long ago to matter legally, Colorado's elimination of the statute of limitations for sexual misconduct claims was written precisely for survivors in that position. We will evaluate your exact timeline and tell you honestly where your situation stands.
Institutional accountability
One of the most consequential aspects of a civil sexual assault claim is the ability to hold institutions accountable. An organization that employed the abuser, ran the program, or operated the facility often bears direct legal responsibility when its failures in hiring, supervision, or oversight created the conditions for harm. Institutions frequently have the resources to provide meaningful compensation that an individual defendant does not.
Theory of liability
Organizations that place people in positions of trust with vulnerable individuals have a duty to conduct reasonable background checks. When a school, healthcare facility, or youth organization hires someone without checking complaint histories or prior misconduct, and harm follows, that hiring failure can ground liability.
Theory of liability
Even when an organization's initial hiring was reasonable, ongoing supervision must be adequate. When administrators receive warning signs or complaints and fail to investigate or act, the organization shares responsibility for the abuse that follows. This is one of the most common grounds for institutional liability.
Theory of liability
When an institution learns of misconduct but keeps the person in a role where they can cause further harm, including transferring rather than removing a known problem, it takes on liability for subsequent abuse. This pattern appears often in schools, religious organizations, and healthcare settings.
Theory of liability
An employer can in certain circumstances be held responsible for an employee's acts when the employment relationship created the opportunity for abuse or when the wrongful conduct occurred within the scope of the employment role. Rideshare platforms and transportation companies have faced these claims when drivers assaulted passengers during trips.
It is not about reliving what happened. It is about reclaiming control and forcing the institutions that failed you to answer for it.
Englewood, Arapahoe County
Sexual assault civil claims filed on behalf of Englewood survivors have a local shape. This is the ground we work on.
Medical Care
HCA HealthONE Swedish at 501 E. Hampden Avenue in Englewood is a CDPHE-designated Level I Trauma Center and one of only three Level I Trauma Centers in Colorado. It is where many survivors of acute assault injuries in Arapahoe County receive emergency and follow-up care. Forensic examinations and Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) documentation created at Swedish and similar facilities form critical evidence in civil cases, establishing the medical record of physical and psychological injuries. Craig Hospital at 3425 S. Clarkson Street in Englewood is a federally designated Traumatic Brain Injury and Spinal Cord Injury Model System. When a sexual assault results in catastrophic physical injury, Craig Hospital records document the scope and duration of recovery with the detail needed to build a complete damages claim for both immediate medical costs and long-term rehabilitation needs.
Local Context
Englewood's South Broadway corridor and the Englewood City Center area draw high volumes of rideshare and transportation activity. Rideshare platform assaults occurring during active trips along South Broadway, near the light rail stations at Oxford and Englewood, or throughout the Arapahoe County corridor involve layered insurance structures where platform liability and driver liability must both be evaluated. Institutional settings in the south metro, including educational programs, youth sports organizations, and healthcare facilities along the Hampden Avenue corridor, have each been grounds for civil claims in Colorado when supervision failures allowed harm. We investigate the specific institution and setting where your assault occurred.
Courthouse
Civil sexual assault and abuse lawsuits filed on behalf of Englewood survivors go to the 18th Judicial District of Colorado, Arapahoe County District Court. The court sits at the Arapahoe County Justice Center, 7325 S. Potomac Street, Centennial, CO 80112, and the Arapahoe County Courthouse, 1790 West Littleton Blvd, Littleton, CO 80120. Colorado courts in this district allow protective measures including pseudonymous filing, sealed records, and restricted deposition access for sexual assault cases. CGH Injury Lawyers handles civil sexual assault claims in Arapahoe County District Court directly from our Denver office. CGH Injury Lawyers does not have an Englewood office. Englewood is a service-area city served from our Denver location at 2701 Lawrence St., Suite 201.
Your privacy and safety
Survivors often share one fear above all others: public exposure. Colorado's legal system offers meaningful privacy protections for civil sexual assault cases, and our team structures every step of the process around your safety and your control.
Anonymity
Courts in the 18th Judicial District, like other Colorado courts, allow survivors to file under a pseudonym such as Jane Doe or John Doe in many sexual assault cases. Your real name does not appear in public court records. This protection exists because forcing public identification deters valid claims and can cause additional harm to survivors who came forward at significant personal cost.
Protective orders
Arapahoe County District Court can seal sensitive documents, limit attendance at depositions, and restrict how personal information uncovered during litigation may be used or disclosed. These protections help ensure the litigation process does not become a second violation of your privacy.
Confidential from the start
Your initial case review is completely confidential and protected by attorney-client privilege. You can explore your options and ask every question you have with no public record and no obligation to proceed. We reach clients across Arapahoe County by phone or in person at our Denver office.
Trauma-informed
We allow support persons at consultations, build scheduling flexibility around difficult stages of the case, and never push a survivor toward a step they have not chosen. Our team understands that litigation can retraumatize when handled without care, and we handle it differently.
