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Littleton, Colorado roadway along US-85. CGH Injury Lawyers serves DUI accident victims in Littleton from our Denver office.
Littleton, Colorado

Littleton DUI Accident Lawyers Who Pursue the Driver, the Bar, and Every Dollar Your Case Is Worth

Hit by a drunk or drugged driver on US-85, C-470, or Wadsworth Boulevard near Littleton? Colorado law gives you a civil claim separate from anything the district attorney does. CGH Injury Lawyers serves Littleton from our Denver office. We pursue the driver, any bar that overserved them, and your own UM coverage when nothing else can pay. You pay nothing unless we win.

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Serving Littleton from our Denver office CGH Injury Lawyers 2701 Lawrence St., Suite 201 Denver, CO 80205 (303) 209-9395 Se habla espanol
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If a drunk or drugged driver hurt you on a Littleton road, you have a civil claim for your losses that runs completely separately from the criminal case the district attorney files. The criminal case punishes the driver. Your civil claim is how you recover the money.

  • US-85 (Santa Fe Drive), C-470, and Wadsworth Boulevard (SH-121) are the corridors where DUI crashes concentrate in Littleton. Impaired drivers on a Friday or Saturday night on any of these roads can close the gap between lanes or miss a red light at speed. The crash force that results is entirely different from a low-speed fender-bender.
  • Colorado's negligence per se doctrine means that an impaired driver who violated Colorado's drunk and drugged driving laws is treated as negligent for causing the crash. The fight in most DUI cases is not about whether the driver was at fault. It is about the value of your harm and which insurance policies have to pay it.
  • When the drunk driver had no insurance or too little coverage, your own uninsured and underinsured motorist (UM and UIM) coverage becomes the primary source of recovery. Those claims run on their own deadline under C.R.S. 13-80-107.5, the statute the Colorado Supreme Court applied in Pham v. State Farm, 2013 CO 17, and must be tracked separately from the claim against the driver.

CGH Injury Lawyers does not have a Littleton office. We serve Littleton from our Denver office at 2701 Lawrence St., Suite 201, Denver, CO 80205, and we come to you. We pursue the driver, any bar or restaurant that overserved them, and your own insurance when it has to step in. Free consultation. No fee unless we win.

The law that governs your case

Why a DUI crash is legally different from an ordinary car accident

In most car crash cases you must prove the other driver was careless. In a DUI crash, much of that proof is already done for you. The doctrine is called negligence per se, and it reshapes the entire fight.

Colorado follows the doctrine of negligence per se. When a person violates a safety statute meant to prevent the kind of harm that happened, to a person the statute was meant to protect, that violation itself can establish negligence. Colorado's drunk and drugged driving laws exist precisely to keep impaired drivers from injuring others. A driver who was impaired and caused a crash fits that doctrine directly.

In practical terms, you usually do not have to argue over whether the drunk driver did something wrong. Impairment, once established through the arrest record, breathalyzer result, or toxicology report, does most of that work. The real contest in a Littleton DUI crash case is almost always about the scope of your injuries and which insurance policies are required to pay, not about fault itself. That distinction changes how a case is built and what an insurer will offer before a lawsuit is filed.

Two separate cases

The Arapahoe County criminal case versus your civil claim for money

After a DUI crash in Littleton, two distinct legal processes run simultaneously. They have different goals, different parties, and completely different outcomes for you. Most victims need this explained before anything else makes sense.

The criminal case in Arapahoe County

  • Brought by the State of Colorado through the Arapahoe County District Attorney, not by you.
  • The goal is punishment: jail time, fines, license consequences, probation, and possibly an ignition interlock device.
  • You are a witness and a victim in that proceeding. You are not a party with control over the case.
  • A conviction or guilty plea becomes powerful evidence in your civil claim, but it is not required for you to win civilly.
  • The court may order restitution as part of the sentence, but restitution is limited and is not full compensation.

Your civil claim for money

  • Brought by you against the driver and any other responsible party, including a bar that overserved them.
  • The goal is full compensation: medical bills past and future, lost income, pain and suffering, and emotional harm.
  • You control the decisions with your attorney's guidance.
  • In the vast majority of cases, compensation is paid by insurance, not out of the driver's pocket directly.
  • Your civil case can proceed whether or not the driver is ever criminally convicted.

