Denver Wrongful Death Lawyer

When Someone Else’s Negligence Takes a Life in Denver

No verdict or settlement will undo what happened to your family. But a wrongful death claim can hold the responsible people accountable, protect your family’s financial future, and make sure your loved one’s life is not reduced to a line item in an insurance adjuster’s file.

Denver lost 94 people to traffic crashes in 2025, the most since the city began its Vision Zero count, and 55 more had died on Denver streets by late October 2026. Those are only the deaths on the road. Add the workers killed on Denver construction sites, the patients lost to preventable medical errors, the residents neglected in nursing homes, and the people killed by violence that a property owner should have prevented, and every one of those deaths left a family trying to understand what happened and what comes next.

Jordan Law has represented families through wrongful death claims involving some of the hardest circumstances imaginable: a 19-year-old killed when a defective car door opened during a rollover on I-70, a man who died after being restrained by hospital security guards, and families devastated by drunk drivers and trucking-company negligence. Our results include a $45 million settlement for the wrongful death of a young mother and a $42 million verdict in a motorcycle wrongful death case. We are a true trial firm, and the insurance companies that defend these cases know it.

Our office is in the Denver Tech Center, fifteen minutes from downtown on I-25. We meet families at home, at the hospital, or anywhere in the metro area when that is easier.

“I think the money side of things, yeah, it’s great. But for me it’s okay — what made the case worth that kind of money? The injury. The maybe the conduct as well, but really it’s the injuries. When they’re crying and when they’re texting me videos of using their hands again and working through therapy — that’s a great feeling. You realize you did that. We did that. That’s the rewarding part, really.” — Jason Jordan, Esq., Founding Partner, Jordan Law

For a free consultation with a Denver wrongful death lawyer, call (303) 465-8733. There is no fee unless we recover for your family.

Our office is in Greenwood Village, but most of the families we represent lost someone somewhere else in the metro area. If the death happened in Denver, our Denver wrongful death lawyer page covers Denver crash data, the Denver courts, and the 182-day notice rule for claims involving the City and County of Denver, RTD, or Denver Health.

For a free legal consultation with a Personal Injury lawyer serving Denver, call (303) 465-8733

Fatal Crashes in Denver: What the Data Shows

Traffic deaths are the single largest source of wrongful death claims in Denver, so it helps to understand the pattern. We reviewed every crash the Denver Police Department coded as fatal in its public crash dataset for 2024 and 2025, 76 crashes in all. The city’s own Vision Zero count of traffic deaths is higher (94 in 2025 alone) because it includes deaths that occurred after the crash report was filed, so treat the police numbers as a picture of where and how people die, not a complete count.

Where Denver’s fatal crashes happen (2024–2025)

Source: Denver Open Data Catalog, Traffic Accidents (Denver Police Department), crashes coded fatal, 2024–2025. Deaths per year from Denver Vision Zero.

How Denver’s fatal crashes happen (2024–2025)

Source: Denver Police Department crash data, 76 crashes coded fatal, 2024–2025. Percentages rounded.

The neighborhoods with the most fatal crashes in that period were Central Park, Baker, Montbello, Lincoln Park, and Green Valley Ranch. If your family lost someone on one of these roads, we already know the corridor, the camera coverage, and the agencies that hold the evidence.

If the death happened in a crash, start with our dedicated Denver fatal car accident lawyer page for the crash-specific investigation steps. The rest of this page covers the wrongful death law that applies no matter how your loved one died.

Colorado’s Wrongful Death Damages Cap: What Changed in 2025

The cap is the single most important number in a Colorado wrongful death case, because it limits what a jury can award for the loss itself. In 2024 the Colorado legislature passed HB 24-1472, which raised the limits for claims filed on or after January 1, 2025.

