Denver Motorcycle Accident Lawyer

Denver Motorcycle Accident Lawyers Who Try Cases

Denver Police recorded 544 motorcycle crashes in 2024 and 2025. Thirty-one riders died and 191 were seriously injured. Motorcycles were involved in 1.5% of Denver’s crashes in those two years, and in 41% of the crashes that killed someone. Nothing else on Denver’s roads carries that ratio.

When a driver turns left across a rider on Federal Boulevard, drifts into a motorcycle’s lane on I-25, or rear-ends a bike stopped on Colfax, the rider takes the entire impact. The injuries that follow are the ones Jordan Law has spent twenty years taking to trial: traumatic brain injury, spinal cord damage, crushed limbs, road rash that needs grafting, and deaths that leave a family with a two-year clock running.

Our motorcycle results include a $45 million settlement, a $42 million wrongful death verdict for a rider’s family, and a $21.6 million jury verdict in a contested motorcycle collision. Insurance companies track which firms try motorcycle cases. They know us, and that changes the first offer.

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

“Motorcycle accidents are often the worst type of accidents that we see. And that just makes sense, right? You don’t have the padding, the protection of a vehicle around you. So when you’re in a motorcycle accident, usually the injuries are pretty bad and sometimes catastrophic. You know, we see signs all the time, ‘look twice, save a life.’ It’s very common — left hand turn cases. A person makes a left, they just didn’t see the motorcycle, they didn’t look, they were a smaller target. Unfortunately, the outcome of that can be incredibly catastrophic.”

— Jason Jordan, Esq., Founding Partner, Jordan Law

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

Where Denver Motorcycle Crashes Happen

We pulled every crash involving a motorcycle from the Denver Police Department’s public crash dataset for 2024 and 2025. The pattern is specific enough to plan a route around.

I-25 is the corridor that matters most. Seventy-eight motorcycle crashes in two years, five of them fatal, with the worst cluster at the 6th Avenue interchange: I-25 northbound at West 6th Avenue was the single most common motorcycle crash location in the city. The other interstates, I-70 and I-225, add 43 more. Off the highways, the damage concentrates on the arterials riders use to get across town: Colfax, Federal, Broadway, Sheridan, Colorado Boulevard, Speer, Evans, and Hampden.

Source: Denver Open Data Catalog, Traffic Accidents (Denver Police Department), 544 crashes with a motorcycle as either vehicle, 2024–2025. Corridor counts match the road name in the crash address, so interstates include their ramps and interchanges.

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

Source: Denver Open Data Catalog, Traffic Accidents (Denver Police Department), 2024–2025. The city’s Vision Zero dashboard, which counts deaths separately, recorded 13 motorcyclist deaths in Denver in 2025, the same number found in the police data.

By neighborhood, Baker (32 crashes), Central Park (23), Lincoln Park (20), Five Points (19), Globeville (17), and Capitol Hill (15) lead the city, which tracks the I-25, Santa Fe, Broadway, and Colfax corridors that run through them.

The afternoon commute is the busiest time for motorcycle crashes in Denver, with 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. accounting for the largest share. But the deadly crashes skew late: 12 of the 31 riders killed in 2024 and 2025 died between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m.

Through October 24, 2026, Denver Police had logged another 245 motorcycle crashes for the year, with 8 riders killed and 86 seriously injured.

Colorado’s Motorcycle Fatality Problem

Denver’s numbers sit inside a statewide problem. In 2024, 165 motorcyclists were killed on Colorado roads, the highest number the state has ever recorded. Motorcycles are about 3% of the vehicles in Colorado and accounted for 24% of the people killed in crashes that year. Forty-four percent of the riders killed were not wearing a helmet. The preliminary 2025 count from CDOT is 147, the second-worst year on record. Nationally, per mile traveled, a motorcyclist is almost 27 times more likely to die in a crash than the occupant of a passenger car.

Those statewide figures explain why Denver juries, adjusters, and even some police officers start from an assumption that the rider did something wrong. Our job is to replace that assumption with the evidence.

Denver Motorcycle Accident Lawyer Near Me (303) 465-8733

The Left-Turn Crash: Denver’s Signature Motorcycle Case

The most common serious motorcycle crash in Denver is the one Jason describes above. A driver waiting to turn left, at a signal on Colfax or out of a parking lot on Federal, looks at oncoming traffic, sees a gap, and turns. The motorcycle was in that gap the whole time. The driver tells the officer, “I never saw him.”

