COLORADO GUIDE 03
Policy Disclosure & Finding Every Insurance Policy
Colorado gives crash claimants an unusually important pre-suit policy-disclosure tool. Use it carefully — and do not mistake the statutory response for the entire coverage investigation.
Coverage visibility changes every important settlement decision
Before a claimant can evaluate a liability settlement, preserve UM/UIM rights, assess litigation economics or sign a release, the claimant needs a reliable picture of the insurance that may answer for the loss. Colorado created a pre-suit disclosure system to reduce part of that information gap.
What was requested?
Preserve the exact written request. The scope and wording matter, and the statutory procedure begins with a written request rather than an oral inquiry.
Who received it?
A claimant’s § 10-3-1117 request must be sent to the insurer’s registered agent. Proof of delivery belongs in the claim file.
What was produced?
Audit insurer name, insured names, liability limits, policy copies, excess or umbrella information and whether the response identifies all known relevant policies.
What remains missing?
Do not let silence or partial production become the coverage map. Record missing policies, unanswered leads and unexplained gaps.
What decision depends on it?
Link every missing item to a decision: settlement, release, UM/UIM, litigation, damages evaluation or a search for additional responsible parties.
Make the process reviewable
Request, delivery, Day 30, response, production, missing items and follow-up should be visible from one chronology without reconstructing the file later.
What C.R.S. § 10-3-1117 actually requires
The statute creates two related disclosure rights: one for an insured seeking the insured’s own automobile policy and another for a claimant seeking relevant liability-policy information concerning the opposing insured.
| Who requests? | What is requested? | Deadline / delivery rule | Key point |
|---|---|---|---|
| Insured party | Complete commercial or personal automobile policy, including endorsements. | Insurer must provide it not more than 30 calendar days after receiving the written request. | Separate right under § 10-3-1117(1). |
| Claimant or claimant’s attorney | Required information for each known policy of the named insured, including excess or umbrella insurance, that is or may be relevant. | Within 30 calendar days after the insurer receives the written request sent to the insurer’s registered agent. | Core third-party disclosure right under § 10-3-1117(2)(a). |
| Claimant requests from insured party | Name and coverage of each known insurer of the insured party. | Statute requires disclosure upon written request. | Independent insured-party duty under § 10-3-1117(2)(b). |
The claimant response must state four categories
Insurer name
The response identifies the insurer associated with the relevant policy.
Insured names
The name of each insured party as the name appears on the declarations page.
Liability limits
The limits of liability coverage for the known policy that is or may be relevant.
Policy copy
A copy of the policy itself, not merely a limits letter or selected policy excerpts.
Excess & umbrella
The statutory language expressly includes excess or umbrella insurance among known potentially relevant policies.
Claimant
Section 10-3-1117(5) defines claimant as a person who has provided notice to an insurer of a potential claim.
Build the statutory request as a proof sequence
The safest workflow treats § 10-3-1117 as a document-production process with proof of every step. Do not rely on memory, telephone calls or an adjuster’s informal assurance that “this is all the coverage.”
- Record insurer’s exact legal name.
- Record the registered agent used for the request.
- Save the complete signed or final written request.
- Save proof of mailing, delivery, fax or electronic transmission.
- Record the date the insurer or registered agent received the request.
- Calendar the 30-calendar-day response deadline.
- Save every response, attachment and follow-up communication.
- Do not alter or overwrite the original request-and-response file.
Audit the response — do not merely receive it
A disclosure response becomes useful only after it is tested against the request, the statute, the known facts and the other coverage leads in the file.
| Audit item | Question | Record if missing |
|---|---|---|
| Insurer | Is the insurer’s legal identity clear? | Entity ambiguity, affiliates, underwriting company or servicing carrier. |
| Insured parties | Are insured names identified as required? | Unknown owner, household member, business entity or additional insured lead. |
| Limits | Are liability limits stated for each potentially relevant policy? | Missing limits, unexplained aggregate, combined-single-limit ambiguity. |
| Policy | Was a complete policy produced rather than selected excerpts? | Missing forms, endorsements, schedules, definitions or referenced provisions. |
| Excess / umbrella | Does the response address known excess or umbrella insurance? | Umbrella lead, unexplained excess reference, other insurer name. |
| Other policies | Do the facts suggest another auto policy of the named insured may be relevant? | Other vehicles, household policies, business vehicles or coverage letters. |
| Coverage position | Is the insurer withholding a policy because it believes coverage ultimately fails? | Preserve denial rationale and compare with Bohanan/Fogel relevance analysis. |
Then expand from statutory disclosure to the full coverage map
Section 10-3-1117 is a major Colorado advantage, but it should sit inside a broader investigation. Responsibility and insurance can exist outside the first named insured and the first automobile policy.
2026 authority map: disclosure scope and limitations are still developing
Colorado’s disclosure statute now has several important decisions. Their roles are different. Keep holdings, persuasive federal predictions and pending-review status separate.
One-year / Day-31 rule
Reynolds treats § 10-3-1117 as an action for a statutory penalty, applies the one-year limitations period in § 13-80-103(1)(d), and treats the claim as accruing on the 31st day after receipt of the request.
Two-year / discovery rule
Weatherill expressly declines to follow Reynolds. It treats the action as subject to the two-year catchall period and discovery/should-have-discovered accrual. The case involved an automobile-policy response that omitted a $1 million umbrella policy.
