When a crash on I-25, a US-287 truck corridor collision, or another serious accident leaves you permanently hurt in Fort Collins or Larimer County, you need more than a settlement check. You need a certified Life Care Plan that proves the full cost of a lifetime of care. CGH Injury Lawyers serves Fort Collins from our Denver office. No fee unless we win.
No fee unless we winIt's More Than Money.
CGH Injury Lawyers represents Fort Collins and Larimer County residents with permanent, life-altering injuries from our Denver office at 2701 Lawrence St., Suite 201. We do not have a Fort Collins office, but we take Larimer County cases to the Larimer County Justice Center at 201 LaPorte Ave and to trial in the 8th Judicial District when an insurer refuses to be fair. The first consultation is free. You pay nothing unless we win.
Colorado courts do not use one universal statutory definition. The classification depends on three things: whether the injury is permanent, whether it qualifies under the damage-cap exception that removes physical impairment and disfigurement from Colorado's general noneconomic cap, and how much the injury changes your ability to sustain an independent life. A diagnosis alone does not make an injury catastrophic. The legal question is permanence and life-altering impact.
Colorado draws a critical line between categories of damages. Getting that line right is the difference between recovering the full cost of a lifetime of care and leaving hundreds of thousands of dollars on the table.
Economic damages, including past and future medical expenses, lifetime attendant care, lost earning capacity, and the cost of a Life Care Plan, are never capped in Colorado. That is the first uncapped category. The second is compensation for physical impairment or disfigurement. Under C.R.S. 13-21-102.5(5), the statute says: "Nothing in this section shall be construed to limit the recovery of compensatory damages for physical impairment or disfigurement." Those two categories are not subject to any ceiling, and in a catastrophic injury case they typically make up the overwhelming majority of the recovery.
Under Colorado's collateral source rule, the at-fault party cannot reduce what it owes you because you carry health insurance. If your Life Care Plan documents $2 million in future care costs, the defendant cannot argue that your insurer will cover part of it and shrink the bill. Health insurance also leaves real gaps: policies carry lifetime limits and narrow definitions of medical necessity, and they exclude home modifications, adaptive vehicles, vocational rehabilitation, and most attendant care. The Life Care Plan captures the full cost regardless of what insurance pays.
Colorado follows modified comparative negligence under C.R.S. 13-21-111. If you are found to be 50 percent or more at fault for the crash or incident that caused your injury, you recover nothing. If you are found less than 50 percent at fault, your damages are reduced in proportion to your share of fault. Insurers routinely attempt to assign inflated fault percentages to Fort Collins injury victims precisely to trigger this bar. Building a complete liability case from the crash report, CDOT road data, and the physical evidence is how we defend your full recovery.
A Fort Collins catastrophic injury case lives in its local geography: the roads where collisions occur, the trauma centers where victims are treated, and the courthouse where claims are resolved. Here is the ground our attorneys work on.
Courthouse
Personal injury and wrongful death cases arising in Larimer County are filed in the 8th Judicial District at the Larimer County Justice Center, located at 201 LaPorte Ave, Suite 100, Fort Collins, CO 80521. Larimer County civil procedure has its own local rules, scheduling orders, and bench tendencies. CGH Injury Lawyers handles 8th Judicial District cases directly and files in that courthouse when an insurer refuses to offer fair value.
Trauma Care
UCHealth Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins is a Level III Trauma Center verified by the American College of Surgeons and designated by the State of Colorado. Patients with the most severe injuries are frequently transferred south to UCHealth Medical Center of the Rockies in Loveland, approximately 20 miles away, which holds a Level I Trauma Center designation from the State of Colorado (2022). The trauma records from both facilities document the full scope of injury, the initial impairment rating, and the baseline for a defensible Life Care Plan.
High-Crash Roads
Fort Collins sits at the intersection of three major corridors with documented crash histories. The I-25 and Mulberry Street (SH-14) interchange has been identified by CDOT for replacement due to unconventional traffic operations, flooding, and aging infrastructure. The US-287 north corridor from Ted's Place to the Wyoming border recorded 570 crashes including 15 fatalities over a five-year period, with approximately 900 trucks daily, per a CDOT active safety study as of October 2023. College Avenue (US-287) through the city and the Colorado State University campus area generates heavy event traffic around Canvas Stadium (36,500-seat capacity at 751 W Pitkin St). Old Town Fort Collins and the Linden Street and Mountain Avenue downtown core see high pedestrian and bicycle exposure in a dense mixed-use zone. These are the roads, intersections, and environments where catastrophic injuries happen in Fort Collins.
