Clear, sourced information about what happens after a Colorado crash
The adjuster is not neutral and is not your enemy. They are doing a job with a target, and it helps to know what the job is.
You generally have a duty under your own policy to report the crash and cooperate. You have no such duty to the other driver’s insurer.
The other driver’s adjuster will often ask for one within days. Nothing in Colorado law requires you to give one, and giving one before you know the extent of your injuries is how people end up bound to "I feel fine" on tape.
An early offer is not a valuation. It is a bet that you will take a certain amount now rather than an uncertain amount later, made before anyone knows how your treatment ends.
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Speculating about speed or distance. Saying you are "fine". Signing a blanket medical authorisation that opens your whole history rather than the treatment for this crash. Accepting a property-damage cheque without reading what the endorsement releases.
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 2026-09-14 Which is why the small admissions matter: each one is a percentage.
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 decide how the first few conversations with an adjuster go.
No. Nothing in Colorado law requires it. You generally do owe your own insurer a duty to report the crash and cooperate under your policy, but you owe the other driver’s adjuster no such duty. Giving one before you know the extent of your injuries is how people end up bound to saying they felt fine.
It is a sign the claim has value, not that the offer reflects it. An early offer is made before anyone knows how your treatment ends, which is the point at which a claim can actually be valued.
Be careful with a blanket one. An authorisation that opens your whole medical history, rather than the treatment for this crash, gives an insurer material to argue your injuries came from something else. Narrow it to the crash.
Because Colorado reduces damages by the share of fault assigned to the injured person, under C.R.S. § 13-21-111. Speculating about speed or distance, or saying you are fine, are not neutral remarks — each one can become a percentage.
A few questions about what happened, and you get the guidance that matches it. Free, no obligation, and you can stop at any point.