Mesa County Justice Center
The courts are at the Mesa County Justice Center, 125 N Spruce St., Grand Junction, CO 81501. Mesa County makes up the 21st Judicial District.
IT'S MORE THAN MONEY.
Grand Junction Bad Faith Insurance Lawyers Focused on Why Your Claim Was Refused
Start with the reason in your denial letter. The question the statute asks is whether that reason had a reasonable basis, and if it didn’t, the statute lets you seek more than the original claim. Call (303) 209-9395 to go over it with us.
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(303) 209-9395
Grand Junction, Mesa County
Why policyholders call us
CGH Injury Lawyers represents Grand Junction 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.
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ABOTA trial advocate on the team
Trial lawyers, not a settlement mill
8 attorneys, bilingual EN / ES
Your business was closed for weeks, or your roof needs replacing, or a crash left you relying on your coverage, and the insurer has decided not to pay in full. A Grand Junction bad faith insurance lawyer starts with the insurer’s stated reason and checks it against the policy and the claim file.
CGH Injury Lawyers works with Grand Junction policyholders from its office in Denver. Call (303) 209-9395 or message us through the contact page, including the insurer’s name and your claim number.
What This Page Covers
- The duty Colorado places on your insurer
- How the statutory claim and the common-law claim differ
- Mesa County’s Justice Center, local hospitals, and fire records
- The steps in a Grand Junction bad faith case
- Available damages, defenses you may hear, and filing deadlines
Key Takeaways
- The duty is owed to the insured. Colorado’s pattern jury instructions, chapter 25, frame good faith and fair dealing as something your insurer owes you.
- Two claims, one story. A policyholder can pursue a common-law claim and a claim under the insurance code at the same time.
- Reasonable basis is the dividing line. The insurance code treats a delay or denial as unreasonable when the insurer had no reasonable basis for it.
- The code lets you seek twice the benefit. If your claim was unreasonably delayed or denied, you can seek twice the covered benefit, along with reasonable attorney fees and court costs (10-3-1116(1)).
- Time limits apply. Two years is the general window for the common-law claim, counted from when the injury and its cause were or should have been known, so ask a lawyer to confirm your date.
Where Grand Junction Claims Break Down
A restaurant owner submits a business interruption claim after a kitchen fire, and the insurer questions every line of the lost-income figures without saying what it would accept. A storm damages a roof, and the insurer’s adjuster calls the damage old. A driver with minimal coverage causes a crash, and your own underinsured motorist carrier treats you like the opposing party.
In each case, we ask the question the statute asks: whether the insurer had a reasonable basis for its decision. Then we show you what the file says either way.
Common law vs. statute
Comparing Colorado’s Two Bad Faith Claims
The statutory claim is, in the words of the jury instructions, “in addition to and separate from” the older common-law claim. Subsection (4) of 10-3-1116 keeps the statutory action from displacing any other claim, statutory or common law.
| Topic | Under the statute | Under Savio |
|---|---|---|
| Legal basis | 10-3-1115 and 10-3-1116 | Travelers Insurance Co. v. Savio, Colorado Supreme Court (1985) |
| What you must prove | Delay or denial with no reasonable basis | Unreasonable conduct, and knowledge of it or reckless disregard |
| What you can recover | A suit for twice the covered benefit, reasonable attorney fees and court costs | Damages resulting from the conduct |
The insurance code
Under 10-3-1115(1)(a), insurers may not unreasonably delay or deny paying a claim for benefits owed to or on behalf of a first-party claimant. Subsection (2) ties unreasonableness to the absence of a reasonable basis for the action.
A first-party claimant is someone asserting a claim for benefits under the policy. The term excludes a person bringing a claim against an insured under a liability policy, which generally takes a claim against the other driver’s insurer out of the statute.
The statute also doesn’t apply to workers’ compensation, title insurance, or life insurance (10-3-1115(5), (6)).
The common-law standard
Savio requires two elements: unreasonable conduct, plus knowledge that the conduct was unreasonable or reckless disregard for that fact. The statutory claim requires only the first, so it’s the easier claim to prove.
Local Knowledge
Mesa County Courts, Hospitals and Records
Mesa County’s municipalities page names Grand Junction as the county seat. Where you sue an insurer depends on facts like where you live and where the insurer does business.
Hospital records
Medical records can help when an insurer disputes what treatment cost or why it was needed. St. Mary’s Regional Hospital, part of Intermountain Health, is at 2635 North 7th Street and appears on the state list of trauma facilities at Level II. Community Hospital, at 2351 G Road, is listed at Level III.
Fire department records
On a fire claim, the Grand Junction Fire Department’s records request page is where non-medical records, including fire records, can be requested. A fire record can help when the insurer questions how the loss happened.
Local disputes can start from claims like
- A business interruption claim tied up over lost-income calculations
- A roof or storm claim the insurer attributes to age or wear
- A fire claim where the insurer disputes the cause
- An underinsured motorist claim under your own auto policy
Why CGH
What You Get Working With CGH Injury Lawyers
Preparation as though a trial is coming
Each case is prepared as if it will be tried, and Managing Partner Kevin Cheney is an American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA) member.
Office in Denver
We’re at 2701 Lawrence St., Suite 201, Denver, CO 80205.
Spanish available
Call (303) 835-9177 to speak with us in Spanish.
How we handle your case
Steps in a Grand Junction Bad Faith Case
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We examine the claim
This means we will review your coverage, the correspondence, and the timeline.
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We choose the right claim or claims
The facts may fit common-law bad faith, statutory bad faith under 10-3-1116, or both.
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We demand payment in writing
A formal demand goes to the insurer.