The new cap: $2.125 million for noneconomic damages

For wrongful death claims filed on or after January 1, 2025, noneconomic damages (grief, loss of companionship, emotional suffering) are capped at $2,125,000 under C.R.S. § 13-21-203. The previous cap was about $680,000. Starting in 2028 the cap adjusts for inflation every two years.

There is no cap on economic damages. Medical bills incurred before death, funeral and burial costs, the lost future income your loved one would have earned, and the value of the services they provided to the household are all recoverable without limit.

The felonious killing exception: no cap at all

When the death was caused by a felonious killing, meaning the responsible person’s conduct amounted to a felony such as vehicular homicide, DUI manslaughter, assault, or murder, the cap does not apply. The family can pursue unlimited noneconomic damages and exemplary (punitive) damages. This is a civil determination made in your case, separate from whether the Denver District Attorney files charges or wins a conviction.

“It comes down to the cap, right? Like it’s easy to posture and say we don’t think you’re going to get felonious killing. Well, we rested our case and they only had two experts the next day and then we were going to close — and it settled during lunch right after we rested.” — Jason Jordan, Esq., Founding Partner, Jordan Law

That quote is from a case in which a man died after hospital security guards restrained him. Jason’s team built the conscious-disregard evidence that felonious killing requires by getting each guard to acknowledge on the stand that their training prohibited what they did. The case was resolved for a confidential amount during trial.

In Denver, the felonious killing question comes up most often in DUI deaths, hit-and-run deaths, and street-racing deaths, which is why the reckless-driving share in the table above matters. If the Denver Police Department or the District Attorney has opened a vehicular homicide case, your civil claim should be built to use that evidence.

Siblings can now file

HB 24-1472 also gave siblings of the deceased the right to bring a wrongful death action in certain circumstances. Before 2025, only a spouse, children, designated beneficiary, or parents had standing.

Denver Wrongful Death Lawyer Near Me (303) 465-8733

Who Can File a Wrongful Death Claim in Colorado

Colorado’s Wrongful Death Act (C.R.S. § 13-21-201) sets a strict order of who may sue, and when:

• Year one after the death: only the surviving spouse may file. The spouse can choose to bring the heirs into the case, but nobody else can file without the spouse during the first year. If there is no spouse, the deceased’s heirs (children) or a designated beneficiary may file in year one.
• Year two: the spouse, the heirs, or a designated beneficiary may file, together or separately.
• Parents: may file when the deceased left no spouse, no children, and no designated beneficiary. This is the usual path when a young adult or a child dies.
• Siblings: may file in the circumstances added by HB 24-1472 in 2025.
• The estate: the personal representative of the estate may bring a survival action for the losses the deceased suffered before death, and may pursue the wrongful death claim when no eligible family member does.

Two Denver-specific notes. First, Denver is the only county in Colorado with a dedicated Probate Court, housed in the City and County Building at 1437 Bannock Street. If the estate needs a personal representative appointed to pursue a survival action or hold settlement funds for minor children, that is where it happens, and we handle the filing. Second, the one-year spouse rule causes real problems in blended families and separated couples. We have seen adult children lose a year of evidence waiting for a stepparent who never intended to file. We can resolve that early.

For a deeper explanation of standing, read who can file a wrongful death claim after a fatal car accident.

Deadlines That Can End a Denver Wrongful Death Case

Two years. Colorado’s statute of limitations for wrongful death is two years from the date of death (C.R.S. § 13-21-204), one year shorter than the three-year deadline for an injury claim from the same crash. Miss it and the claim is gone, no matter how strong it was.

Four years if the driver fled. When the person responsible left the scene of the crash, Colorado extends the deadline to four years. Hit-and-run drivers were involved in 37% of all Denver crashes in 2024 and 2025, and several of those each year are fatal.

182 days if a government is involved. This is the deadline families miss most often. If the death involved the City and County of Denver, RTD, CDOT, Denver Health, a Denver Public Schools vehicle, or any other public entity or employee, the Colorado Governmental Immunity Act requires a written notice of claim within 182 days of the death (C.R.S. § 24-10-109). A city snowplow, an RTD bus or light-rail train, a dangerous road design on a state highway, or care at Denver Health Medical Center, which is a public hospital authority, all trigger this rule. No notice, no claim.

