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

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.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

Med-Pay insurance pays for medical expenses incurred as a result of auto accidents. Your Med-Pay insurance covers the driver and passengers in your covered vehicle but does not cover the occupants of the at fault driver’s vehicle. Med-Pay coverage is essential if you do not have health insurance. Med-Pay is highly beneficial even if you do have health insurance, as Med pay covers medical expenses that are often not covered by health insurance and also may be used to pay health insurance co-pays and deductibles.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

With the repeal ("sunsetting") of Colorado's No-Fault legislation on July 1, 2003, Colorado reverted to the "tort" system.

Claims arising out of pre July 1, 2003 motor vehicle crashes must proceed under the "no-fault" system, while claims arising out of post July 1, 2003 motor vehicle crashes must proceed under the "tort" system.

Colorado has a three year statute of limitations for personal injury claims arising out of motor vehicle incidents, so most "no-fault" cases were gone by July 1, 2006 (But pre July 1, 2003 claims that were not filed prior to July 1, 2006 are not necessarily SOL; e.g., minor's claims).

Under the prior no-fault system, an injured person had to satisfy one of several "threshold" requirements in order to maintain an action against the negligent party. Under the current tort system, there is no "threshold" to satisfy prior to filing a suit against the negligent party.

Colorado's statutorily mandated minimum auto liability coverage is $25,000.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link