If you were seriously injured in a car crash in 2023 or 2024, time is of the essence to file your claim. With six months left in 2025, you must consult with an experienced car crash attorney near you. The statute of limitations may not run on your claim for another year or two, but waiting until 2026 could have serious repercussions for your recovery.
The statute of limitations for injuries sustained in crashes involving motor vehicles, like car crashes, is three years. You have three years from the date of the crash to file a lawsuit to seek compensation for your injuries.
Many car crash victims wait to consult with a lawyer after a crash, even when they suffer serious injuries. Many personal injury attorneys also wait a year or more to file a lawsuit in order to give the client time to treat and heal.
Generally, this is not a problem. But if you were injured in 2023 or 2024, waiting too long could significantly impact your recovery if you suffered serious injuries.
Have you been injured in a car accident?
Call The Law Offices of Peter M. Anderson, Colorado Truck Accident Lawyer
Colorado Limits the Amount of Non-Economic Damages
Insurance companies and defense lawyers across the United States have fought to limit the amount of money someone injured by the negligence of another can recover. While some states have very strict caps on all categories of damages you can collect, Colorado imposes a dollar cap only on non-economic damages in personal injury claims. This means that regardless of the amount of non-economic damages a jury awards you for your injuries, the court reduces the amount to the cap.
Colorado caps only non-economic damages. Non-economic damages are damages to an individual caused by the pain and suffering, emotional distress, PTSD, loss of lifestyle and opportunity, frustration, or embarrassment that result from the injuries sustained in a crash.
Economic damages can encompass property damage, past and future medical expenses, past and future lost wages, funeral costs, and other economic losses from injuries caused by the crash. Economic damages are thankfully not limited.
Nor are damages limited for physical impairment or disfigurement to a person’s body.
Punitive damages are capped at the amount of compensatory damages awarded. Essentially, this allows for the doubling of the non-economic, economic, and physical impairment damages.
Colorado Revised Statutes Section 13-21-102.5 sets the limits on non-economic damages. When the Legislature passed the law in the 1980s, it limited non-economic damages to just $250,000. The cap has been increased over the years to account for inflation. Most recently, crashes that occurred after January 1, 2020, were capped at $613,760. As a result of continued inflation, the cap climbed to $642,180 for crashes that occurred in 2023 and $729,790 for crashes in 2024.
In truly catastrophic cases, the law allowed for a “safety valve” which doubled the amount in certain circumstances. Doubling the cap was extremely difficult and limited to truly horrific circumstances.
Thankfully, in 2024, the Colorado Legislature acted to increase the caps significantly.
Colorado Raised the Cap on Non-Economic Damages in 2024
In 2024, the Colorado Legislature passed House Bill 24-1472, increasing the amount an injured plaintiff can recover on noneconomic damages, wrongful death, and medical malpractice claims. The bill was signed into law on June 3, 2024, and it went into effect in 2025. The new law increased the caps significantly, doubling them in some cases.
As of January 1, 2025, the cap on non-economic damages for auto crashes increased from $729,790 to $1.5 million. The cap applicable to wrongful death cases rose to $2,125,000, and is completely removed where the death reaches the threshold of a felonious killing.
This means that a person hurt or killed in a car accident can be entitled to between $1.5 million and $2.125 million dollars without the need to establish the special circumstances that allowed for recovery of such amounts before.
The statutory caps will be adjusted for inflation starting in 2028. So if you are injured in a crash in 2025 or beyond, waiting to file could increase your recovery. This helps the people of Colorado who have been injured in car crashes. However, the new law has a quirk that even experienced personal injury attorneys may not know.
If your crash happened in 2023 or 2024 and you were to wait to file your car crash lawsuit until 2026, the old lower limits would apply.
Waiting to File Your Car Crash Lawsuit Until 2026 Could Limit Your Recovery
It makes sense to wait to file personal injury cases in some circumstances. The extent of your injuries or the effect on your life and well-being may take months or years to fully manifest. Treatment and healing also take time, and you may not know the full extent of your injuries and impairments for several years.
If you were hurt in a car crash in 2023 or 2024, you should talk to a car crash lawyer near you right away. This is because WHEN YOU FILE your lawsuit will have a drastic effect on how the statutory caps are applied.
If you were injured in a car crash between January 1, 2022, and December 30, 2022, the statute of limitations will, in most cases, run before the end of 2025. That means you must file your lawsuit in 2025 and will benefit from the applicable cap of $1.5 million.
If you were injured between January 1, 2023, and December 30, 2024, the statute of limitations for a car crash would not run until sometime in 2026 or 2027. If you file your lawsuit in 2025, the non-economic damages cap will be $1.5 million.
BUT if you delay finding a car crash lawyer near you and, as a result, file your lawsuit on or after January 1, 2026, the value of your case could be reduced by hundreds of thousands of dollars. This is because the language of HB 24-1472 and Colorado Revised Statutes 13-21-102.5(3)(a)(II) limits the new damages cap on crashes that occurred before January 1, 2025, to lawsuits filed before 2026.
If your car crash attorney waits to file your claim until 2026, the law, as written, limits your non-economic damages to $642,180 for 2023 crashes and $729,790 for 2024 crashes.
To summarize non-economic damage caps only… If your car crash occurred in:
2022 – $1.5 million – But file on or before December 30, 2025 so you don’t miss the statute of limitations
2023 – File in 2025 – $1.5 million. File in 2026 – $642,180
2024 – File in 2025 – $1.5 million. File in 2026 – $729,790
2025 – File 2025 to 2027 – $1.5 million (the cap will be increased in 2028 for inflation).
Delaying Finding an Experienced Car Crash Attorney Near You Could Cost You Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars
This quirk of the law could prevent you from getting the full compensation you need to heal and move your life forward after a serious car crash.
That is why you need a crash attorney with the experience and team to quickly and completely assess your case and the ability to move forward to get you the compensation you deserve. Unless there are truly compelling circumstances, no attorney should wait to file a 2023 or 2024 car crash case until 2026.
Car crashes can be complex. Getting a case filed on time requires having the right team in place to ensure that all the necessary evidence has been collected and documented.
This can include crash scene experts who will document all the details at the scene. Vehicle experts are needed to examine the cars involved and access the stored crash data many new cars now retain following a serious crash. Experienced car crash attorneys will be able to sift through the evidence and determine if extenuating circumstances such as texting, distraction, fatigue, or intoxication contributed to the crash.
As a victim of a car accident you need a law firm with experience and education to handle complex car crash cases. Attorneys at the Law Offices of Peter M. Anderson have the experience and education necessary to handle complex accident claims. Lead Attorney Peter M. Anderson has a history of successfully holding negligent drivers responsible in serious car crash cases.
Call The Law Offices of Peter M. Anderson, Colorado Truck Accident Lawyer at 303-444-1505 today.