Local Hazards
Fort Collins presents injury risk factors that national insurers and generic life care planners often miss. Flash flooding affects the Cache La Poudre River and Spring Creek corridors, and Fort Collins carries a FEMA Community Rating System Class 2 designation reflecting ongoing flood risk. Severe winter storms and black ice on I-25 and US-287 contribute to multi-vehicle pile-ups, particularly on the open stretches north of the city. Post-burn debris flows from the Cameron Peak Fire burn scar in Larimer County add road hazard in western Larimer County. High winds identified in the Larimer County Multi-Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan affect large-vehicle stability on the open highway segments. A Life Care Plan built for a Fort Collins client must account for these local conditions when projecting future mobility needs, home access, and care continuity.
We serve Fort Collins from our Denver office, which means you work directly with trial lawyers, not a local referral network. We do not publish aggregate settlement figures, because no number on a page tells you what your case is worth. What we offer is the work: a defensible Life Care Plan, a trial-ready litigation team, and no fee unless we win.
Uncapped Recovery
Physical impairment and disfigurement damages are not capped at all. Economic damages are never capped. We build the case around the two categories Colorado law protects most.
Certified Life Care Plans
A certified Life Care Plan built by a CLCP or CNLCP planner and a forensic economist is the foundation of every catastrophic injury case. We commission it, advance the cost, and defend it against Shreck and Daubert challenges. You pay nothing until we win.
8th Judicial District
When an insurer refuses to be fair, we take your case to the Larimer County Justice Center in Fort Collins and try it in front of a Larimer County jury.
Honest Case Review
If a case does not qualify as catastrophic under Colorado law, or the facts do not support the damages a Life Care Plan would project, we tell you that in the free review rather than sign you up and let the case stall.
Trial-Ready
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. When attorneys are genuinely prepared to take a Larimer County case to trial, insurers respond to demands differently.
Bilingual
Spanish-speaking staff and attorneys serve Fort Collins families who prefer to communicate in Spanish.
No Win, No Fee
You pay nothing out of pocket for legal fees or Life Care Plan costs. We advance everything and collect only from a settlement or verdict.
The decisions you make in the days after a catastrophic injury affect the case for years. Here is the path we walk with every Fort Collins client.
UCHealth Poudre Valley Hospital handles Level III trauma in Fort Collins. For the most severe injuries, transfer to UCHealth Medical Center of the Rockies in Loveland provides Level I trauma care. Get all care needed and keep every discharge record, imaging result, and follow-up note. These records are the foundation of your impairment rating and your Life Care Plan.
Request the Larimer County Sheriff or Fort Collins Police Department report immediately. For truck corridor crashes on US-287 or I-25, preservation letters to carriers and their electronic logging device vendors must go out within days. Evidence is lost when it is not demanded fast.
The at-fault party's insurer will call quickly. Recorded statements given without counsel routinely minimize the severity of the injury and limit what you can later claim. Do not give one. Call us at (303) 209-9395 first.
We engage a certified Life Care Planner (CLCP or CNLCP) and a forensic economist to build a Colorado-specific, medically necessary projection of your lifetime care costs. A comprehensive plan typically takes 60 to 90 days. We advance the full cost.
Most cases settle when the insurer sees a trial-ready team, a certified Life Care Plan, and a forensic economist prepared to testify. When they do not, we file in the Larimer County Justice Center and try the case in the 8th Judicial District.
Colorado law allows permanently injured people to recover two broad categories of damages. In a catastrophic case, the categories that matter most are the ones that carry no cap.
The distinction is practical. Non-economic damages such as pain and suffering are subject to Colorado's general cap of $1.5 million for claims accruing on or after January 1, 2025 (C.R.S. 13-21-102.5). Economic damages and compensation for physical impairment or disfigurement are not subject to that ceiling. Because those uncapped categories, often totaling several times the non-economic damages in a serious case, are where the real value lies, the Life Care Plan becomes the most important document in the case. It turns future care needs from a speculative request into an objectively defensible number.
Catastrophic injury claims in Larimer County face a predictable set of insurer arguments. Knowing them in advance is how we build a case that survives each one.
Defense teams attack Life Care Plans that use national cost averages, general inflation rates instead of medical inflation, or uncredentialed planners. We counter this by commissioning plans from CLCP or CNLCP certified professionals who use Colorado-specific vendor pricing, medical inflation modeling, and documented medical necessity from treating physicians. The plan is built to survive a Shreck and Daubert challenge, not just to support a demand letter.
Insurers hire defense medical experts to minimize impairment ratings and argue that conditions will improve. We support impairment ratings with AMA Guides whole-person assessments from treating and independent medical experts, functional capacity evaluations, and neuropsychological testing where cognitive deficits are at issue. The medical record is built to make the permanence case before a jury.
