Today let’s talk about how long you have to pursue your car accident claim with an insurance company before you have to file a lawsuit in Colorado. So, we had a lady call us a couple days ago. She explained that she had been working on her car accident claim for the past year trying to get all of her records straight. She was dealing with the insurance company and not getting anywhere, and she was getting overwhelmed.
She asked us: Do I still have time to hire you? Well, in Colorado the statute of limitations for car accidents is generally three years. That gives you three years to work on your accident claim. Three years to get the medical treatment you need, to get all the information, documentation and medical bills in order to pursue that accident claim with an insurance company. If you’re unable to resolve or settle that claim with the insurance company within the three year time period you have to file a lawsuit on or before that three year anniversary. It is the statute of limitations, the deadline, for when you have to file that suit.
There are a few exceptions, one of which if you were a minor at the time of the accident. If you are a minor, you have up until your 18th birthday before that statute of limitations starts to run. If the injured party was mental incapacitated they have up until that incapacitation is removed before the statute of limitation starts to run.
Now this all applies to car accident claims against the at-fault party. There are different statutes for claims against your own provider for bad faith. There are also different sets of deadlines that could come into play if your accident was caused by someone working on behalf of a government entity. In this case you need to take action more quickly.
So in sum, the answer to this lady’s question was yes. We were able to take over and deal with the adjustors on her behalf and told the insurance company not to reach out to our client anymore, but to reach out to us.
If you are in a similar situation and worried about your statute of limitations or getting nowhere with your claims and think it is time to get legal representation, please reach out to us and we will be happy to offer a free consultation: (720) 588-9120, staff@frederickganderton.com.