Criminal cases run on their own clock. A Denver vehicular homicide prosecution can take a year or more to resolve. Families sometimes wait for the criminal case to finish before calling a lawyer. Do not wait. The civil deadlines run regardless of the criminal case, and the evidence we need is easiest to get in the first weeks.

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Common Causes of Wrongful Death in Denver

• Car, truck, and motorcycle crashes. The largest category by far. See our Car accident lawyer, Truck accident lawyer, and Motorcycle accident lawyer pages for how those cases are built.
• Drunk and drugged driving. Colfax, Federal, and the I-25 corridor produce a steady stream of DUI deaths. A family can pursue the driver, the driver’s insurer, and under Colorado’s dram shop law, a bar or restaurant that served a visibly intoxicated patron. Our Drunk driving accident lawyer page explains the dram shop claim.
• Pedestrian and bicycle deaths. Pedestrians account for roughly a third of Denver’s Vision Zero death count in a typical year. Many of these cases involve a driver who never braked, a missing crosswalk signal, or both. See  Pedestrian accident lawyer.
• Defective products. The Hyundai case we handled involved a door-cable design that let the door open when the side airbag deployed, throwing a 19-year-old passenger from a rolling car on I-70. Product cases require securing the vehicle or product before anyone can alter it. See Product liability lawyer.
• Medical negligence. Surgical errors, missed diagnoses, medication errors, and failures to monitor. Medical malpractice wrongful death claims have their own damages schedule under HB 24-1472 that steps up through 2029, and claims against Denver Health carry the 182-day government notice rule.
• Workplace and construction deaths. Denver’s building boom has a cost. Workers’ compensation pays a limited death benefit, but a wrongful death claim against a negligent third party (a general contractor, a subcontractor, an equipment manufacturer, a property owner) is often where the real recovery is.
• Premises liability and negligent security. Deaths caused by dangerous property conditions, inadequate security, or violence that a property owner should have anticipated. See  Premises liability lawyer.
• Nursing home neglect. Falls, medication errors, untreated infections, and abuse in Denver nursing homes and assisted living facilities. See Nursing home abuse lawyer.

“Hi, I’m Michael Harris. I’m a litigation attorney here at Jordan Law. I run the personal injury litigation department and the kinds of cases that I focus on are mainly catastrophic injury cases arising out of motor vehicle collisions or premises liability cases. I handle wrongful death claims, nursing home abuse claims, and that’s primarily my area of focus.” — Michael Harris, Esq., Litigation Attorney, Jordan Law

What a Denver Wrongful Death Claim Can Recover

Economic damages (no cap). Funeral and burial expenses, medical bills from the injury to the death, the income and benefits your loved one would have earned over a working life, and the value of the household services and care they provided.

Noneconomic damages (capped at $2.125 million, or uncapped for felonious killing). Grief, sorrow, loss of companionship, loss of a parent’s guidance, and the emotional suffering of the surviving family. Colorado also lets a family elect a fixed-sum “solatium” award under C.R.S. § 13-21-203.5 instead of proving noneconomic damages. It is rarely the better choice, but in a case with thin liability evidence it can be.

Exemplary (punitive) damages. Available when the conduct was fraudulent, malicious, or willful and wanton. Generally capped at the amount of compensatory damages, with the court able to increase it in certain circumstances.

Survival action damages. A separate claim, brought by the estate, for what your loved one experienced between the injury and death: conscious pain and suffering, medical expenses, and lost wages in that window. Filing the wrongful death claim and the survival action together usually produces a larger total recovery.

Settlements for a wrongful death claim are generally not taxable as income. Read do you get taxed on a wrongful death settlement payout for the exceptions.

