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SH-7 corridor in Erie, Colorado. CGH Injury Lawyers represents Erie catastrophic injury victims in Boulder County and Weld County courts from our Denver office.
Erie, Colorado

Erie Catastrophic Injury Lawyers Who Build the Full Cost of a Lifetime of Care

A permanent, life-altering injury in Erie changes every part of your future. Economic damages such as lifetime medical costs, attendant care, and a certified Life Care Plan are never capped in Colorado. Compensation for physical impairment or disfigurement is not capped at all under C.R.S. 13-21-102.5(5). CGH Injury Lawyers serves Erie catastrophic injury victims from our Denver office, files in Boulder County or Weld County court depending on where the injury occurred, and tries cases to verdict when an insurer refuses to pay what a lifetime of care truly costs. No fee unless we win.

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5-star rated on Google Built for catastrophic-injury trials ABOTA trial advocate on the team Filing in Boulder County and Weld County courts

Erie sits at the intersection of I-25, SH-7, US 287, and SH-52, where commercial trucks, high-speed commuters, and construction equipment share roads that CDOT has flagged for funded safety improvements. When a crash on one of these corridors produces a traumatic brain injury, spinal cord damage, an amputation, or severe burns, the consequences stretch across decades. The at-fault insurer starts building a low-value defense before the ambulance reaches UCHealth Longs Peak Hospital in Longmont.

  • Colorado does not cap economic damages or compensation for physical impairment or disfigurement. Under C.R.S. 13-21-102.5(5), compensation for permanent physical impairment or disfigurement is not capped at all. A certified Life Care Plan, not a treating physician's letter, is the document that makes those uncapped losses legally recoverable and defensible under Colorado's Shreck and Daubert standards.
  • Colorado's general statute of limitations for a personal injury claim is two years (C.R.S. 13-80-102). If a government entity such as CDOT, Boulder County, Weld County, or the Town of Erie played any role in the conditions that caused the injury, a written notice of claim must be delivered within 182 days of discovering the injury (C.R.S. 24-10-109(1)). That government-notice clock is shorter than most Erie residents expect, and it runs from the date of discovery of the injury, not necessarily the date of the incident.
  • Erie's split-county geography controls where a lawsuit is filed. A catastrophic injury case arising in the western, Boulder County portion of Erie goes to the Boulder County Combined Court in Longmont (20th Judicial District). A case from the eastern, Weld County side goes to Weld County District Court in Greeley (19th Judicial District). Knowing which court controls your case from day one shapes every pre-litigation decision.

CGH Injury Lawyers represents Erie catastrophic injury victims from our Denver office at 2701 Lawrence St., Suite 201. We retain certified Life Care Planners, advance the cost of building your plan, and file in whichever district court controls your Erie case. The consultation is free, and you pay nothing unless we win.

What qualifies

What makes an injury catastrophic under Colorado law, and why it matters in Erie cases

A catastrophic injury is one that is permanent and life-altering: a spinal cord injury, a moderate to severe traumatic brain injury, a limb amputation, or a severe burn covering significant body surface area. Colorado courts do not use a single statutory definition. The classification turns on the medical evidence, the whole-person impairment rating under the AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment, and the degree to which the injury permanently changes the person's ability to perform daily life activities. A diagnosis alone does not settle the legal question. The legal question is permanence and life alteration, not severity at the time of the event.

Injury categories that qualify

  • Traumatic brain injury (TBI) with permanent cognitive deficits, memory impairment, or behavioral changes requiring lifetime supervision
  • Spinal cord injury causing paraplegia, quadriplegia, or incomplete loss of motor or sensory function requiring ongoing medical support
  • Limb amputation requiring prosthetics, home modifications, and vocational retraining
  • Severe burns covering significant body surface area and requiring skin grafts, reconstructive surgery, and long-term scar management
  • Permanent organ damage requiring dialysis, transplant, or other lifetime medical intervention

How Colorado law treats catastrophic damages differently

  • Economic damages, including all past and future medical expenses, lifetime attendant care, lost earning capacity, and Life Care Plan costs, are never capped in Colorado.
  • Compensation for physical impairment or disfigurement is not capped at all under C.R.S. 13-21-102.5(5), which explicitly excludes these damages from the general non-economic cap.
  • Non-economic damages such as pain and suffering are subject to Colorado's general cap: $1,500,000 for claims accruing on or after January 1, 2025, under C.R.S. 13-21-102.5.
  • In a catastrophic case, the uncapped economic and impairment or disfigurement categories typically carry far more value than the capped pain-and-suffering category.