Colorado's modified comparative negligence rule under C.R.S. 13-21-111 bars recovery entirely if the plaintiff is 50 percent or more at fault. Insurers use reconstruction reports, weather data, and road condition records to inflate the plaintiff's share. On documented crash corridors like US-287 and I-25, CDOT road data, CDOT safety study findings, and preserved electronic logging device records from truck crashes are the tools we use to accurately assign fault and defend yours.
Under Colorado's collateral source rule, the defendant cannot offset your damages by pointing to your health insurance. The Life Care Plan establishes the full cost of your future care, and the at-fault party owes that amount regardless of what your insurer pays. Health insurance also does not cover home modifications, adaptive equipment, vocational rehabilitation, and most attendant care, so a complete Life Care Plan always exceeds what any policy pays.
Catastrophic injury claims often involve stacked insurance coverage from multiple sources. Understanding what is available and in what order is one of the most consequential decisions in the case.
I wish I could leave more than 5 stars!
No. CGH Injury Lawyers serves Fort Collins and all of Larimer County from our Denver office at 2701 Lawrence St., Suite 201, Denver, CO 80205, (303) 209-9395. We handle the Larimer County Justice Center filings, the 8th Judicial District local rules, and trial in Fort Collins directly from Denver. Distance has not prevented us from representing Larimer County clients in serious injury cases.
Partly, and the part that is capped is rarely the most valuable in a catastrophic case. Non-economic damages such as pain and suffering are capped at $1.5 million for claims accruing on or after January 1, 2025 under C.R.S. 13-21-102.5, with inflation adjustments beginning in 2028. But two categories carry no cap at all: economic damages such as medical expenses, attendant care, lost earning capacity, and a Life Care Plan, and compensation for physical impairment or disfigurement under C.R.S. 13-21-102.5(5). In a catastrophic case those two uncapped categories are almost always larger than the pain and suffering number.
A Life Care Plan is a forensic economic document prepared by a certified planner (CLCP or CNLCP) and a forensic economist. It maps your clinical diagnosis to every anticipated future medical need, assigns Colorado-specific costs to each item, applies medical inflation (which consistently outpaces general inflation), and projects total lifetime expense. Without a certified plan, insurers dismiss future damage claims as speculative. With one, you have an objectively defensible number that withstands Shreck and Daubert challenges in Colorado courts. CGH advances the cost of building yours.
Personal injury cases arising in Larimer County are filed in the 8th Judicial District at the Larimer County Justice Center, 201 LaPorte Ave, Suite 100, Fort Collins, CO 80521. Most catastrophic injury cases settle before a lawsuit is filed, but the courthouse where a case would go shapes the jury pool, the local rules, and how insurers evaluate your demand. CGH Injury Lawyers handles 8th Judicial District filings and tries cases in Fort Collins when necessary.
UCHealth Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins is a Level III Trauma Center verified by the American College of Surgeons and designated by the State of Colorado. Patients with the most severe injuries are frequently transferred to UCHealth Medical Center of the Rockies in Loveland, approximately 20 miles south of Fort Collins, which holds a Level I Trauma Center designation from the State of Colorado (2022). The medical records from both facilities document the injury severity, initial impairment, and the baseline for a defensible Life Care Plan.
Crashes on the US-287 corridor from Ted's Place to the Wyoming border involve a documented high-crash environment. CDOT's safety study identified 570 crashes including 15 fatalities over a five-year period on that stretch, with approximately 900 trucks daily. If your crash involved a commercial truck, the case often involves commercial liability policies with higher limits than personal auto, electronic logging device evidence that must be preserved quickly, and potentially carrier liability separate from the driver. The same facts that make US-287 dangerous are also evidence in the liability case. We analyze that corridor for every Fort Collins truck accident claim.
Yes. Your own underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage can pay the difference when the at-fault party's policy is not enough to cover the full Life Care Plan and other damages. UIM coverage is one of the most important and underutilized protections in a catastrophic case. We review your own policy as part of the first case evaluation and pursue every available source of coverage.
Colorado follows modified comparative negligence under C.R.S. 13-21-111. If you are found to be less than 50 percent at fault, you can still recover damages, but your award is reduced by your percentage of fault. If you are found 50 percent or more at fault, you recover nothing. Insurers routinely attempt to inflate the plaintiff's fault percentage to reduce or eliminate the claim. We use crash reconstruction, CDOT road data, and preserved evidence to accurately establish each party's share of fault and defend your recovery.
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Read next: How Colorado law treats catastrophic injury damages statewide.
CGH Injury Lawyers · 2701 Lawrence St., Suite 201, Denver, CO 80205 · Serving Fort Collins and Larimer County