The two cases also use different standards of proof. The criminal case must prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Your civil claim only needs to prove fault by a preponderance of the evidence, meaning more likely than not. That is why a driver who avoids a criminal conviction can still be fully liable to you in the civil proceeding. We do not wait for the Arapahoe County criminal docket to close before building your claim.

Every source of recovery

The bar, the restaurant, and your own policy: who else can be held responsible

The impaired driver is the obvious defendant. But in Littleton, where bars and restaurants line South Broadway, Bowles Avenue, and the South Platte corridor, the overserving establishment is often a second defendant with its own insurance. And when no one else can pay, your own UM and UIM coverage is the final safety net.

Dram shop liability under Colorado law

  • Colorado's Dram Shop Act (C.R.S. 44-3-801) allows injured people to sue a licensed vendor that willfully and knowingly served alcohol to a visibly intoxicated patron who then caused the crash.
  • The same statute covers serving anyone under 21. A licensed vendor, and in that limited situation even a private social host, can be liable under C.R.S. 44-3-801(4) for providing alcohol to a minor who causes injury.
  • A dram shop recovery is added on top of the driver's own liability. It can stack a second source of compensation, with a separate insurance policy behind it, on top of the driver's policy limits.
  • The filing deadline for a dram shop claim is one year after the alcohol was sold or served (C.R.S. 44-3-801(3)(a)(II)). That clock is shorter than the claim against the driver and runs from a different event. Missing it permanently bars the bar claim.

Your own UM and UIM coverage

  • If the drunk driver had no insurance, your uninsured motorist (UM) coverage stands in the at-fault driver's shoes and pays as if it were the driver's own liability policy.
  • If the driver carried insurance but not enough to cover your losses, your underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage fills the gap between the driver's limits and your actual harm.
  • UM and UIM claims run on their own filing deadline under C.R.S. 13-80-107.5, which the Colorado Supreme Court applied in Pham v. State Farm, 2013 CO 17. That deadline does not automatically match the three-year clock against the driver.
  • We check every policy that could respond, including coverage you may not realize you carry, before assuming there is no money to collect.

The most expensive mistake a DUI crash victim makes is waiting for the criminal case to resolve before asking who else can be sued. By the time many criminal DUI cases close in Arapahoe County District Court, the one-year dram shop window has expired and bar records have been destroyed in routine data purges. We map every potential defendant and every deadline on day one.

Local knowledge

Littleton courts. Littleton trauma care. Littleton roads.

A DUI crash claim filed out of Littleton is tried in a Littleton-area courthouse, treated at a Littleton-area hospital, and built around the specific roads where impaired drivers cause the most harm. Here is the ground we work on.

Courthouse

18th Judicial District, Arapahoe County District Court

A Littleton civil lawsuit that exceeds the county-court jurisdictional limit is filed in the 18th Judicial District, Arapahoe County District Court. That court operates at two locations: the Arapahoe County Courthouse at 1790 West Littleton Blvd, Littleton, CO 80120, and the Arapahoe County Justice Center at 7325 S. Potomac Street, Centennial, CO 80112. The jury pool, local rules, and the defense firms you face in a DUI case differ from other Colorado jurisdictions. We file and try DUI injury cases in both 18th Judicial District locations directly.

Trauma Care

AdventHealth Littleton, Level II Trauma Center

Serious injuries from a DUI crash in Littleton are commonly treated at AdventHealth Littleton, located at 7700 South Broadway, Littleton, CO. AdventHealth Littleton is a Level II Trauma Center designated by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment in April 2004 and verified by the American College of Surgeons in October 2005. The trauma records generated at this facility document the initial severity of your injuries and anchor your damages claim. We obtain and analyze every relevant medical record from the first emergency visit through ongoing treatment.

High-Crash Roads

US-85, C-470, Wadsworth Boulevard, and US-285

Littleton's worst DUI exposure sits on its highest-volume corridors. US-85 (Santa Fe Drive) recorded 2,282 crashes from 2016 to 2018 on that single corridor alone, with left-turn conflicts and freight traffic amplifying the risk at every signalized intersection along the route through the city. C-470 (the Centennial Freeway) runs at highway speed with compressed merge distances and draws significant late-night bar traffic from the surrounding metro area. Wadsworth Boulevard (SH-121) and US-285 (Hampden Avenue) carry the rest of Littleton's through-traffic load. After a nighttime DUI crash on any of these corridors, surveillance footage from adjacent businesses and traffic cameras typically overwrites within 24 to 72 hours. Evidence preservation starts the moment you call us.

