Criminal case
Brought by the state
Prosecutors must prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, an extremely high standard. The aim is punishment of the offender, such as incarceration or fines. The survivor is a witness, not the party in control.
Grand Junction, Colorado
Grand Junction Sexual Assault Civil Lawyers Who Hold Institutions Accountable
We represent survivors of sexual assault and abuse in civil claims across Grand Junction and Mesa County.
No fee unless we win
Or speak with us privately now(303) 209-9395
You are in control
A confidential conversation, on your terms
There is no obligation and no public record when you reach out. We listen, explain your options, and move at a pace that respects you. Nothing is filed that you have not chosen.
- Protected as a prospective-client communication under Colorado's professional-conduct rules
- Jane Doe and John Doe filings available in many cases
- Bilingual, trauma-informed team
5-star rated on GoogleABOTA trial advocate on the teamConfidential, trauma-informedNo fee unless we win
A civil claim is a separate legal path from any criminal case, built to hold negligent institutions accountable and recover real compensation. You decide whether to bring one, and your first conversation with us is confidential. We represent Western Slope survivors statewide from our Denver office and meet you by phone, video, or in person.
A civil claim gives survivors of sexual assault and abuse in Grand Junction a path to compensation and institutional accountability that stands apart from any criminal case.
- Civil claims are decided under a lower standard of proof than criminal trials. You can bring a civil claim whether or not the 21st Judicial District Attorney's Office ever files charges, and no matter the outcome of a criminal case.
- Responsibility frequently reaches past the individual to the school, employer, care facility, or organization whose negligence allowed the harm to happen.
- Colorado removed the civil filing deadline for sexual misconduct claims effective January 1, 2022, and that change also reaches older claims that had not already expired by that date. Claims that were already too late under the previous deadline generally cannot be revived. Because that turns entirely on specific dates, we review your exact timeline before anything is filed.
CGH Injury Lawyers represents Grand Junction survivors with a confidential, trauma-informed approach. We represent Western Slope clients statewide from our Denver office and handle Mesa County Justice Center filings directly, meeting with you by phone, video, or in person, whichever is most private and convenient. We take on the institution, the investigation, and the litigation, while you decide how and whether the case moves forward. Your first consultation is free.
Justice beyond the criminal courts
Why a civil claim matters for Grand Junction survivors
A criminal prosecution and a civil claim answer two different questions. A criminal case belongs to the State of Colorado, and its purpose is to punish an offender. A civil case belongs to you, and its purpose is to compensate you for what you actually lost and to make the institution that let it happen answer for the failure.
On the Western Slope, that distinction carries real weight. The 21st Judicial District Attorney's Office, which prosecutes cases arising in Mesa County, decides whether and how to charge based on its own resources and its own burden of proof. You have no vote in that decision.
Whatever the DA's office decides does not by itself end a civil claim. A civil claim belongs to you regardless of what happens or does not happen on the criminal side.
For Grand Junction survivors, a civil claim can deliver three things a criminal case cannot:
- Direct financial recovery for therapy, medical care, lost income, and the future the abuse took from you.
- Real pressure on the responsible institution to change its hiring, supervision, and reporting practices, because a judgment or settlement is a consequence an organization cannot brush aside.
- A formal, documented statement, in a process you help direct, that what happened to you was wrong and that those responsible have to answer for it.
Two separate tracks
Civil versus criminal cases: the differences that matter
These two systems run on parallel tracks with different goals, different standards of proof, and different outcomes. Understanding the difference is the starting point for understanding your options in Grand Junction.
Civil case
Brought by the survivor
You must prove your case by a preponderance of the evidence, meaning it is more likely than not that the abuse occurred and caused harm. The aim is financial compensation and accountability. You decide whether and how to proceed.
Because the civil standard of proof is lower, a Grand Junction survivor can win a civil claim even after Mesa County prosecutors decline to file charges, after charges are dismissed, or after a criminal jury reaches a not-guilty verdict. Neither result automatically decides the other, though evidence developed in a criminal matter can still be relevant to a civil claim.
Your right to pursue civil compensation does not depend on what the 21st Judicial District Attorney's Office chooses to do.
Institutional accountability
Who can be held liable beyond the individual?
