Clear, sourced information about what happens after a Colorado crash
Colorado does not need you to be blameless. It needs to know your share.
The short answer
Colorado reduces damages in proportion to the injured person’s share of fault, and bars recovery altogether once that share is as great as the fault of the person being sued — half the blame, where there is a single defendant. C.R.S. § 13-21-111(1) verified 2026-09-14In a Colorado crash claim, fault is apportioned. If a jury decides you were 20 per cent responsible, a $100,000 award becomes $80,000. The argument in most claims is not whether you were partly to blame but by how much.
That is why insurers push so hard on small facts: your speed, whether you were looking at your phone, whether you were where you should have been. Each point of fault they can attach to you is money.
Colorado settles crash claims on fault rather than no-fault: compulsory liability cover took effect on 1 July 2003, and the driver responsible for the crash pays. Ch. 234, Session Laws of Colorado 2003 verified 2026-09-11
In practice that means the driver who caused the crash, through their insurer, pays — rather than each person turning first to their own policy.
Not wearing a seat belt cannot be used to blame you for the crash in Colorado; it can only reduce noneconomic damages, and not damages for physical impairment or disfigurement. C.R.S. § 42-4-237(7) verified 2026-09-11
It is a narrower rule than people expect. Not wearing a belt is not evidence that you caused the crash.
For civil actions filed on or after 1 January 2025, Colorado’s cap on noneconomic damages rose to $1,500,000, and the wrongful death cap to $2,125,000, with inflation adjustments every two years from 2028. HB24-1472, amending C.R.S. § 13-21-102.5 verified 2026-09-11
Economic losses — medical bills, lost earnings, the cost of care — are not capped in the same way. The cap applies to the human part of the award.
Every statement on this page traces to one of the sources below. Where the text was read somewhere other than the body that issued it, that is noted.
Four questions that come up whenever an insurer puts a share of the blame on the person making the claim.
Usually, yes. Colorado reduces the award by your share of fault rather than refusing it outright — a 20 per cent share turns a $100,000 award into $80,000. Colorado bars recovery once your share is as great as the other driver’s — half the blame, where one other driver is involved — and C.R.S. § 13-21-111(1) is the statute that governs the apportionment.
No. An insurer’s early view of fault is an opening position, not a finding. Fault is settled by agreement between the parties or by a jury, and the share an adjuster proposes at the start is often not the share a claim ends on.
No. Under C.R.S. § 42-4-237(7) not wearing a belt cannot be used to blame you for the crash at all. It can only reduce noneconomic damages, and not damages for physical impairment or disfigurement. It is a narrower rule than most people assume.
There is a cap, but only on part of it. For civil actions filed on or after 1 January 2025 the noneconomic damages cap is $1,500,000, and the wrongful death cap $2,125,000, under HB24-1472 amending C.R.S. § 13-21-102.5. Economic losses — medical bills, lost earnings, the cost of care — are not capped in the same way.
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