After the crash

What to do after a DUI crash in Littleton

The steps you take in the first hours and days after a drunk-driving crash in Littleton directly affect the strength of every claim that follows. Here is the path we walk with every client.

  1. Call 911 and stay at the scene

    A police response is the foundation of your case. Officers document the impairment, conduct field sobriety tests, and may make an arrest. The crash report, toxicology result, and body-camera footage from that response become some of your most powerful evidence. Do not leave the scene, and do not let the driver leave until officers arrive.

  2. Get medical care even if you feel okay

    Adrenaline masks pain after a high-force collision. Neck soreness, headache, and numbness that feel minor at the scene can indicate nerve damage, a concussion, or a soft-tissue tear that worsens over days. A prompt evaluation at AdventHealth Littleton or another facility creates the medical record that documents your injury from the start. Keep every discharge instruction and follow-up record you receive.

  3. Identify where the driver was drinking

    If the driver came from a bar, restaurant, or party, note the location. That information opens a dram shop investigation. Bar security video and point-of-sale records showing how many drinks were served to the driver are critical evidence. Both are typically deleted or overwritten within weeks. We send a preservation demand as soon as we are retained.

  4. Photograph everything and collect witness information

    Document the vehicles, the road conditions, traffic signals, and your visible injuries. On US-85, C-470, or a commercial stretch of Bowles Avenue or South Broadway, nearby business cameras may have captured the moments before impact. Get names and contact information from anyone who saw what happened before they leave the scene.

  5. Call us before the insurance company calls you

    The at-fault driver's insurer may contact you within hours of the crash. Do not give a recorded statement or accept any payment before speaking with an attorney. Recorded statements are used to lock in low-damage narratives that become very difficult to overcome later. Call (303) 209-9395 first.

  6. We build and pursue your full claim

    We obtain the crash report and DUI arrest record, request bar records, locate every applicable insurance policy, build the complete medical and damages picture, and negotiate from trial readiness. If an insurer will not pay full value, we file in Arapahoe County District Court and try your case in the 18th Judicial District.

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Compensation

What you can recover, and how Colorado's fault and cap rules apply

A DUI crash is rarely just an ambulance bill. Colorado recognizes economic damages, non-economic damages, and, where the driver's conduct warrants it, punitive damages. Each category has its own rules, and knowing them determines how the claim is built.

Economic damages (never capped)

  • Emergency care, surgery, hospitalization, and follow-up treatment at AdventHealth Littleton or wherever you received care
  • Future medical costs, rehabilitation, and long-term care if the injury is permanent
  • Lost wages from time off work and, in serious cases, lost earning capacity going forward
  • Property damage and documented out-of-pocket expenses
  • In a fatal crash, the family's financial losses and funeral costs

Non-economic damages and punitive damages

  • Pain and suffering, emotional distress, and post-traumatic stress disorder. High-speed DUI crashes produce serious psychological harm that insurers routinely try to minimize.
  • Loss of enjoyment of life when the injury prevents activities that defined your life before the crash.
  • Permanent scarring, disfigurement, and physical impairment. Compensation for those categories is not subject to the non-economic cap at all under C.R.S. 13-21-102.5(5).
  • Punitive damages for willful and wanton conduct. Drunk driving is exactly the kind of conduct that can support a punitive claim on top of compensatory damages, though Colorado limits punitive damages to the amount of actual damages awarded under C.R.S. 13-21-102.

How Colorado's cap and comparative fault rules affect your Littleton DUI claim

  • Non-economic damages such as pain and suffering are capped at $1.5 million for claims that accrued on or after January 1, 2025 (C.R.S. 13-21-102.5). Compensation for physical impairment or disfigurement is not subject to that cap at all, which is why catastrophic DUI injury cases often build their highest dollar value from the uncapped categories.
  • Colorado uses modified comparative fault (C.R.S. 13-21-111). You can still recover even if you were partly at fault for the crash, as long as you were less than 50 percent responsible. If you are found 50 percent or more at fault, you recover nothing. That threshold is why insurers routinely try to push blame onto DUI crash victims, and why having counsel who controls the fault narrative from day one matters so much.
  • Economic damages are never capped. Medical bills, lost wages, and future care costs can be pursued without limit regardless of how large they grow. In catastrophic DUI cases, those uncapped economic damages drive most of the recovery.