One of the most important tools in a civil case is the ability to reach past the individual who caused the harm to the institution that made it possible. Colorado law now allows a survivor to bring a direct negligence claim against an employer even after that employer admits it is vicariously responsible for its employee, a fix the legislature made in 2021 to keep that admission from shielding an institution from real scrutiny. This matters on the Western Slope because the organization, often headquartered far from where you live, is usually the party with the resources to pay a judgment that reflects the true extent of the harm.
Theory of liability
Negligent hiring
An organization placing someone in a position of trust with children, patients, or other vulnerable people has a duty to screen that person first. Skipping that screening, or hiring despite a documented warning sign, can create liability when harm follows.
Theory of liability
Negligent supervision
Hiring carefully does not end the responsibility. When an organization receives a complaint about inappropriate conduct and lets it go uninvestigated, it shares in what happens next.
Theory of liability
Negligent retention
Sometimes an institution learns exactly what a person did and reassigns them instead of removing them. Keeping a known risk in a position to cause further harm is a separate basis for liability from the original hiring decision.
Theory of liability
Vicarious liability
An employer can be vicariously liable for an employee's conduct, but only when that conduct falls within the scope of employment, and courts frequently find that intentional sexual assault falls outside it. That is exactly why the direct negligence theories above, hiring, supervision, and retention, are usually the stronger and more commonly used path to hold an institution accountable.
Grand Junction entities commonly held accountable
- Schools, colleges, and universities serving Grand Junction, including Mesa County Valley School District 51 and Colorado Mesa University
- Religious organizations and youth ministries
- Youth-serving programs, camps, and sports leagues
- Rideshare and transit operators, including Grand Valley Transit
- Hospitals, clinics, and psychiatric facilities
- Group homes and foster care agencies
- Assisted living and residential facilities
- Employers whose premises or supervision failed
The work is not only identifying who caused the harm, but tracing which Grand Junction institution allowed the conditions that made it possible and where its duty to protect you broke down. We build that case while you focus on your own recovery, not on confronting an organization you once trusted by yourself.
It is not about reliving what happened. It is about reclaiming control and forcing the institutions that failed you to answer for it.
Colorado time limits
How much time do you have to file in Colorado?
Colorado significantly changed the rules governing these deadlines in recent years, largely to survivors' benefit, and the change applies the same way on the Western Slope as anywhere else in the state. It is not unlimited, though, and whether the current rule covers your claim depends on exact dates. That is why a confidential review comes before any conclusion in either direction.
What Colorado law recognizes
- Since January 1, 2022, Colorado no longer imposes a statute of limitations on civil claims based on sexual misconduct. Under C.R.S. 13-80-103.7, these claims can be filed at any time.
- This is not limited to conduct after that date. If your previous deadline had not yet run out as of January 1, 2022, the elimination reaches back and applies to your claim as well.
- The protection is not confined to the individual who committed the abuse. It also covers claims against the institution or organization connected to the misconduct.
The one important limit, stated plainly
Colorado also passed a separate law, the Child Sexual Abuse Accountability Act, that tried to reopen childhood sexual abuse claims which had already run out of time under the older deadlines. In 2023 the Colorado Supreme Court struck that part down as unconstitutional (Aurora Public Schools v. A.S., 2023 CO 39). The practical effect is this: if a claim was still alive on January 1, 2022, there is no longer a deadline on it. If it had already expired before then, it generally cannot be revived. We will tell you honestly which side of that line your situation falls on.
One further point worth raising early: if the institution responsible is a government entity, such as a public school district, a separate and considerably shorter notice deadline may apply before any lawsuit can be filed. We check for that in your first consultation so it never turns into a surprise later in the process.
If you have assumed for years that it was too late, that assumption may no longer hold, or it may turn out to be right. Either way you deserve a straight answer rather than a guess. We will evaluate your specific Grand Junction situation honestly and tell you exactly where it stands.
Local knowledge
Grand Junction reporting. Mesa County Justice Center. St. Mary's trauma care.
A Grand Junction civil case is grounded in Grand Junction and Mesa County: the department you may report to, the hospital that treated you, and the courthouse where a lawsuit would be filed. None of it requires a criminal report first. Here is the ground we work on.