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How Jordan Law Handles a Denver Wrongful Death Case

We lock down the evidence in the first days

In a fatal crash, that means the Denver Police Department Traffic Investigations Unit report and reconstruction, the Office of the Medical Examiner’s autopsy and toxicology, CDOT and city traffic camera footage (which is overwritten on a schedule), the vehicles’ event data recorders, and the 911 audio. In a workplace or premises death, it means preservation letters, OSHA and Denver inspection records, and surveillance footage before it is recycled. In a product case, it means custody of the product itself.

“We first isolate the vehicle and we do it in a way with a good chain of custody so there’s no spoliation type issue later, and we just look at it — no destructive anything, photographs, whatever we need to do before we notify the other side. And then we conduct an actual investigation. I had one case where the phone rings and the expert calls up and says, ‘This is litigation gold.’ The tire two tires back was going to blow within two or three minutes the same way the one up front did, and it was nine tires later off the same assembly line. Just by looking into it and storing the vehicle, all of a sudden the case has become something potentially much different.” — Jason Jordan, Esq., Founding Partner, Jordan Law

We prove the value of the life that was lost

Economists, vocational experts, and life-care planners establish the earnings and services your loved one would have provided. Family members, friends, and coworkers establish the relationships that were severed. The cap limits the noneconomic number; it does not limit how well that number is proven, and juries in Denver District Court respond to the real person, not a spreadsheet.

We find every policy

The at-fault driver’s liability coverage, the employer’s commercial policy, umbrella coverage, your own family’s uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage (which applies to resident relatives in many households), dram shop coverage, and product manufacturers’ coverage. In many Denver wrongful death cases, the first policy offered is the smallest one available.

We prepare every case for a Denver courtroom

Civil wrongful death cases against Denver defendants are generally filed in Denver District Court at the City and County Building, 1437 Bannock Street. Insurance companies and corporate defendants negotiate differently with a firm that has tried wrongful death cases to verdict, and they know which firms have.

“You have to really know your case inside, out, and backwards. And you have to believe in it. You really have to believe in your case. If you don’t, if you don’t have that credibility or authenticity of what you’re saying — that you actually truly believe deep down inside — it’s going to come across that way and you’re going to get skewered. You’re going to get hurt.” — Jason Jordan, Esq., Founding Partner, Jordan Law

We coordinate with the criminal case, not wait for it

When the Denver District Attorney prosecutes a vehicular homicide, DUI death, or assault, we track the case at the Lindsey-Flanigan Courthouse, obtain the discovery the criminal court allows, and time our civil case so the criminal findings help rather than delay it. The criminal case punishes. Only the civil case compensates your family.

Wrongful Death Results

• $45 million settlement for the wrongful death of a young mother.
• $42 million verdict in a motorcycle wrongful death case.
• Confidential settlement during trial in the felonious killing case against a hospital whose security guards restrained a patient to death.
• Product liability wrongful death against a major automaker over a defective door-cable design.

See more on our results page. Past results do not guarantee a future outcome; every case depends on its own facts.

Why Denver Families Choose Jordan Law

• Trial-tested. We try wrongful death cases, and roughly 85% of our litigation caseload comes from other law firms that bring us their cases for trial. The firms that advertise the most are often the ones calling us.
• Current on the 2025 law. The new cap, the felonious killing standard, sibling standing, and the medical malpractice schedule all changed. We handle cases under the new framework every month.
• A dedicated litigation department. Michael Harris runs personal injury litigation and focuses on catastrophic injury and wrongful death. Jason Jordan has tried wrongful death cases to verdict for more than two decades.
• A family firm. We meet with you in person, we answer the phone, and we explain each decision before it is made.
• No fee unless we win. We advance every cost of investigation, experts, and litigation. If there is no recovery, you owe nothing.

