Wrongful Death Lawyers in Colorado Springs

Nothing a lawsuit produces makes up for the loss of a family member. What a wrongful death claim can do is hold the responsible party accountable and provide for the people who depended on the person who died. Colorado’s wrongful death law is specific about who may bring the claim, when, and what it can recover, and those rules are different from an ordinary injury claim.

Who may file

Colorado sets the order by year:

• In the first year after the death, only the surviving spouse may file, unless the spouse elects in writing to include the children or other heirs, or to let them file. If there is no spouse, the heirs or a designated beneficiary may file.
• In the second year, the spouse, the heirs, or both may file, or a designated beneficiary with the heirs.
• Since 2025, siblings may file in limited circumstances: generally, where there is no spouse, heir, or designated beneficiary, or the person who died was unmarried without children and had no living parents.

Only one wrongful death action is allowed for each death, so the family members entitled to recover need to be coordinated from the start.

The deadline

A wrongful death claim must generally be filed within two years of the death. Where the person responsible committed vehicular homicide and left the scene, the family has four years. Because the first year belongs primarily to the spouse, decisions about who files, and when, should be made early.

What the claim can recover

The family may recover financial losses, such as the income and services the person would have provided, and medical and funeral expenses, as well as noneconomic losses including grief and loss of companionship. For deaths on or after January 1, 2025, Colorado limits noneconomic damages in a wrongful death claim to $2.125 million, adjusted for inflation from 2028. If the person who died left no spouse, minor children, or dependent parent, that figure limits the whole recovery. There is no limit if the death was a felonious killing.

A separate survival claim, brought by the estate, can recover the earnings the person lost and the expenses incurred between the injury and death, but not pain and suffering. Which claims to bring, and by whom, is one of the first questions we work through with a family.

Fatal crashes and falls

Wrongful death claims arise from the same events as injury claims: car and truck crashes, motorcycle crashes, pedestrians and cyclists struck by vehicles, drunk drivers, and falls and other hazards on unsafe property. The evidence of what happened is gathered the same way and just as quickly.

When there is a criminal case

If the death led to criminal charges, such as vehicular homicide, that case runs separately. Its records can help, but the family’s claim doesn’t depend on a conviction and doesn’t pause while the criminal case is pending.

How we work with families

We handle the investigation, the insurers, and the court process so the family doesn’t have to, explain each decision that is theirs to make, and keep them informed without asking more of them than necessary.