Reporting
Grand Junction Police Department
Sexual assault within Grand Junction city limits is investigated by the Grand Junction Police Department, whose victim advocates are available around the clock, every day of the year. The regional nonprofit Hilltop Latimer House also supports survivors of sexual assault across Mesa, Montrose, Delta, and Ouray Counties. A police report can support a civil claim later, but your civil case does not depend on one. Many survivors never file a criminal report at all, and that choice does not close off compensation or institutional accountability. Whether to report to police is your decision, and we explain what each path involves before you choose.
Trauma and forensic care
St. Mary's Medical Center (Level II Trauma Center)
St. Mary's Medical Center, located in Grand Junction, is a Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment-designated Level II Trauma Center, the highest trauma designation on the Western Slope. Medical and forensic records from a visit there document what happened to you and become part of the foundation of a civil damages claim. We work from those records while protecting their confidentiality throughout.
Courthouse
Mesa County Justice Center (21st Judicial District)
Grand Junction is the seat of Mesa County, so the courthouse itself is local: a civil lawsuit would be filed at the Mesa County Justice Center, 125 N. Spruce St., Grand Junction, CO 81501, in Colorado's 21st Judicial District. Most civil claims resolve before ever reaching a courtroom, but we are prepared to try your case there if an institution will not be fair, and we handle Mesa County filings directly.
Compensation
What compensation can a Grand Junction civil claim recover?
A civil claim exists to make you whole for what the abuse actually cost you, and Colorado law recognizes several categories of harm that reach further than most survivors expect.
Economic damages
- Therapy, psychiatric care, and medication
- Medical and hospitalization costs, including care that began at St. Mary's Medical Center
- Lost wages and missed work
- Reduced future earning capacity
- Other documented out-of-pocket costs tied to the abuse
Non-economic damages
- Pain and suffering
- Emotional distress, including PTSD, anxiety, and depression
- Loss of enjoyment of life
- Loss of consortium for a spouse or family
Colorado raised its cap on non-economic damages to $1.5 million for claims accruing on or after January 1, 2025 under C.R.S. 13-21-102.5, and it applies the same way to a Grand Junction claim as anywhere else in the state. Claims that accrued before that date fall under a lower cap set by earlier law, so which figure applies depends on when the claim arose. Economic damages, including medical costs and lost income, are not subject to that cap.
Where the conduct involved an institutional cover-up or deliberate indifference to a known risk, Colorado law can also permit punitive damages, meant to punish the wrongdoer rather than compensate you directly. We work to identify and document every dimension of harm so nothing is left off your claim.
Your privacy and safety
How we protect your privacy and your control
The fear of being publicly identified stops many survivors from ever coming forward, and that fear can feel sharper in a close-knit Western Slope community where people know each other. Colorado's civil courts provide meaningful privacy protections, and using them from the start is how these matters should be run.
Anonymity
Jane Doe and John Doe filings
Courts often allow survivors to proceed under a pseudonym, so your real name is never entered into the public court file. This protection exists because requiring public identification discourages legitimate claims and can add to the harm already done. Whether a court grants it depends on the case, and we raise it early rather than late.
Protective orders
Sealed and restricted records
A court can seal particularly sensitive filings, restrict who may attend a deposition, and limit how personal information uncovered during litigation is disclosed, so that pursuing accountability does not turn into another violation of your privacy.
Confidential from the start
A private first consultation
Your initial case evaluation is kept confidential and protected under Colorado's professional-conduct rules governing communications with prospective clients (Colo. RPC 1.18), from the first conversation, whether it happens by phone, video, or in person. You can explore your options with no public record and no obligation to move forward.
Trauma-informed
A pace that respects you
Litigation handled carelessly can retraumatize a survivor. We welcome support persons at meetings and build flexibility into scheduling around difficult testimony. Court deadlines and discovery obligations do apply once a case is filed, and we explain those clearly rather than pretending they do not exist.
How it works
How we handle your Grand Junction civil sexual abuse case
No two cases move identically, and we work at a pace that respects you within the deadlines a court sets. These are the stages most civil claims pass through, from a confidential first conversation to trial at the Mesa County Justice Center if an institution refuses to be fair.
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Confidential consultation
We listen, answer your questions, and lay out your options at no cost, by phone, video, or in person, with no obligation to move forward.
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Timeline and options review
We evaluate your specific timeline under Colorado law, including the 2022 elimination of the statute of limitations for sexual misconduct claims, the limit the Colorado Supreme Court placed on reviving already-expired claims, and any separate government-notice deadline that may apply.
