Colorado Trial Practice Blog : Colorado Injury Lawyer & Attorney : Mac Hester : Personal Injury, Auto Accident, Medical Malpractice : Serving Denver, Colorado Springs, Aurora

I sometimes have clients who express embarassment or reluctance in pursuing a claim for personal injury damages. I ask them why they would be embarassed or reluctant to pursue the claim. They usually don't have a definite reason. Rather, they have a feeling that there is something wrong about it - or inappropriate if not wrong. So I ask them if it is proper to ask the driver who rearended their car to pay for the repair of their car. They always without hesitation say yes that is proper.  So then I ask them how much the other driver should pay for their car damage. They seem puzzled by the question.

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I have conducted psychological/sociological experiments at parties and social functions: I mingle and talk and almost every conversation involves the question - whether asked of me or by me - "What do you do?" I usually answer that I am a lawyer or that I practice law. The reactions to this answer are quite interesting: the reactions are usually not neutral; they seem to be more positive  or negative than if I had answered, for example, that I was an account manager.

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If you are in a car accident and the car is damaged and/or you are injured (or someone else's car is damaged and/or someone else is injured), then the drivers are required by law to do certain things.

C.R.S. 42-4-1601(1): A driver involved in a car crash in which someone is injured is required to stop, stay at the scene, or return to the scene until the driver fulfills the requirements of C.R.S. 42-4-1603(1).

C.R.S. 42-4-1603(1): A driver involved in a car crash in which someone is injured is required to give name, address, and registration number of the vehicle to the other drivers. And, upon request, a driver is required to exhibit the driver's license to the other drivers. A driver involved in a car wreck in which someone is injured is also required to render aid and/or assistance to the injured person.

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All judges and almost all lawyers think that evidence of liability insurance is generally not admissible at trial. However, they are wrong.

Colorado Rule of Evidence 411 provides that evidence of liability insurance is admissible for any reason in the world - except one: to show negligence or wrongful conduct of the defendant.

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There are three categories of damages in Colorado: (1) Economic; (2) Non-Economic; and (3) Physical Impairment.

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Your own insurance company owes a duty of good faith and fair dealing to you, its insured, because of your contract (the insurance policy) with the insurance company and because it is the law of Colorado. This is a "first party" contract.

The insurance company for the person or entity that  injured or damaged you (the liability insurer) does not owe a duty of good faith and fair dealing to you. The liability insurer owes a duty of good faith and fair dealing to its own insured, the person or entity that injured or damaged you. You are in a "third party" relationship with the liability insurer. So the liability insurer is not required to treat you fairly or to deal with you in good faith - which is why they usually don't.

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42-4-1412. Operation of bicycles and other human-powered vehicles.

(1) Every person riding a bicycle shall have all of the rights and duties applicable to the driver of any other vehicle under this article, except as to special regulations in this article and except as to those provisions which by their nature can have no application. Said riders shall comply with the rules set forth in this section and section 42-4-221, and, when using streets and highways within incorporated cities and towns, shall be subject to local ordinances regulating the operation of bicycles as provided in section 42-4-111.

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Automobile drivers don't pay much attention to bicyclists and the result can be devastating to the bicyclist, as bicycles and helmets provide very limited protection against injury in an automobile/bicycle accident.

There are many ways that bicyclists get whacked by inattentive or rude motorists, including:

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Q.  What is a wrongful death action?

A.  A wrongful death action is a lawsuit for damages filed by the spouse (not ex-spouse) and/or heirs of a deceased adult or by the parent(s) of a deceased unmarried adult who had no children or by the parent(s) of a deceased unmarried minor who had no children against the person or entity that wrongfully killed the deceased.

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