COLORADO AUTO INSURANCE & CRASH LAW
Colorado Auto Insurance & Crash Law
A practical public-interest guide to Colorado liability coverage, policy disclosure, UM/UIM, MedPay, insurer duties, fault, evidence, damages, deadlines and settlement.
COLORADO RESEARCH LIBRARY
Current 22-Topic Library
Use these issue pages as the current VictimsGuide navigation for Colorado. The state hub remains the permanent doorway; legacy guide numbering and crosswalk material below is preserved for research continuity.
Colorado Auto Insurance & Crash Law
A practical overview of Colorado’s automobile-insurance and crash-law system: required liability coverage, policy disclosure, UM/UIM, MedPay, insurer duties, fault, evidence, damages, deadlines and settlement.
Colorado crash claims are a system, not one insurance claim
A serious crash can create several legal and insurance tracks at the same time. The visible liability claim against another driver is only one of them. The safest starting point is to identify every responsible person, every potentially applicable policy, every first-party benefit, every deadline and every unresolved damage or reimbursement issue before a release is signed.
Liability
Who caused the crash, who else may be legally responsible, and what damages can be proved?
Coverage
Which drivers, owners, vehicles, employers, businesses, household policies, excess layers or other insurance arrangements may apply?
First-party benefits
MedPay, UM/UIM, collision and other benefits may operate independently from the liability insurer.
Medical money
Bills, health insurance, MedPay, liens, reimbursement rights and settlement allocation must be reconciled separately.
Procedure & deadlines
Motor-vehicle limitations, government notice, policy conditions, disclosure deadlines and litigation rules can run on different clocks.
Settlement & release
A payment does not answer whether all parties, policies, liens, first-party rights and future losses have been identified.
Colorado requires liability insurance — but the minimum is only a floor
Colorado’s compulsory automobile-insurance framework is principally found in C.R.S. Title 10, article 4, part 6. The statutory minimums do not establish the actual limits of a particular policy and do not determine the value of an injury.
| Coverage | Colorado minimum | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Bodily injury / death — one person | $25,000 | Minimum liability protection for one injured or deceased person. |
| Bodily injury / death — one accident | $50,000 | Minimum aggregate bodily-injury limit for all persons in one accident. |
| Property damage — one accident | $15,000 | Minimum liability protection for damage to another person’s property. |
Build the coverage map before you value the settlement
The declarations page and insurance card answer only part of the question. The actual coverage analysis follows the people, vehicles, use, relationships, policy forms and other insurance layers.
Four Colorado insurance rules deserve early attention
C.R.S. § 10-3-1117
A qualifying claimant request can require information concerning each known relevant policy of the named insured, including excess or umbrella insurance, liability limits and a copy of the policy. The statute contains confidentiality and enforcement provisions.
C.R.S. § 10-4-609
Colorado’s uninsured/underinsured-motorist statute governs protection when an at-fault driver has no insurance or insufficient liability insurance. Rejection, limits, insured status, stacking and offsets require policy-specific analysis.
C.R.S. § 10-4-635
Colorado generally places $5,000 of medical-payments coverage in the automobile policy unless the named insured rejects it in the manner allowed by statute. Trauma-care reservation and payment rules can matter immediately.
C.R.S. §§ 10-3-1115 & 1116
A person engaged in the business of insurance may not unreasonably delay or deny covered benefits owed to a first-party claimant. Section 1116 provides a statutory cause of action and remedies.
Weatherill / Reynolds
Colorado Court of Appeals divisions have disagreed over the limitations and accrual analysis for § 10-3-1117. Guide 03 carries the live status and should be checked before relying on either line of authority.
Read the complete contract
Definitions, insuring agreements, exclusions, conditions, endorsements and statutory requirements must be read together. A declarations page is not the complete insurance contract.
Fault and deadlines can change the claim before settlement begins
C.R.S. § 13-21-111
Colorado reduces recoverable damages in proportion to claimant negligence. Recovery is barred when the claimant’s negligence is as great as or greater than the negligence against which recovery is sought.
General three-year clock
C.R.S. § 13-80-101(1)(n) generally applies a three-year limitations period to tort actions for bodily injury or property damage arising from the use or operation of a motor vehicle.
182-day notice can apply
C.R.S. § 24-10-109 generally requires qualifying Governmental Immunity Act notice within 182 days after discovery of the injury. That notice requirement is separate from the later lawsuit.