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Investigation
Through civil discovery, we obtain records you likely could not access on your own, including complaint histories, personnel files, and internal policies, to establish how a Grand Junction institution failed in its duty to protect you.
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Demand and negotiation
We document the full extent of the harm and pursue resolution with the responsible parties. Most civil cases resolve before trial, frequently through confidential settlement.
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Litigation and trial
If an institution will not deal fairly, we are prepared to try your case at the Mesa County Justice Center. Courts often allow protective measures for sensitive testimony, and we prepare you thoroughly so you are never unprotected in a courtroom.
There is no single correct timeline for coming forward. Some survivors act quickly; others need years. Both are valid. What matters is that when you are ready, you understand your options and the protections available to you, wherever in Colorado you live.
Your team
A team that handles institutions, and treats you with care
CGH Injury Lawyers is a Colorado personal injury firm, formerly Cheney Galluzzi & Howard. We are trial lawyers who take a case as far as it needs to go, and we handle sensitive matters with discretion, confidentiality, and respect for the survivor's decisions. We represent Grand Junction and Western Slope survivors statewide from our Denver office.
ABOTA trial advocate on the teamInstitutional liability experienceTrauma-informed approachServing Grand Junction and Mesa County statewideBilingual EN / ESConfidential consultation, by phone, video, or in personNo fee unless we win
Frequently asked questions
Grand Junction civil sexual assault claims, frequently asked questions
Can I file a civil sexual assault claim in Grand Junction if no criminal charges were filed?
Yes. A civil claim belongs to you, not to the 21st Judicial District Attorney's Office, and it proceeds independently of any criminal case. Civil claims use the lower preponderance-of-the-evidence standard, meaning it is more likely than not that the abuse occurred and caused harm, while a criminal conviction requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt. You can pursue a civil claim whether or not Grand Junction Police or Mesa County prosecutors ever filed charges.
Can I hold a school, employer, or organization in Grand Junction liable, not just the individual?
Often, yes. Schools, employers, healthcare providers, religious organizations, youth programs, and transportation companies can be held liable when they failed to screen adequately, ignored earlier complaints, or otherwise allowed conditions that made the assault possible. These claims usually rely on negligent hiring, negligent supervision, and negligent retention rather than on vicarious liability, because courts frequently treat an intentional assault as outside the scope of employment. Institutional defendants connected to Mesa County often carry the resources to pay a meaningful claim.
Is it too late to file if the abuse happened years ago?
It depends on the dates, and it is worth checking rather than assuming. Colorado eliminated the statute of limitations for civil sexual misconduct claims effective January 1, 2022 (C.R.S. 13-80-103.7), so claims that were still within their deadline on that date can now be filed at any time. Claims that had already expired before January 1, 2022 generally cannot be revived, because in 2023 the Colorado Supreme Court struck down a separate law that had attempted to reopen them (Aurora Public Schools v. A.S., 2023 CO 39). A confidential review of your exact timeline is the way to find out which applies to you.
Will my name become public if I file a civil claim?
In many sexual abuse cases, courts allow survivors to proceed under a pseudonym, such as Jane Doe or John Doe, keeping your real name out of the public court file. Courts can also issue protective orders sealing sensitive records and limiting who may attend a deposition. These protections are commonly granted but are not automatic, so we ask for them early. Your first consultation with us is confidential under Colorado's rules on prospective-client communications.
What compensation can a civil sexual assault claim recover in Colorado?
Compensation can include medical and therapy expenses, lost wages, reduced future earning capacity, pain and suffering, emotional distress, and, in some cases, punitive damages. Economic damages can include care that began at a hospital like St. Mary's Medical Center along with ongoing psychological treatment. For claims accruing on or after January 1, 2025, Colorado caps non-economic damages at $1.5 million; claims that accrued earlier fall under a lower cap set by earlier law. Economic damages are not capped under that provision.
Does CGH Injury Lawyers have an office in Grand Junction?
No. CGH Injury Lawyers has one office, at 2701 Lawrence St., Suite 201, Denver, CO 80205, about 243 miles east of Grand Junction along I-70. We represent Grand Junction and Mesa County survivors statewide from that office, handle Mesa County Justice Center filings directly, and meet with you by phone, video, or in person, whichever is most private and convenient given the distance. Call (303) 209-9395 or submit the form on this page. Your first consultation is free and confidential.
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