“If we lose the case, we don’t seek those costs after our client. We don’t go after our client for those costs. So we’re taking a huge risk that we won’t win the case. But we’re confident. We’re comfortable in courtrooms. We command respect with insurance agents. And we’re always making sure we’re doing as much as we can for our clients.” — Jason Jordan, Esq., Founding Partner, Jordan Law

We represent families in Denver and across the metro area, including Greenwood Village, Aurora, and statewide in Boulder, Colorado Springs, Fort Collins, and Grand Junction.

Denver Wrongful Death FAQs

Who can sue for wrongful death in Colorado?

During the first year after the death, only the surviving spouse may sue (or the children or designated beneficiary if there is no spouse). In the second year, the spouse, the children, or a designated beneficiary may sue. Parents may sue when there is no spouse, child, or designated beneficiary, and since 2025 siblings may sue in certain circumstances under HB 24-1472. The estate’s personal representative brings the separate survival action.

What is the average wrongful death settlement in Colorado?

There is no reliable “average,” because every case depends on liability, insurance limits, and the life that was lost. The structure is predictable, though: economic damages are unlimited and often dominate when the deceased was a working parent; noneconomic damages are capped at $2.125 million for claims filed after January 1, 2025 unless the death was a felonious killing; and available insurance sets the practical ceiling in most cases. Our wrongful death results range from policy-limits settlements to a $45 million settlement and a $42 million verdict. Read how much is a wrongful death claim worth in Colorado for the factors.

How hard is it to win a wrongful death case?

Harder than an injury case in two ways. The person who knows best what happened cannot testify, and the deadlines are shorter. Winning depends on evidence that is gathered early: the police reconstruction, the autopsy, camera footage, vehicle data, and witness statements. Colorado’s modified comparative negligence rule also matters. If your loved one is found 50% or more at fault, the family recovers nothing, so the defense will try to shift blame to the person who died. A firm that prepares the case for trial from day one changes that calculation.

What is Colorado’s wrongful death damages cap?

For claims filed on or after January 1, 2025, noneconomic damages are capped at $2,125,000 under C.R.S. § 13-21-203, up from about $680,000. Economic damages are not capped. If the death constitutes a felonious killing, the cap does not apply and the family may also seek exemplary damages.

What is the statute of limitations for wrongful death in Colorado?

Two years from the date of death under C.R.S. § 13-21-204. If the responsible driver left the scene, the deadline extends to four years. If a government entity is involved, a written notice of claim is due within 182 days, long before the lawsuit deadline.

What is the difference between a wrongful death claim and a survival action?

A wrongful death claim belongs to the family and compensates their losses: grief, loss of companionship, lost financial support, and funeral costs. A survival action belongs to the estate and recovers what the deceased experienced before death: conscious pain and suffering, medical expenses, and lost wages in that period. They are usually filed together.

What is a felonious killing, and why does it matter?

A felonious killing is a death caused by conduct that would be a felony: vehicular homicide, DUI manslaughter, assault, murder. It is decided in the civil case, by the civil standard, whether or not the District Attorney files charges. When it is established, Colorado’s cap on noneconomic damages disappears, which can be the difference between a capped recovery and a multi-million-dollar one. Proving it requires showing the responsible party consciously disregarded a substantial and unjustifiable risk.

How much does a Denver wrongful death lawyer cost?

Nothing upfront. Jordan Law handles wrongful death cases on a contingency fee, which means our fee is a percentage of the recovery and we advance all costs. If we do not recover for your family, you owe us nothing. Consultations are free, and we will explain the fee agreement line by line before you sign it.

Our Denver Tech Center Office

Jordan Law Accident & Injury Lawyers

5445 DTC Parkway, Suite 1000

Greenwood Village, CO 80111

(303) 465-8733

Fifteen minutes south of downtown Denver on I-25, with free parking. We also meet families at home or at the hospital anywhere in the Denver metro area.

Call (303) 465-8733 or Click to contact our Greenwood Village personal injury lawyers today. We answer around the clock, and the first conversation costs nothing.