Compensation
Colorado law recognizes multiple categories of damages in civil sexual assault and abuse cases. A civil claim seeks to make survivors whole by compensating the real harm done, both the costs you can document and the human cost of living with what happened.
How it works
Every case is different and you set the pace. These are the stages most civil sexual assault claims in Arapahoe County move through, from a confidential first conversation to filing in the 18th Judicial District when an institution refuses to provide fair compensation.
We listen, explain your options under Colorado law, and answer every question you have. What you share is protected by attorney-client privilege. There is no cost and no obligation to move forward.
Using civil discovery, we obtain records you may not have access to on your own: complaint histories, personnel files, institutional policies, training records, and prior incident reports. At HCA HealthONE Swedish and other Arapahoe County medical facilities, forensic examination records form the medical foundation of the damages claim. We build the institutional chain of responsibility alongside the personal harm narrative.
We document the full scope of your harm and pursue resolution with the responsible parties and their insurers. Most civil sexual abuse cases resolve before trial, often through a confidential settlement. We negotiate from a trial-ready position, not from willingness to accept the first offer.
When an institution refuses to be fair, we file in the 18th Judicial District, Arapahoe County District Court, and prepare your case for trial. Colorado courts allow protective measures for sensitive testimony including closed proceedings and testimony by video. We prepare you thoroughly so you are never in a courtroom unprepared or unprotected.
Your team
CGH Injury Lawyers is a eight-attorney Colorado personal injury firm founded in 2016, formerly Cheney Galluzzi & 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. We handle institutional liability cases with the resources and willingness to take a case as far as it needs to go, and we treat every survivor client with confidentiality, respect, and genuine care for their control over every decision. Englewood and all of Arapahoe County are served from our Denver office. We come to you.
Frequently asked questions
For civil claims based on sexual misconduct, Colorado eliminated the statute of limitations effective January 1, 2022 (C.R.S. 13-80-103.7). There is no deadline. These claims can be filed at any time regardless of when the assault occurred. The open window also applies to older abuse as long as the previous deadline had not fully expired by January 1, 2022. One exception is worth noting: if a government entity such as a public school or county-operated facility was involved, a written notice of claim must be submitted within 182 days of discovering the injury under the Colorado Governmental Immunity Act (C.R.S. 24-10-109). The safest step is a confidential review of your specific timeline before drawing any conclusions about whether a claim is viable.
Yes. The outcome of a criminal case has no binding effect on a civil claim. Criminal cases require proof beyond a reasonable doubt, which is an extremely high standard. Civil claims use the preponderance-of-the-evidence standard, meaning the case only needs to be more likely true than not. A prosecutor declining to file charges, a grand jury not indicting, or a criminal jury returning a not-guilty verdict does not prevent a civil case from moving forward. Many survivors pursue civil claims precisely because the criminal system did not deliver the accountability they sought.
Often yes. Schools, healthcare facilities, religious organizations, youth programs, rideshare platforms, and employers may be held liable if they failed in their duty to hire carefully, supervise appropriately, or act when warning signs were present. Institutional claims are frequently the most consequential part of a civil sexual assault case because the institution has both the responsibility and the resources to provide meaningful compensation. We investigate the full chain of responsibility, from the individual abuser to the organizational failures that created the conditions for harm.
In many sexual assault civil cases, courts allow survivors to file under a pseudonym such as Jane Doe or John Doe so their real name does not appear in public court records. Arapahoe County District Court can also issue protective orders that seal sensitive documents and restrict who may attend depositions. Your initial consultation with us is protected by attorney-client privilege with no public record at all. We discuss available privacy protections for your specific situation at the very first conversation.
Non-economic damages such as pain and suffering are capped at $1,500,000 for claims accruing on or after January 1, 2025 (C.R.S. 13-21-102.5). That cap is flat with no scheduled increase currently in effect. Compensation for physical impairment or disfigurement is not subject to the cap. Economic damages, including therapy costs, medical bills, lost wages, and lost future earning capacity, are never capped. In cases involving egregious institutional conduct, punitive damages may also be available under C.R.S. 13-21-102, capped at the actual damages awarded unless a court finds grounds to raise that to three times actual damages for continued willful and wanton conduct after the lawsuit was filed.
CGH Injury Lawyers does not have an Englewood office. We represent Englewood and Arapahoe County clients from our Denver office at 2701 Lawrence St., Suite 201, Denver, CO 80205. We reach clients across Arapahoe County by phone and in person at our Denver location, handle all communications and filings from there, and appear in Arapahoe County District Court in Centennial and Littleton when cases require it. You do not need to travel to us for the work to move forward.
If your situation involves circumstances beyond a sexual assault civil claim, we handle related cases that often arise alongside or from the same events.
It's More Than Money.
Free, confidential consultation. No fee unless we win. Serving Englewood and all of Arapahoe County in English and Spanish from our Denver office.
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CGH Injury Lawyers, serving Englewood and Arapahoe County from 2701 Lawrence St., Suite 201, Denver, CO 80205. (303) 209-9395.