Building your case

Why a Life Care Plan is the document that makes or breaks an Erie catastrophic injury case

Health insurance covers treatment. A Life Care Plan covers a life. These are not the same thing. A certified Life Care Plan is a forensic economic document that projects every medical need your injury will create from today through the end of your life, priced at Colorado-specific rates, and built to survive cross-examination in a Boulder County or Weld County courtroom.

  1. A certified planner, not a treating physician's letter

    Colorado Life Care Planners hold credentials such as CLCP or CNLCP. They review your full medical record, interview your treating physicians, and conduct functional capacity evaluations to identify every future need. A letter from your doctor stating you will need ongoing care does not satisfy the admissibility standards Colorado courts apply under the Shreck test and Daubert. It gets challenged and, in many cases, excluded. A certified planner's report does not.

  2. Colorado cost factors, not national averages

    National planning software defaults to U.S. average costs, which consistently underestimate what care actually costs along the Front Range. Rehabilitation services in the Boulder and Longmont area, in-home nursing care in Boulder County, and adaptive equipment sourced in Colorado all carry premium pricing compared to national defaults. A plan built on national averages gets challenged as speculative and can shrink a demand by millions of dollars.

  3. Medical inflation, not general CPI

    Medical costs inflate faster than the general cost of living. A plan that applies general inflation rates when projecting a thirty-year care horizon can understate lifetime costs significantly. For younger Erie clients with long life expectancies, this error is especially damaging. We make sure the economist behind the plan uses the correct medical inflation rate and can defend it on the stand.

  4. Built to survive Shreck and Daubert

    Colorado courts apply strict expert-testimony standards under the Shreck test, Colorado's adoption of Daubert, and CRE 702. Both the Life Care Planner and the forensic economist who translates the plan into a present-value number must show sufficient expertise and methodology. We prepare both experts for cross-examination so the plan holds up whether the case resolves in mediation or goes before a Weld County or Boulder County jury.

  5. We advance the cost

    A comprehensive Life Care Plan typically takes 60 to 90 days depending on injury complexity and medical record availability. We advance the cost of building yours. If we do not win, you owe nothing for the plan or our representation.

Compensation

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

Colorado law allows catastrophic injury victims to pursue two broad categories of damages: economic losses that can be documented, and non-economic losses for the human cost of a permanent injury. In catastrophic cases, the two categories with the most value are the ones Colorado law does not cap.

Economic damages (never capped)

  • Past and future medical expenses, including acute care at UCHealth Longs Peak or Foothills Hospital and all follow-on treatment
  • Lifetime attendant and nursing care, including daily assistance with activities of daily living
  • Home modifications such as ramps, widened doorways, and accessible bathrooms
  • Adaptive vehicles and specialized mobility equipment with replacement cycles
  • Lost wages and loss of future earning capacity
  • Vocational rehabilitation and retraining costs

Non-economic and impairment damages

  • Compensation for physical impairment or disfigurement, which is not capped at all under C.R.S. 13-21-102.5(5)
  • Pain and suffering, subject to Colorado's general non-economic cap of $1,500,000 for claims accruing on or after January 1, 2025
  • Loss of enjoyment of life
  • Emotional distress
  • Loss of consortium for a spouse or family member

Comparative fault and the collateral source rule in Erie catastrophic cases

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, and your award is reduced by your percentage of fault. If you are found 50 percent or more at fault, you recover nothing. In high-energy crashes on SH-7, I-25, or US 287 that produce catastrophic injuries, insurers regularly attempt to push the injured person's fault share high enough to bar or sharply reduce the claim. Evidence from crash reconstruction, road-condition records, and eyewitness accounts directly counters those arguments.