Ninety-four of Denver’s two-vehicle motorcycle crashes in 2024 and 2025 involved another vehicle making a left turn. Eight riders died in those crashes and 42 were seriously injured, a far higher injury rate than any other crash type. Add the 12 U-turn crashes and the pattern covers nearly a quarter of the city’s two-vehicle motorcycle crashes.

The law is on the rider’s side. A driver turning left must yield to any vehicle approaching from the opposite direction that is close enough to be a hazard. A rider going straight with a green light has the right of way. The insurer’s response is predictable: the rider was speeding, the rider was not visible, the rider should have anticipated the turn. We answer each of those with evidence, not argument.

• Speed. We download the motorcycle’s electronic data where the bike has it, pull the other vehicle’s event data recorder, and use the crush damage and the rider’s throw distance to reconstruct the closing speed. In most left-turn cases the reconstruction shows the rider was at or near the limit and the driver simply did not look long enough.
• Visibility. We photograph the sightlines from the driver’s seat at the same time of day, measure how long the motorcycle was in view before the turn, and show that a driver who looked would have seen the rider.
• Perception-reaction time. A driver who turns in front of a motorcycle 150 feet away leaves a rider at 35 mph about three seconds to perceive, brake, and steer. We let the jury do that math.

The Anti-Rider Bias Problem and How We Fight It

The hardest part of a Denver motorcycle case is often not the law. It is the assumption, held by adjusters, defense lawyers, and some jurors, that riders are reckless and brought the crash on themselves.

“There’s also a bit of a stigma that goes along with those cases where you see motorcycle riders, some people — some of these younger guys flying around doing wheelies or doing crazy stuff on the highway — and suddenly everyone is that person in your mind. Right? It plays into the biases that people have, that motorcycle riders are just crazy and taking these crazy risks. When really they have just as much right to the road as anyone else.”

— Jason Jordan, Esq., Founding Partner, Jordan Law

The bias has a legal lever. Colorado’s modified comparative negligence rule, C.R.S. 13-21-111, reduces your recovery by your share of fault and eliminates it entirely at 50%. Insurers use that rule to push a rider’s percentage up: speeding without evidence, “weaving,” lane position, no helmet, dark clothing. The Denver crash data shows the fight is real. In two-vehicle motorcycle crashes, police cited the rider as often as they cited the other driver, usually for careless driving, and an adjuster will treat a citation written at the scene as settled fact.

We treat it as the start of the investigation. We present the rider’s training, motorcycle endorsement, experience, and gear, because the first thing a defense lawyer checks is whether the rider was licensed to be on the bike at all. We retain an accident reconstructionist to show how the crash happened rather than how the adjuster imagines it. We obtain the body-camera footage and the officer’s deposition, because an officer who arrived after the rider was transported rarely saw anything that supports the citation. And when a case is tried, we address the bias directly in jury selection, so the jurors who cannot set it aside do not sit on the case.

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Colorado Motorcycle Laws That Shape a Denver Claim

Helmets

Colorado does not require riders 18 and older to wear a helmet. Riders and passengers under 18 must wear a DOT-approved helmet (C.R.S. 42-4-1502), and every rider and passenger must wear eye protection (C.R.S. 42-4-232). Riding without a helmet is legal and is not negligence. Insurers argue it anyway, claiming a helmet would have prevented the injury. The argument only works for head injuries, and even there it requires expert proof. We document the gear the rider was wearing and tie each injury to its actual mechanism. For a leg crushed under a car, the helmet question is irrelevant, and we keep it that way. Our guide to Colorado’s motorcycle helmet law covers the details.

Lane filtering, not lane splitting

Since August 7, 2024, Colorado riders may pass stopped vehicles in the same lane under SB 24-079 (C.R.S. 42-4-1503): the vehicle being passed and the vehicles in the adjacent lanes must be stopped, the rider may not exceed 15 mph, the lane must be wide enough to pass safely, the rider must stop filtering once traffic moves, and the rider cannot use the shoulder or pass on the right of a vehicle in the far-right lane. Lane splitting, passing between vehicles that are moving, remains illegal. The filtering law expires on September 1, 2027 unless the legislature extends it after CDOT reports on its safety record. The distinction matters in a Denver claim because adjusters now argue that any rider between lanes was “splitting.” We pull the signal timing, the traffic camera footage, and the other vehicles’ data to show traffic was stopped and the rider was within the law. If a driver opened a door or changed lanes into a rider who was filtering legally, the driver is at fault. Read more on lane filtering and the older rule on lane splitting.