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We gather evidence
Claims-file materials, documentation, and, where it helps, outside expert input.
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We file in the right place
For Grand Junction policyholders, that may be the district court for Mesa County, at the Mesa County Justice Center, subject to the facts.
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We pursue the remedies that apply
That includes the underlying benefit, statutory damages, and attorney fees where applicable.
Compensation
Available Damages
Every claim is valued on its own facts: the coverage, the harm, and the insurer’s conduct. We look at the file before discussing any number.
Statutory
Section 10-3-1116(1) lets a first-party claimant whose claim was unreasonably delayed or denied sue in district court to recover twice the covered benefit, together with reasonable fees for the attorney and the costs of court. An insurer’s payment of an unreasonably delayed benefit before judgment may not reduce that two-times award, per the jury instruction notes.
Common law
The damages instruction includes:
- Economic losses incurred or probable in the future
- Noneconomic losses or injuries
- Physical impairment or disfigurement, when the evidence supports it
Punitive
Punitive damages may be available in some cases. According to the instruction notes, proof of bad faith doesn’t alone establish a punitive damages claim.
Insurer defenses
Defenses You May Hear
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It was a judgment call
An insurer may challenge a claim that’s fairly debatable, even if its decision turns out to be mistaken. The jury instructions treat debatability as weighing against bad faith, but without more, it isn’t outcome-determinative or necessarily sufficient to defeat a bad faith claim as a matter of law. A claim the insurer had no reasonable basis to deny isn’t fairly debatable.
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The loss is excluded
An insurer can rely on an exclusion that fits your facts. When the exclusion it cites doesn’t match the facts or the policy language, that mismatch goes to whether it had a reasonable basis.
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The numbers weren’t supported
On a business interruption claim, an insurer can ask for records supporting lost income. A record of what you provided and when can make a repeat request for the same records easy to see.
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We decided based on what we had
An insurer’s decision is judged by the information it had when it made that decision. The jury instructions cite Schultz v. GEICO Casualty Co., so the claim file as it stood on the decision date can matter.
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The investigation isn’t finished
Your insurer is allowed time to investigate. A claim that sits after every inspection and document request is complete may look different, and the jury instruction notes allow conduct that Colorado’s insurance code prohibits to be considered as evidence of unreasonable delay or denial (C.R.S. 10-3-1113(2) and (3)).
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Deadlines and next steps
Filing Deadlines in Grand Junction
Common-law bad faith is a tort under the jury instructions, barred under 13-80-102 if not brought within two years after the injury and its cause were known, or should have been known with reasonable diligence.
As for the statutory claim, Rooftop Restoration, Inc. v. American Family Mutual Insurance Co. held that the one-year penalty limit in 13-80-103(1)(d) does not apply to a 10-3-1116(1) action. Rely on a lawyer to confirm your deadline.
Underinsured motorist disputes have their own deadlines. Per the instruction notes, a bad faith claim over unpaid UIM benefits can’t accrue until you hold a judgment against the at-fault underinsured driver or have reached a settlement with that driver.
The date on the insurer’s first denial or partial payment letter is worth writing down now. It gives your lawyer a starting point for working out which deadline applies.
Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
When does a denial become a bad faith insurance claim in Colorado?
Under the statute, the line is crossed when the insurer is denied or delayed with no reasonable basis (10-3-1115). That’s the core of a bad faith insurance claim in Colorado, and a common-law claim adds proof that the insurer knew the denial was unreasonable or recklessly disregarded that.
Can a business bring a bad faith claim over business interruption coverage?
A business claiming benefits under its policy is a first-party claimant, which is who the statute protects. Whether a denial or underpayment was unreasonable depends on the policy and the insurer’s basis.
Does the statute help with health or disability denials?
It can. Health and disability claims are first-party claims for benefits, and in a health or disability policy issued in Colorado, a clause handing the insurer discretion to construe the terms or decide eligibility is void (10-3-1116(2)). Under a health, life, or disability policy issued in Colorado, once you’ve worked through the administrative remedies, subsection (3) gives a denied claimant a fresh, de novo look in court, with a jury.
Can I sue the at-fault driver’s insurer for bad faith?
Generally no. The statute’s protection is for people claiming under their own policies, and a claim against somebody else’s liability insurer falls outside it. Coverage you hold, such as your own uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage, is where it can apply.
The roof check finally arrived, months late. Is there still a claim?
There can be. According to the jury instruction notes, an unreasonably delayed benefit paid before judgment can’t be used to reduce the statutory two-times award. What matters is whether those months of delay had a reasonable basis.
Which court would hear a Grand Junction case?
The facts decide it, among them your home county and the places the insurer operates. A case involving a policyholder from Grand Junction might go to the district court for Mesa County, at the Mesa County Justice Center.
Is CGH Injury Lawyers based in Grand Junction?
No. Grand Junction clients work with our Denver office at 2701 Lawrence St., Suite 201. The number to call is (303) 209-9395.
Keep Reading
Related pages
It's More Than Money.
Speak With a Grand Junction Bad Faith Insurance Attorney
When the reason in the denial letter doesn’t match your policy, talk it through with a bad-faith insurance attorney. You can reach us by phone at (303) 209-9395, or send a message through the contact page.
Our Colorado bad faith insurance lawyer page explains the law statewide, and the Denver bad faith insurance lawyer page covers claims closer to our office. For crash-related coverage, see the Grand Junction car accident lawyer and Grand Junction uninsured motorist lawyer pages. General injury questions go to Grand Junction 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. Laws vary by jurisdiction and change frequently. Always consult a licensed attorney for advice specific to your situation.