“Is or may be relevant”
Bohanan held that a policy may have to be produced even where the insurer ultimately contends it did not cover the collision. The coverage question itself can make the policy relevant to a prospective claim evaluation.
Complete policy and one per-claim remedy
Applying Colorado law, the Tenth Circuit required production of complete potentially relevant policies and rejected insurer-selected excerpts. It also treated the statutory $100/day remedy as one per claim rather than multiplying it by each unanswered request.
Noncompliance has consequences — and disclosure carries confidentiality duties
$100 per day
Section 10-3-1117(3) provides statutory damages of $100 per day beginning on and including the 31st day after receipt of the claimant’s written request and continuing until the required information is provided.
Fees & costs
The statute also makes a noncomplying insurer responsible for attorney fees and costs incurred by a claimant in enforcing the statutory remedy.
Do not publish the disclosure
Section 10-3-1117(4) restricts the claimant and claimant’s attorney from disclosing the specified policy information to other parties, subject to the statute’s express exception allowing discussion with the claimant’s insurer.
Existing VictimsGuide Colorado tools remain part of Guide 03
The standardized guide becomes the doctrinal hub. Existing request and workflow pages remain useful operational tools rather than being discarded.
Request Policy Disclosures Operational request tool for building a written disclosure record.
§ 10-3-1117 Compliance Help Process-oriented resource addressing statutory disclosure compliance.
Clean Claim System Coverage map, chronology and claim-file organization tools.
Hidden Insurance 20 Illusions companion page addressing incomplete coverage visibility.
Primary authority map
Guide 03 should be maintained as a current-law page because the statute’s enforcement and appellate interpretation are actively developing.
Insured requests, claimant requests, scope, 30-day period, remedy, confidentiality and claimant definition.
Colorado DOI rule implementing request routing, response process, policy definition and reporting requirements.
Colorado Code of Regulations →
Published interpretation of “is or may be relevant” and disclosure despite an insurer’s asserted coverage position.
Published limitations/accrual decision expressly declining Reynolds and involving omitted umbrella coverage.
Published one-year penalty / Day-31 accrual rule now in express conflict with Weatherill.
Persuasive federal appellate application of Colorado law concerning complete potentially relevant policies and the per-claim remedy.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. C.R.S. § 10-3-1117(2)(a) creates a pre-suit disclosure process for qualifying commercial or personal automobile liability coverage. The written request must be sent to the insurer’s registered agent and the statute gives the insurer 30 calendar days after receipt to provide the required information.
For each known policy of the named insured, including excess or umbrella insurance, that is or may be relevant to the claim, the statute calls for the insurer name, names of insured parties as they appear on the declarations page, liability limits and a copy of the policy.
Regulation 5-2-03 distinguishes the “policy” from the declarations page and application. The statute separately requires the insured names and liability limits. The response therefore should be audited by category rather than assuming a declarations page and policy are the same document.
That assertion does not automatically resolve the disclosure question. Bohanan held that a policy can be “relevant” or potentially relevant to evaluating a prospective claim even when the insurer ultimately asserts there is no coverage. The facts and current appellate status still must be checked.
The statute expressly refers to each known relevant policy of the named insured, “including excess or umbrella insurance.” Weatherill itself involved an omitted $1 million umbrella policy.
Section 10-3-1117(3) provides $100 per day beginning on and including the 31st day after receipt of the claimant’s written request until the required information is provided, along with attorney fees and costs incurred enforcing the statutory remedy. Limitations issues require a current-authority check.
Section 10-3-1117(4) contains a confidentiality restriction on the claimant and claimant’s attorney. It expressly permits discussion with the claimant’s insurer, but public posting or broader dissemination should not be assumed permissible.
No. The statute is an important auto-liability disclosure tool, but a complete crash coverage investigation can require separate inquiry into owners, employers, businesses, TNCs, rental arrangements, household coverage, contracts, self-insurance and the claimant’s own first-party policies.
The two published Colorado Court of Appeals decisions conflict. Reynolds applies a one-year penalty limitation and Day-31 accrual; Weatherill expressly declines Reynolds and applies a two-year catchall period with discovery-based accrual. Current Colorado Supreme Court status must be checked before relying on either rule as the final controlling answer.
The working file you should be able to hand to a reviewer
A clean coverage investigation should let another reviewer reconstruct the disclosure process and understand what remains unknown without guessing.
- Crash date and liability claim notice date.
- At-fault driver and vehicle owner names.
- Exact legal name of every identified insurer.
- Written § 10-3-1117 request.
- Registered-agent source record.
- Proof and date of request delivery.
- Day-30 and Day-31 calendar entries.
- All insurer responses and attachments.
- Policy and form inventory showing what was produced.
- Liability-limit inventory by policy.
- Excess/umbrella inquiry and response.
- Insured-party written disclosure, if requested.
- Employer, commercial, TNC, rental, household or other coverage leads.
- Reservation-of-rights or coverage-position letters.
- Claimant UM/UIM, MedPay and collision policy information.
- One written list of every unresolved coverage question.
Continue through the Colorado library
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Next: Guide 04 → Uninsured & Underinsured Motorist Coverage.
Public-interest education only. No legal services offered or accepted. No attorney-client relationship created.
Migration source: https://www.victimsguide.com/co-find-insurance-coverage. Verify current Colorado law and official authority before reliance.
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