Deadlines

Colorado gives you three years from the date of a motor vehicle crash to file an injury lawsuit (C.R.S. 13-80-101(1)(n)) and two years for a wrongful death claim (C.R.S. 13-21-204). If a public entity is involved, a written notice of claim must be served within 182 days under the Colorado Governmental Immunity Act (C.R.S. 24-10-109). In Denver that covers more than you might expect: a crash caused by a pothole or missing signage on a city street, an RTD bus, a City and County of Denver vehicle, or a CDOT-maintained stretch of I-25, I-70, or 6th Avenue. Miss the 182 days and the claim against the public entity is gone regardless of fault.

Insurance minimums and your own coverage

Colorado requires drivers to carry only $25,000 per person in bodily injury liability coverage (C.R.S. 10-4-620). A serious motorcycle injury can exceed that in the first night at Denver Health. Your own uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, which Colorado insurers must offer (C.R.S. 10-4-609), and your MedPay coverage often matter more than the at-fault driver’s policy.

The damages cap

For claims filed on or after January 1, 2025, noneconomic damages in a Colorado injury case are capped at $1.5 million under HB 24-1472, adjusted for inflation beginning in 2028. Economic damages, including every dollar of future medical care and lost earning capacity, have no cap. Wrongful death noneconomic damages are capped at $2.125 million, with no cap when the death was a felonious killing.

Hands-free

Since January 1, 2025, Colorado drivers may not hold a phone while driving. A driver who turned in front of a rider while holding a phone has violated state law, and we subpoena the phone records in every serious case.

Common Causes of Denver Motorcycle Accidents

• Left turns and U-turns across the rider’s path. The leading cause of serious injury in the Denver data, described above.
• Lane changes into a motorcycle. Twenty-nine of Denver’s motorcycle crashes involved another vehicle changing lanes, concentrated on I-25, I-70, and Colorado Boulevard where drivers check a mirror and move. With Colorado’s distracted driving rules now in force, phone records often explain the “blind spot.”
• Rear-end crashes. Front-to-rear was the second most common collision type (121 crashes). A rider stopped at a signal on Colfax or Evans has nowhere to go. This is the crash the 2024 lane filtering law was written to reduce.
• Failure to yield from driveways and side streets. Sixty-five Denver crashes were coded as the other driver failing to yield.
• Hit-and-run drivers. One in four Denver motorcycle crashes. The rider’s own uninsured motorist coverage becomes the claim.
• Impaired drivers. Weekend and late-night crashes account for most of Denver’s motorcycle deaths, and Colorado’s dram shop law can add the bar or restaurant that served the driver as a defendant.
• Road hazards. Gravel, roto-milled pavement, and uneven lanes that a car ignores can put a motorcycle down. When the city, CDOT, or a contractor is responsible, the 182-day notice applies.

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Injuries We See in Denver Motorcycle Cases

With nothing between the rider and the road, the injuries in motorcycle cases are a different category from car crashes. Denver Health, the city’s Level I trauma center, sees them every week of riding season.

• Traumatic brain injury. Even with a helmet, the forces in a motorcycle crash cause concussions, brain bleeds, and diffuse axonal injury. Jordan Law has recovered more than $130 million in brain injury verdicts and settlements.
• Spinal cord injury. Partial or complete paralysis, lifetime care, and the end of a working career. Our spinal cord injury practice handles these cases.
• Road rash and degloving. Skin stripped away over large areas, requiring grafts and leaving permanent scarring and nerve damage.
• Fractures and crush injuries. Femur, tibia, pelvis, wrist, and shoulder fractures that need multiple surgeries and hardware.
• Internal injuries. Ruptured spleen, liver, or kidneys, often not apparent at the scene.
• Amputation. Lower-leg amputations are disproportionately common in motorcycle crashes.
• Psychological injury. PTSD, anxiety, and fear of traffic are real, compensable, and routinely dismissed by adjusters.

“What I like to tell clients is the best thing they can do for their case: give us as much information as you can. Tell us how you’re feeling. Tell us how medical visits are going. Tell us what life is like at home because of your injuries. Tell us if you’re not feeling like yourself, if you’re feeling foggy, you just seem a little off lately. We really want you to share that information with us because it helps us understand your story — so we can tell the jury one day what you’ve been through.”