We structure every DUI claim so that no category of harm is left off the table, and we explain how the cap and comparative fault rules apply specifically to your losses from the moment we take your case.

Your team

The attorneys handling your Littleton DUI 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 DUI accident case we handle is worked by a licensed Colorado attorney, not a paralegal or intake team. When we are genuinely prepared to try a DUI case in Arapahoe County District Court, insurers respond to demands differently.

ABOTA member on the team Tim Tarr: Best Lawyers in America since 2023 Over 25 cases to verdict 18th Judicial District experience Bilingual EN / ES Free consultation No fee unless we win

Frequently asked questions

Frequently asked questions about Littleton DUI accident cases

How long do I have to file a DUI accident claim in Littleton?

Multiple deadlines apply, and they run from different events. The claim against the at-fault driver generally must be filed within three years of the crash under C.R.S. 13-80-101(1)(n). A dram shop claim against the bar or restaurant that overserved the driver has a far shorter deadline: one year after the alcohol was sold or served under C.R.S. 44-3-801(3)(a)(II). A UM or UIM claim under your own policy runs on its own separate deadline under C.R.S. 13-80-107.5, the statute the Colorado Supreme Court applied in Pham v. State Farm, 2013 CO 17. Because the clocks start from different events, the safest step is to have an attorney confirm each deadline specific to your crash as early as possible.

Can I sue the bar or restaurant that served the drunk driver in Littleton?

Often yes. Colorado's Dram Shop Act (C.R.S. 44-3-801) lets you sue a licensed vendor that willfully and knowingly served alcohol to a visibly intoxicated patron who then caused harm. The same law covers service to anyone under 21. A dram shop recovery is in addition to the driver's own liability, so it can add a second defendant with a separate insurance policy behind them. The critical trap is the one-year filing deadline from when the alcohol was served. Bar and restaurant video and point-of-sale records are often deleted within weeks, which is why waiting for the criminal case to end before investigating the bar is one of the most expensive choices a victim can make.

What if the drunk driver who hit me in Littleton had no insurance?

Your own uninsured motorist (UM) coverage steps into the at-fault driver's shoes and pays as if it were the driver's liability policy. If the driver had some coverage but not enough, your underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage fills the gap between their limits and your actual losses. These claims run on their own deadline under C.R.S. 13-80-107.5, so they must be tracked separately from the claim against the driver. We check every policy that could respond, including coverage you may not realize you have, before concluding there is no money available.

The insurer says I was partly at fault for the DUI crash. Does that end my case?

Not automatically. Colorado uses modified comparative fault under C.R.S. 13-21-111. You can still recover even if you were partly at fault, as long as you were less than 50 percent responsible for the crash. Your damages are reduced by your percentage of fault. Only if you are found 50 percent or more at fault do you recover nothing. Against an impaired driver, the argument that you share most of the blame usually has little to stand on. We use crash reconstruction, the DUI evidence, and witness accounts to keep fault where it belongs.

Does CGH Injury Lawyers have an office in Littleton?

No. CGH Injury Lawyers has one office, at 2701 Lawrence St., Suite 201, Denver, CO 80205. We serve Littleton DUI accident clients from that Denver office, file cases in the 18th Judicial District, Arapahoe County District Court, and meet you where it is convenient. You can reach us at (303) 209-9395.

Can I get punitive damages against the drunk driver who hit me in Littleton?

Sometimes. Drunk driving is exactly the kind of willful and wanton conduct that can support a punitive damage claim on top of your compensatory recovery. In Colorado, punitive damages generally cannot exceed the amount of actual damages awarded under C.R.S. 13-21-102, and the conduct must be proven willful and wanton. We evaluate whether the specific facts of your DUI crash support a punitive claim and pursue it when the evidence allows.

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Read next: How Colorado dram shop law reaches the bar that overserved the driver

CGH Injury Lawyers · Serving Littleton from 2701 Lawrence St., Suite 201, Denver, CO 80205