Colorado's collateral source rule also protects the full value of your Life Care Plan. The at-fault party cannot reduce what it owes just because you carry health insurance. If your future medical needs total a given amount, the defendant cannot argue that insurance will cover part of it and shrink the award. Health insurance leaves real gaps in catastrophic cases because policies exclude home modifications, adaptive vehicles, vocational rehabilitation, and most ongoing attendant care. The Life Care Plan documents the full economic scope regardless of what insurance may eventually pay.

Government entity claims

When a road defect or government vehicle caused the catastrophic injury in Erie

Erie's network of state highways, county roads, and CDOT-maintained corridors creates a layer of potential government entity liability that does not exist in simpler crash scenarios. When a defect on SH-7, a failure at the US 287 and SH-52 intersection, an I-25 interchange hazard, or a town-maintained street contributed to the conditions that caused a catastrophic injury, the Colorado Governmental Immunity Act (CGIA) controls how the claim proceeds.

  • A written notice of claim must be delivered within 182 days of discovering the injury (C.R.S. 24-10-109(1)). This deadline runs from the date of discovery of the injury, not necessarily the date of the incident. Missing it is a jurisdictional bar that forfeits the entire government-entity claim, no matter how strong the facts are.
  • For claims accruing on or after January 1, 2026, CGIA damage caps are $505,000 per person and $1,421,000 per occurrence (C.R.S. 24-10-114(1)). These caps apply to the total recovery from the government entity, not just non-economic damages.
  • The responsible entity depends on which road and which maintenance authority: CDOT for state highways including SH-7, US 287, SH-52, and the I-25 corridor; Boulder County for Boulder County roads; Weld County for Weld County roads; and the Town of Erie for municipal streets. Identifying the right entity and serving the correct notice is non-trivial in Erie because of the split-county boundary.
  • CDOT has a documented record of funded safety improvements at the US 287 and SH-52 intersection, including new turn lanes, bicycle lanes, pedestrian ramps, and signal replacement, because of known safety deficiencies there. That prior knowledge can be relevant to a catastrophic injury case arising from a collision at or near that intersection.
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After the injury

What to do after a catastrophic injury in Erie

The first days after a life-altering injury in Erie are medically overwhelming and legally consequential at the same time. These steps protect both your health and your claim while the deadlines that matter most are still running.

  1. Get to the right trauma center

    UCHealth Longs Peak Hospital in Longmont is the closest trauma center to Erie, designated as a Level III Trauma Center by CDPHE with a dedicated Trauma and Acute Care Surgery program. For more severe injuries, Boulder Community Health's Foothills Hospital at 4747 Arapahoe Avenue, Boulder, is an American College of Surgeons verified Level II Trauma Center. For spinal cord injury or traumatic brain injury requiring specialized rehabilitation, Craig Hospital in Englewood is consistently ranked among the top TBI and SCI rehabilitation centers in the country and sets the standard Colorado courts and insurers recognize for catastrophic care. Comprehensive records from whichever facility treats you form the medical foundation of your Life Care Plan.

  2. Preserve the scene and incident evidence

    Photographs of the crash site, any vehicle involved, road conditions, signage, and visible defects are critical before they are repaired or altered. If the injury occurred at or near the US 287 and SH-52 intersection, the SH-7 corridor, or the I-25 interchange, document which side of County Line Road the incident happened on. That detail determines the county, the courthouse, and which government entity receives any required CGIA notice.

  3. Do not give a recorded statement

    The at-fault party's insurer will contact you quickly. Any statement you give becomes part of the claim file and can be used to argue you were more at fault than you were under Colorado's modified comparative fault rule (C.R.S. 13-21-111). Insurers handling catastrophic injury claims understand how much money is at stake, and their adjusters are trained to gather information that minimizes their exposure. Contact an attorney before any recorded conversation.

  4. Contact CGH Injury Lawyers before the CGIA clock expires

    Colorado's general personal injury statute of limitations is two years (C.R.S. 13-80-102). But if any government entity had a role in causing or worsening the conditions that led to the injury, the 182-day written notice requirement under C.R.S. 24-10-109(1) starts running from the date of discovery of the injury. In Erie, where SH-7, US 287, SH-52, the I-25 corridor, and multiple county and town roads intersect, identifying the right government entity and delivering the correct notice in time requires immediate attention.

