Boulder Personal Injury Lawyer
If you’ve been involved in a slip and fall, a car crash, or some other type of accident in Boulder, CO, you may be able to recover compensation for your injuries if another party was to blame.
Navigating the personal injury claim process in Boulder, Colorado can be daunting. Let the attorneys at Zaner Harden Personal Injury Lawyers help.
Our Boulder personal injury attorneys focus on fighting for compensation for all of your accident-related damages so you can focus on your recovery.
To schedule a free consultation with one of our Boulder personal injury attorneys, call us at (720) 613 9706 or contact us online.
How Zaner Harden Law Can Help After a Personal Injury Accident in Boulder
The highly-skilled attorneys at Zaner Harden Law have decades of combined experience helping personal injury victims. We’ve recovered tens of millions of dollars for our injured clients. We’ll put our expertise to work for you, leveling the playing field against the insurance company and their lawyers.
When you hire one of our attorneys, we’ll manage your case from start to finish. We’ll fight to ensure that you get the best possible outcome.
Our Boulder personal injury lawyers can take the following specific steps in your case:
- Investigate the accident and identify the at-fault parties
- Gather other evidence to support your claims
- Assess the extent of your damages
- Track down witnesses and collect their statements
- Explain your legal options and develop a case strategy with you
- Negotiate a settlement with the insurance company on your behalf
- Take your case to court if a favorable settlement can’t be reached
Our attorneys have received the following state and national recognitions for their work:
- National Trial Lawyers Top 100
- Super Lawyers
- 5280 Magazine Top Lawyers in Denver
- Best Lawyers – Best Law Firms
Schedule a free consultation to learn more about how we can help with your Boulder, CO personal injury case.
How Common Are Accidents in Boulder, CO?
Many personal injury accidents go unreported or are settled confidentially among the parties. However, motor vehicle accidents are widely reported to law enforcement or insurance companies.
In 2021, there were 3,387 serious injuries caused by car accidents in Colorado and 691 fatalities. The same year, there were 117,300 large trucks involved in accidents that caused injuries. There were 80,000 motorcyclists injured in 2021 in the United States.
What Is My Boulder Personal Injury Case Worth?
There’s no simple formula for estimating what a personal injury case is worth.
Many different factors influence what a case may be worth, including:
- The extent of the injuries
- The amount of property damage
- The amount of missed wages if the victim could not work after the accident
- Whether the victim was partially at fault in the accident
- The extent of non-economic injuries in the case, such as pain and suffering
- The insurance policy limits
With so many variables at play in any case, it’s impossible to pinpoint what a case may be worth. However, an experienced personal injury lawyer can review the facts of your case and explain which damages may be available to you.
What Kind of Damages Are Available to Personal Injury
Damages refer to the injuries and losses incurred to an injury or accident. If you’ve been injured in an accident caused by another person’s negligence or wrongful conduct, you may be able to recover compensation for your damages. There are two main categories of damages available in personal injury cases in Colorado: economic damages and non-economic damages.
Economic Damages
As the name suggests, economic damages relate to the financial consequences of an accident or injury. You may also see them referred to as tangible damages or special damages.
Common economic damages are:
- Past and future medical costs
- Vehicle repair costs
- Transportation costs
- Other property damage
- Lost wages or loss of future earning capacity
Economic damages are fairly straightforward to calculate. They often relate to specific transactions and can be supported with receipts, invoices, or other forms of documentation. Anticipated costs like future medical expenses or diminished earning capacity may be more complex. An experienced personal injury lawyer can be instrumental in assessing and advocating for damages.
Non-Economic Damages
In contrast, non-economic damages do not relate to the financial impacts of the accident or injury. Instead, they relate to the emotional, psychological, or otherwise intangible impacts. Accordingly, they are sometimes called intangible damages or general damages.
Common non-economic damages include:
- Pain and suffering
- Mental anguish
- Loss of companionship
- Diminished quality of life
- Loss of consortium
- Disability or disfigurement and the related impacts
Non-economic damages are harder to calculate than economic damages, as they are based on the victim’s subjective experience, rather than specific transactions. Contact a skilled personal injury lawyer to discuss whether non-economic damages are appropriate in your case.
How Much Does It Cost to Hire a Personal Injury Lawyer in Boulder?
Some people mistakenly believe that they can’t hire a personal injury lawyer because it would be too expensive. However, most personal injury lawyers accept cases on a contingent fee basis. The attorney collects A contingent fee at the end of the case, as a percentage of their client’s overall financial award. In most cases, this is between 33% and 40%.
Under a contingency fee arrangement, you don’t have to pay any attorney’s fees upfront. This allows anyone to hire a personal injury attorney, regardless of their financial situation. Keep in mind that you may be responsible for some other costs in the case, such as court filing fees and administrative costs. Your attorney should address the costs with you at the beginning of the case.
Can I Recover Compensation if I’m Being Blamed for an Accident in Colorado?
It depends. In many cases, you can recover compensation even if you are being blamed, or were partially responsible, for an accident. Colorado is a modified comparative negligence state. This means that an injured party can recover compensation so long as they were not greater than or equal to the fault of the defendant.
Your compensation will be reduced in proportion to your percentage of fault. Further, if you are found to be 51% at fault or greater, then you will not be able to recover compensation.
To illustrate, imagine that you are in a car accident and you incur $10,000 in damages. If you are found to be 25% at fault and the other driver is 75% at fault, then you may be able to recover up to $7,500 (or 75%) of your damages. If the jury determines that you are 60% at fault and the other driver is 40% at fault, then you will be barred from recovering compensation.
How Do I Prove Negligence After an Accident in Boulder, CO?
Most personal injury cases are based on negligence. This means you must prove that your injuries were caused by the defendant’s negligent conduct. To prove that the defendant was negligent in Colorado, you must establish the following four elements: duty of care, breach of duty, damages, and causation.
Duty of Care
You must show that the defendant owed you a duty of care. A duty of care is a legal obligation that one owes toward others. The general standard of care is to act the way a reasonably prudent person would under the same or similar circumstances.
Breach
You must show that the defendant breached or violated the required duty of care.
Damages
You must show that you suffered injuries or some type of loss.
Causation
You must show that the defendant’s conduct was the factual and proximate cause of your injuries. The “factual cause” means that your injuries would not have occurred without the defendant’s actions or inactions. The proximate, or legal, cause means that your injuries were a reasonably foreseeable result of the defendant’s conduct.
You must prove each of these elements “by a preponderance of the evidence” to win your case. A preponderance of the evidence means it appears more likely than not that something is true or accurate.
How Long Do I Have To File a Lawsuit After an Accident in Colorado?
In Colorado, a personal injury victim has three years from the date of an accident or injury involving a motor vehicle to file a lawsuit. In all other personal injury cases, the victim has two years to file a lawsuit. The deadline for filing a lawsuit is known as the statute of limitations.
It’s vital that your lawsuit is filed before the statute of limitations expires. If it is not, you may not be able to recover compensation for your injuries.
Contact Our Boulder Personal Injury Lawyers for a Free Consultation
If you’ve been injured in an accident in Boulder, CO due to another person’s negligence or wrongful conduct, you may be able to recover compensation for your injuries. Our nationally recognized Boulder personal injury lawyers are here to handle your case and fight for damages for your injuries.
Contact Zaner Harden Law today to schedule a free consultation with one of our Boulder personal injury attorneys.
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