A practical Colorado crash workflow
The legal analysis works best when the record is built in the same order that the important decisions arise.
| Phase | Build the record | Avoid the early mistake |
|---|---|---|
| Scene & first days | Safety, treatment, photos, witnesses, vehicles, reports, employer/TNC facts and evidence preservation. | Assuming the police report will preserve every fact. |
| Coverage investigation | Identify driver, owner, household, employer, commercial, umbrella/excess and first-party insurance. | Treating the insurance card as the complete coverage picture. |
| Medical-payment track | Identify MedPay, health insurance, bills, payments, liens and reimbursement claims. | Waiting until settlement to learn who claims part of the recovery. |
| Liability & damages | Develop causation, fault, medical proof, wage loss, future loss, property damage and other damages. | Equating insurer reserves, limits or an early offer with claim value. |
| Settlement readiness | Confirm all coverage, damages, liens, first-party rights, deadlines and exact release language. | Signing a final release while material facts remain unknown. |
The Colorado 23-guide research path
Guide 01 is the map. The remaining guides take each issue to the statute, policy language, evidence and case authority needed for a more complete analysis.
05Stacking, Multiple Policies & Other InsuranceMultiple UM/UIM and insurance layers.
06Policy InterpretationReading the complete Colorado insurance contract.
09Claims Handling, Good Faith & Bad Faith§§ 10-3-1115/1116 and common-law duties.
11Multiple Claimants & Limited ProceedsCompeting claims, insureds and shared limits.
12Agents, Brokers & Failure to Procure CoverageProducer duties and missing requested coverage.
13Borrowed, Loaned & Rental VehiclesPermission, owner liability, rental and nonowned coverage.
14Work, Employer & Commercial VehiclesEmployment, business use and commercial insurance.
15Rideshare & TNC InsuranceApp periods, TNC obligations and overlapping coverage.
16Government Vehicle & Public Entity ClaimsCGIA waiver, 182-day notice and public-entity procedures.
17Comparative FaultModified comparative negligence and allocation.
18Crash InvestigationEvidence, reports, vehicles, electronics, witnesses and chronology.
19Crash DamagesMedical, wage, future, noneconomic and property losses.
20Wrongful DeathColorado statutory claimants, damages, caps and survival issues.
21MedPay, Liens & Reimbursement§ 10-4-635, health coverage, liens and net recovery.
22Settlement & ReleaseRelease scope, liens, first-party rights and finality.
23Colorado Case Authority LibraryPublished case authorities organized by doctrine and status.
Primary source map
The public guide should always point back to the current Colorado source system. These are starting points, not substitutes for reading the operative authority.
Official 2026 CRS title downloads
Colorado General Assembly overview
Current official statute access
Automobile insurance consumer resources
Frequently asked questions
No. It may identify one insurer and one policy, but additional owner, employer, commercial, household, excess/umbrella or other coverage may exist. Colorado’s policy-disclosure law can be an important part of that investigation.
No. They are statutory minimum liability limits. Actual policy limits, additional policies, responsible parties, UM/UIM and other coverage sources can materially change the recovery analysis.
No. Colorado uses a fault-based automobile liability system. MedPay is a separate first-party medical benefit and should not be confused with a mandatory no-fault PIP system.
C.R.S. § 10-4-635 generally requires $5,000 in MedPay unless the named insured rejects the coverage in the manner permitted by statute. The actual policy and any rejection record should be reviewed.
Colorado has a specific pre-suit automobile policy-disclosure statute, C.R.S. § 10-3-1117. A qualifying request must satisfy the statutory process, including delivery to the insurer’s registered agent. Guide 03 addresses the procedure, scope, confidentiality, enforcement and current case law.
No. Three years is the general period for qualifying motor-vehicle tort actions under C.R.S. § 13-80-101(1)(n), but other claims and procedures can use different periods. Public-entity claims, for example, can require a 182-day CGIA notice.
An offer is only one part of settlement readiness. Before a final release, identify all coverage, damages, liens, reimbursement interests, first-party rights, future losses, responsible parties and deadlines, and read the exact release language.
Continue through the Colorado library
← Western States Library Return to the multi-state law library.
Colorado Library Return to the Colorado state landing page.
Next: Guide 02 → Required Auto Insurance & Minimum Limits.
Public-interest education only. No legal services offered or accepted. No attorney-client relationship created.
Migration source: https://www.victimsguide.com/colorado-auto-insurance-law. Verify current state law and official authority before reliance.
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