  5. Start the Life Care Plan process as early as possible

    A comprehensive Life Care Plan takes 60 to 90 days to build. Starting early allows the certified planner to assess your condition while the injury is fully documented, before secondary conditions develop or initial treatment choices are made under financial pressure. An early start also gives you the upper hand in negotiations, because the insurer cannot dismiss a documented, expert-backed demand the way it can dismiss a verbal claim.

Local context

The Erie courts, trauma care, and roads your catastrophic injury case depends on

Every element below is local context for your case, not a CGH office location. CGH Injury Lawyers has one office in Denver and serves Erie clients from there. These are the institutions and corridors that shape how a catastrophic injury claim from Erie actually unfolds.

Courthouses, Split County

Two District Courts Serve Erie Depending on Where the Injury Occurred

Erie's boundary runs roughly along County Line Road, placing the western portion of town in Boulder County and the eastern portion in Weld County. A catastrophic injury lawsuit is filed in the district court for the county where the injury-causing event occurred. For Weld County incidents, that is Weld County District Court (19th Judicial District) at 901 9th Ave, Greeley, CO 80631. For Boulder County incidents, the applicable court is the Boulder County Combined Court in Longmont (20th Judicial District) at 1035 Kimbark St, Longmont, CO 80501. CGH Injury Lawyers files and appears in both district courts and identifies the controlling court from the first conversation with every Erie catastrophic injury client.

Trauma Care

UCHealth Longs Peak, Boulder Foothills, and Craig Hospital

The closest trauma center to Erie is UCHealth Longs Peak Hospital in Longmont, a CDPHE-designated Level III Trauma Center with a dedicated Trauma and Acute Care Surgery program. For severe injuries, Boulder Community Health's Foothills Hospital at 4747 Arapahoe Avenue, Boulder, is an American College of Surgeons verified Level II Trauma Center. For spinal cord and traumatic brain injury rehabilitation, Craig Hospital in Englewood is consistently ranked among the best SCI and TBI rehabilitation facilities in the country. Craig's protocols define the recognized standard of catastrophic care that Life Care Plans in Colorado courts are benchmarked against. Treatment records and discharge summaries from these facilities form the clinical backbone of every Life Care Plan we build for Erie clients.

Key Roads and Corridors

I-25, SH-7, US 287, and SH-52

Interstate 25 passes through Erie with a full interchange at Erie Parkway, carrying high-speed Front Range commuter and commercial traffic that produces severe merging and rear-end collisions. SH-7 (Baseline Road) is Erie's principal east-west arterial connecting the town to Boulder, Lafayette, Louisville, and Brighton; CDOT completed shoulder widening near Erie Airport Drive on SH-7 in January 2026. US Highway 287 is a major north-south commercial and trucking corridor through town, and CDOT has funded a full safety improvement project at the US 287 and SH-52 intersection, including new turn lanes, bicycle lanes, pedestrian ramps, and signal replacement, because of documented safety deficiencies at that location. SH-52 carries agricultural and commercial traffic east through Weld County toward I-25. The location of a catastrophic injury on any of these corridors determines the county, the courthouse, and whether CDOT or a county highway authority must receive a CGIA notice within 182 days of discovery.

Serving Erie

No Erie Office. Full Erie Representation.

CGH Injury Lawyers has one office, at 2701 Lawrence St., Suite 201, Denver, CO 80205. We do not maintain a branch office in Erie. We serve Erie catastrophic injury clients from our Denver office, retain and advance the cost of certified Life Care Planners, file suits in Weld County District Court or the Boulder County Combined Court in Longmont depending on where the injury occurred, and meet clients wherever is most convenient. Erie clients do not need to travel to Denver to receive full representation.

Your team

The attorneys handling your Erie 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. Every Erie catastrophic injury case is handled by a licensed Colorado attorney, not a paralegal, and every case is prepared as if it will go before a jury in the 19th or 20th Judicial District. We retain and advance the cost of the certified Life Care Planners and forensic economists these cases require. You pay nothing unless we win.

ABOTA member on the team Tim Tarr: Best Lawyers in America since 2023 Over 25 cases to verdict Filing in Boulder County and Weld County courts Bilingual EN / ES We advance Life Care Plan costs No fee unless we win

Frequently asked questions

Erie catastrophic injury questions, answered

How long do I have to file a catastrophic injury lawsuit in Erie, Colorado?

