Colorado Burn Injury Lawyer: Your Rights After a Burn

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By Michael Shemtoub, trial attorney, Beverly Law. Updated November 2026.

What to do after a burn in Colorado

A third-degree burn destroys the skin to its full depth and harms the tissue underneath (NIH burn fact sheet). Colorado’s burn centers are in Englewood and Aurora, listed below.

1. Keep what burned you, and the clothing you wore.
2. Photograph the injury every few days as it heals.
3. Ask for an incident report and write down who saw it happen.
4. Ask in writing that store or building video be kept.
5. Skip any recorded statement to an insurer until a lawyer licensed in Colorado has looked at your case.

The Colorado Bar Association’s Find a Colorado Lawyer is a public directory you search yourself, with no staffed referral service behind it (CBA).

The deadline to file in Colorado

Negligence claims, which cover most burn cases, must be filed within two years after the claim accrues (C.R.S. 13-80-102(1)(a)). Bodily injury from the use or operation of a motor vehicle gets three years (C.R.S. 13-80-101(1)(n)), which can matter when a crash ends in a fuel fire.

The clock does not always start on the day of the burn. A personal injury claim accrues when both the injury and its cause are known, or should have been known through reasonable diligence (C.R.S. 13-80-108(1)). That can help a worker who learns only later which chemical burned him, but it is safer to plan around the date of the burn.

Public entities move faster. The Colorado Governmental Immunity Act requires written notice within 182 days after discovery of the injury (C.R.S. 24-10-109). Notice of a claim against the state goes to the attorney general; for any other public entity, it goes to the governing body or its attorney. The notice requirement is jurisdictional, so treat the 182 days as a hard limit.

How fault works in Colorado

Colorado uses modified comparative fault with a 50% bar (C.R.S. 13-21-111(1)). You can recover as long as your share of the fault was less than that of the person you are suing. At 50% or more, you recover nothing.

Say a customer at a food truck is burned when the vendor’s propane line leaks and flares. The jury values the harm at $200,000, finds the vendor 75% responsible, and puts 25% on the customer for leaning over the counter. The award drops to $150,000. Had the jury split the fault 50 and 50, the customer would get nothing.

Damages and caps in Colorado

Colorado calls punitive damages “exemplary damages.” They require fraud, malice, or willful and wanton conduct (C.R.S. 13-21-102(1)(a)), proved beyond a reasonable doubt (C.R.S. 13-25-127(2)), and they may not be pleaded in the initial complaint (C.R.S. 13-21-102(1.5)(a)). The award is capped at the amount of actual damages, and in specified circumstances the court may raise it to three times actual damages (C.R.S. 13-21-102(3)).

A burn during medical care, such as an operating-room fire, falls under a separate noneconomic damages cap in C.R.S. 13-64-302, as amended by HB24-1472:

The total cap is the greater of $1 million or 125% of the 13-21-203(1)(b) limit, with a good-cause exception for economic damages (HB24-1472).

Burns at work in Colorado

An insured employer is not subject to any other liability for an employee’s injury, and all other causes of action against it are abolished (C.R.S. 8-41-102 and 8-41-104). The statute’s text has no exception for intentional injury.

A worker hurt by the negligence of someone “not in the same employ” can take comp and also sue that person (C.R.S. 8-41-203). An electrician from another company who leaves a live wire on a shared site is one example. Once comp is paid, the payer takes the claim by assignment, or subrogation, up to what it paid, reduced by a share of attorney fees and costs.

Burn centers in Colorado

The ABA directory lists three burn centers in Colorado. Two are ABA-verified adult centers. The pediatric center at Children’s Hospital Colorado is listed by the ABA (not verified).

Source: American Burn Association, Find a Burn Center, directory checked November 2026.

Who may be liable for a burn

A burn claim can reach a landlord who ignored a failing heater, a contractor working beside your employer, the maker of a defective pressure cooker, or a propane supplier after a leak. Restaurants and coffee shops appear in scald cases because they decide how hot drinks are served; the ABA says hot beverages usually go out at 160 to 180°F, hot enough for almost instant burns that need surgery (ABA scald guide).

How Beverly Law helps in Colorado

Beverly Law is a California firm, and its attorneys are licensed in California and Washington. For burn injuries in Colorado, the firm works with attorneys licensed in Colorado through its referral network. A free case review connects you with a Colorado-licensed burn injury attorney, usually within one business day.

Related pages

• Burn injury lawyer · Burn injury law by state · Burn centers · Utah burn injury lawyer · New Mexico burn injury lawyer

This page is general information about Colorado law, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Laws change; a lawyer licensed in Colorado can tell you how they apply to your case.

Common questions

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Important: Attorney Advertising. This page is general information, not legal or medical advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Beverly Law is a California firm whose attorneys are licensed in California and Washington; for injuries in other states it works with attorneys licensed there through its referral network. Last reviewed: November 6, 2026.