— Michael Harris, Esq., Litigation Attorney, Jordan Law

What to Do After a Denver Motorcycle Crash

1. Get evaluated the same day, even if you walked away. Adrenaline hides fractures, internal bleeding, and brain injury. The emergency department record from day one is the foundation of the claim.
2. Get the report number. Denver Police respond to injury crashes and the report is available through the department’s records unit within a few days. If the crash was serious, the Traffic Investigations Unit may hold the report longer; we obtain it directly.
3. Photograph everything you can. The vehicles, the road, the signal, skid marks, your gear, and your injuries. Get the names and numbers of witnesses before they leave.
4. Preserve the bike and the gear. Do not let the insurer total the motorcycle and dispose of it. The bike, the helmet, and the jacket are evidence of speed, impact angle, and the injury mechanism.
5. Do not give a recorded statement to the other driver’s insurer. Do not sign a medical authorization. Do not accept an early offer; the first number in a motorcycle case is never the right one.
6. Call a lawyer before the footage is gone. Denver traffic cameras, RTD bus cameras, and business surveillance are overwritten in days. A preservation letter sent this week is worth more than any argument made next year.

“Drive safely out there if you’re a motorcycle rider. But if you were involved in an accident, call us and let us take the time to go through your rights, what you should do, what you shouldn’t do. And as I always say, if you don’t want to hire us, that’s fine. I’d recommend you to three, four, five different attorneys that I would trust my family members to go with.”

— Jason Jordan, Esq., Founding Partner, Jordan Law

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How Jordan Law Builds a Denver Motorcycle Case

We lock down the evidence first. Preservation letters go out to the driver, the insurer, RTD, the City and County of Denver, and any business with a camera on the block. For serious crashes we obtain the Denver Police Traffic Investigations Unit file, including the scene diagram, the event data recorder download, and body-camera footage.

We reconstruct the crash. A motorcycle case usually turns on speed and sightlines. We retain a reconstructionist early, while the scene still matches the photographs, and we measure rather than estimate.

We build the medical case for the long term. Motorcycle injuries evolve. The fracture that healed may need a hardware removal; the brain injury may not show its full effect for a year. We work with treating physicians and life-care planners so the claim reflects the future, not the first hospital bill.

We find every policy. The at-fault driver’s liability coverage, your UM/UIM, MedPay, any employer or commercial policy if the driver was working, umbrella coverage, and the dram shop claim if alcohol was involved.

We prepare every case for a Denver courtroom. Motorcycle injury cases over $25,000 are filed in Denver District Court at the City and County Building, 1437 Bannock Street. Insurers evaluate a claim on what a Denver jury would do with it, and the firm’s trial record is what moves that number.

“You retain an attorney and that just takes all of that away. We tell you what all those things mean — like collateral source and subrogation and common fund doctrine — and why that matters to you at the end of the day. We explain those things to you and then you go back to work, you live your life, you see your medical doctors. That’s what we’re here for.”

— Jason Jordan, Esq., Founding Partner, Jordan Law

Compensation in a Denver Motorcycle Accident Case

Colorado is an at-fault state. The driver who caused the crash, and that driver’s insurer, is responsible for your losses:

• Medical expenses, past and future: emergency care, surgery, hospitalization, rehabilitation, skin grafts, prosthetics, and cognitive therapy.
• Lost wages and lost earning capacity, including the permanent reduction in what you can earn.
• Pain and suffering, emotional distress, and loss of enjoyment of life, including the loss of riding itself.
• Scarring and disfigurement.
• Property damage: the motorcycle, the gear, and anything else destroyed.
• Punitive damages when the driver was drunk, texting, or reckless, which Colorado allows in addition to compensatory damages.
• Wrongful death damages for the family of a rider who did not survive.

The insurance problem in motorcycle cases

Most at-fault drivers in Denver carry the $25,000 minimum. That does not cover a night in the ICU. We review every policy that could apply, starting with your own UM/UIM and MedPay coverage.

“Colorado has one of the highest percentages of people driving around with no insurance. Uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage is coverage that you get to protect yourself and your family. I call it ‘you coverage’ because it is coverage for you. People don’t always understand that by protecting themselves, they’re hedging their bets that the people out there driving around who can’t be trusted have good insurance — which they usually don’t.”

— Sarah Freedman, Esq., Director of Pre-litigation, Jordan Law

Motorcycle Accident Results

• $45,000,000 settlement for a young man who suffered catastrophic injuries when he was struck by another driver while riding to work.
• $42,000,000 verdict for the family of a rider killed when a car turned left in front of the motorcycle, ejecting the rider and passenger.
• $21,600,000 jury verdict in a contested motorcycle collision case.