Colorado's general personal injury statute of limitations is two years from the date of discovery of the injury (C.R.S. 13-80-102). If a government entity such as CDOT, Boulder County, Weld County, or the Town of Erie played any role in causing the conditions that led to the injury, a separate written notice of claim must be delivered within 182 days of discovering the injury (C.R.S. 24-10-109(1)). That government-notice deadline runs independently and can expire long before the two-year filing deadline. Missing it bars the government-entity portion of the claim entirely. Contact an attorney immediately after a catastrophic injury in Erie.

Does Colorado cap what I can recover in a catastrophic injury case?

Economic damages such as lifetime medical expenses, attendant care, lost earning capacity, and Life Care Plan costs are never capped in Colorado. Compensation for physical impairment or disfigurement is not capped at all under C.R.S. 13-21-102.5(5). Non-economic damages such as pain and suffering are capped at $1,500,000 for claims accruing on or after January 1, 2025, under C.R.S. 13-21-102.5. In a catastrophic case, the uncapped economic damages and impairment or disfigurement compensation typically represent the bulk of the recoverable value. Building a defensible Life Care Plan is what makes those uncapped categories legally recoverable.

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

A Life Care Plan is a certified forensic economic document that projects every medical and care need your injury will create from today through the rest of your life, priced at Colorado-specific rates. Without a certified plan, insurance adjusters treat future damage demands as speculative and discount them sharply. A plan built by a CLCP or CNLCP and supported by a forensic economist meets the admissibility standards Colorado courts apply under the Shreck test and Daubert, and it survives cross-examination. For any catastrophic injury in Erie that involves permanent impairment, a Life Care Plan is not optional. It is what makes your damages legally recoverable rather than dismissed as guesswork. CGH Injury Lawyers advances the cost of building yours.

What if a road defect on SH-7, US 287, or another Erie road contributed to my catastrophic injury?

Yes, a claim can be made against the responsible government entity, but the Colorado Governmental Immunity Act (CGIA) applies strict procedural requirements. A written notice of claim must be delivered within 182 days of discovering the injury (C.R.S. 24-10-109(1)). CDOT is responsible for state highways including SH-7, US 287, SH-52, and the I-25 corridor. Boulder County and Weld County maintain their respective county roads, and the Town of Erie maintains its municipal streets. For claims accruing on or after January 1, 2026, CGIA damage caps are $505,000 per person and $1,421,000 per occurrence (C.R.S. 24-10-114(1)). Identifying the correct entity and serving the proper notice on time requires experienced counsel, especially in Erie where the county boundary changes which authority maintains a given road.

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 recover damages as long as your share of fault is less than 50 percent, and your award is reduced by your percentage of fault. If you are found 50 percent or more at fault, you recover nothing. In catastrophic injury cases involving high-energy crashes, insurers work aggressively to push the injured person's fault share high enough to reduce or eliminate the payout. If you were found 49 percent at fault, for example, you would still recover 51 percent of the total damages. The evidence that counters inflated fault assignments, including crash reconstruction, road-condition records, and eyewitness accounts from I-25 or SH-7 scenes, is gathered early and preserved before it is lost.

Does CGH Injury Lawyers have an office in Erie?

No. CGH Injury Lawyers has one office, at 2701 Lawrence St., Suite 201, Denver, CO 80205. We do not have an Erie office or any branch location in Erie. We represent Erie catastrophic injury clients from our Denver office, file suits in Weld County District Court (19th Judicial District) in Greeley or the Boulder County Combined Court in Longmont (20th Judicial District) depending on which county the injury occurred in, and meet clients wherever is most convenient. Erie clients do not need to travel to Denver to receive full representation.

Related injury cases we handle for Erie clients

Erie practice areas

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Nearby cities

It's More Than Money.

A life-altering injury in Erie changes everything. We build the proof to recover what a lifetime of care actually costs.

Free consultation. No fee unless we win. Filing in Boulder County and Weld County courts.

Tell us what happened in Erie

100% confidential. No fee unless we win.

(303) 209-9395

Read next: Colorado catastrophic injury law and Life Care Planning