In each of these cases the insurer’s first offer was a fraction of the result. See more of our results.

“It’s very important that you wind up with the right attorney — not just the attorney that advertises the most or has the most clicks on the Internet. You want to go with an attorney that has tried cases, because the insurance carriers know which law firms try cases and you get better value on your case. And a lot of the ones that are running those big volumes, they don’t try anything. In fact, a lot of times they’re calling us to litigate and try their cases.”

— Jason Jordan, Esq., Founding Partner, Jordan Law

Why Denver Riders Choose Jordan Law

• Motorcycle results that insurers recognize. More than $100 million in motorcycle verdicts and settlements, including three eight-figure results.
• We know the bias and how to beat it. Hundreds of motorcycle cases, tried by lawyers who understand that the first job is making the jury see the rider as a person.
• A true trial firm. Much of our litigation comes from other law firms that refer the cases they are not prepared to try.
• A limited caseload. You will know the attorneys on your case, and they will know you.
• No fee unless we win. Consultations are free, and we advance every cost.

We represent injured riders throughout the metro area, including Greenwood Village, Aurora, Lakewood, Littleton, and Arvada, and riders from Colorado Springs, Fort Collins, Boulder, and Grand Junction who were hurt anywhere in the state.

Denver Motorcycle Accident FAQs

What should I do after a motorcycle accident in Denver?

Get medical care the same day, get the Denver Police report number, photograph the scene and your injuries, keep the motorcycle and your gear exactly as they are, and do not give a recorded statement to the other driver’s insurer. Then call a lawyer so preservation letters go out before camera footage is overwritten.

How long do I have to file a motorcycle accident claim in Colorado?

Three years from the date of the crash for an injury claim and two years for a wrongful death claim. If a government entity is involved, a notice of claim is due within 182 days. The sooner the investigation starts, the stronger the case.

What is the average motorcycle accident settlement in Colorado?

There is no reliable average. The value depends on the injuries, the medical future, lost earnings, the available insurance, and the fault evidence. Jordan Law’s motorcycle results range from policy-limits settlements to a $45 million settlement, a $42 million verdict, and a $21.6 million verdict. The at-fault driver’s $25,000 minimum policy is often the practical ceiling unless your own coverage or another policy applies.

Can the insurance company use the fact that I was not wearing a helmet against me?

They will try. Colorado does not require riders 18 and older to wear a helmet, so riding without one is not negligence. The insurer must prove with expert evidence that a helmet would have prevented the specific injury, which is only possible for certain head injuries. For every other injury the argument has no legal weight, and we keep it out of the case.

Is lane filtering legal in Colorado? What about lane splitting?

Lane filtering between stopped vehicles has been legal since August 7, 2024, when traffic is fully stopped, the rider stays at or below 15 mph, the lane is wide enough to pass safely, and the rider does not use the shoulder. Lane splitting between moving vehicles is still illegal. A rider filtering legally who is hit by a driver changing lanes or opening a door has a negligence claim against that driver.

Can I recover if I was partly at fault for the crash?

Yes, as long as you are less than 50% at fault. Your recovery is reduced by your percentage. At 50% or more you recover nothing, which is why insurers work so hard to push a rider’s share up. Countering that with reconstruction evidence is the core of most Denver motorcycle cases.

Are moped and scooter crashes handled the same way?

Not exactly. Colorado treats low-power scooters of 50cc or less differently from motorcycles for licensing and insurance, but a scooter or moped rider injured by a negligent driver has the same right to full compensation. Our guide to moped accident claims covers the differences.

How much does a Denver motorcycle accident lawyer cost?

Nothing upfront. Jordan Law handles motorcycle cases on a contingency fee. The fee is a percentage of the recovery, the firm advances all costs, and if there is no recovery you owe nothing. Consultations are free.

Hesitant to Call a Lawyer?

Many riders wait too long to call, not because they do not need help but because they are overwhelmed or unsure what a consultation involves. Sarah Freedman sees it every day. A free consultation is a conversation, in person, by phone, or on Zoom. If we can help, we will tell you how. If we cannot, we will say so and recommend attorneys we trust. Learn what to expect from a free consultation.

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. If you cannot travel, we will come to you.

Hurt on a motorcycle in Denver? Call (303) 465-8733 for a free consultation. No fee unless we win.