Colorado Slip and Fall Law: Deadlines, Fault, and Damages

Colorado slip and fall law is set by the Colorado Premises Liability Act (C.R.S. § 13-21-115), which ties what a property owner owed you to the reason you were on the property. You generally have two years from the date of the fall to file a lawsuit, your compensation shrinks or disappears if you share the blame, and non-economic damages are capped. Falls on government property follow a tighter, separate track with a 182-day notice deadline.¹²³

What the Property Owner Owed You

The Premises Liability Act sorts every visitor into one of three categories, and the category drives everything else. If you were an invitee — a shopper, a hotel guest, a patient at a medical office, or anyone else on the property for business or in response to an open public invitation — the owner owed you the highest duty. They had to take reasonable steps to protect you from hazards they knew about or should have discovered through routine attention to the property.¹ A store that lets a puddle sit in an aisle for an hour cannot claim ignorance; a reasonable owner would have caught it.

If you were a licensee — someone there with permission but for your own purposes, like a social guest — the duty is narrower. For hazards the owner created, they must use reasonable care if they actually knew about the danger. For hazards they didn’t create, they only have to warn you about dangers that aren’t ordinarily present on that type of property and that they actually knew about.¹ There is no obligation to go hunting for hidden problems. If your friend genuinely didn’t know the deck step was loose, your fall isn’t their legal problem.

A trespasser enters without consent, and the owner is only liable for injuries caused willfully or deliberately.¹ Simple neglect of conditions on the property will not support a trespasser’s claim.

Children under 14 are treated differently. The Act preserves the attractive nuisance doctrine regardless of whether the child was technically invited, permitted, or trespassing. If an unusual condition on the property attracted the child, the owner knew or should have known it posed a risk, and the child was too young to appreciate the danger, the owner can be liable for failing to take reasonable precautions. Pools, construction sites, and abandoned equipment are common examples. Children 14 through 17 are presumed competent and fall under the regular visitor rules.¹

The Two-Year Deadline to Sue

You have two years from the date of the injury to file a personal injury lawsuit in Colorado. This deadline applies to all tort claims, slip and fall cases included. Miss it and the court will almost certainly dismiss the case no matter how strong the facts.²

Colorado recognizes a discovery rule in limited circumstances where an injury isn’t immediately apparent, meaning the clock may start when you discovered or reasonably should have discovered the harm. That exception comes up more often in medical or toxic exposure cases than in falls, where the injury is usually obvious at the moment of impact.

If You Fell on Government Property, Act in 182 Days

A fall on a city sidewalk, in a public library, or inside a state office building triggers a completely different timeline. The Colorado Governmental Immunity Act (C.R.S. § 24-10-109) requires a written notice of claim within 182 days of discovering the injury. This is jurisdictional. Fail to file it on time and you permanently lose the right to sue, regardless of the two-year statute.³

The notice must include:

Your name, address, and attorney’s information if you have one.
The date, time, location, and circumstances of the fall.
The name and address of any public employee involved, if known.
A description of the nature and extent of your injuries.
The dollar amount you are requesting.

Claims against the state go to the attorney general. Claims against a city, county, or other local entity go to that entity’s governing body or its attorney. Delivery must be by certified mail with return receipt or in person.³ Even with a timely notice, you cannot file suit until the entity denies the claim or 90 days have passed, whichever is first.

How Shared Fault Changes What You Recover

Colorado uses modified comparative negligence under C.R.S. § 13-21-111. If you share some blame for the fall, your damages are reduced by your percentage of fault. Twenty percent at fault on a $100,000 case means an $80,000 recovery.⁴

The cliff comes at 50 percent. If your fault equals or exceeds the property owner’s, you recover nothing. A jury that finds you 50 percent responsible forces the court to enter judgment for the defendant.⁴ This is the standard defense playbook: you were texting, your shoes were wrong, you ignored a warning sign, the hazard was obvious. In jury trials, each party’s percentage of fault is stated in a special verdict and the court does the math.

What You Can Recover

Economic damages — medical bills, lost wages, future treatment costs — are not subject to any statutory cap in Colorado. Courts calculate them from receipts, pay records, and expert testimony about future losses. Surgery and months of therapy after a fall are recoverable in full.

Non-economic damages, which cover pain, suffering, emotional distress, and diminished quality of life, are capped under C.R.S. § 13-21-102.5. For claims accruing on or after January 1, 2025, the cap is $1,500,000, with the first inflation adjustment scheduled for January 1, 2028 and further adjustments every two years. Earlier claims fall under a lower baseline of $250,000, which a court could raise to $500,000 on clear and convincing evidence.⁵

Evidence to Capture Right Away

A slip and fall claim lives or dies on what you can prove about the hazard and the owner’s knowledge of it. Reconstructing a scene weeks later rarely works.

Photograph the exact hazard — the puddle, the broken step, the ice, the uneven surface — along with wide shots of the surrounding area showing the absence of warning signs or barriers. Note the time, the location, and the names of any employees or witnesses. Ask about security camera footage early; many systems overwrite within days. Get a copy of any incident report, which commercial properties almost always generate. Then follow up with a medical provider quickly. Gaps in treatment hand defense lawyers an easy argument that the injury wasn’t serious or wasn’t caused by the fall.

Taxes on a Settlement

Most of a slip and fall settlement is not taxable at the federal level. Under 26 U.S.C. § 104(a)(2), damages received for personal physical injuries or physical sickness are excluded from gross income, which covers medical costs, lost wages tied to the physical injury, and pain and suffering stemming from it.⁶

The exceptions matter. Punitive damages are always taxable, even when awarded alongside a physical injury claim. Compensation for emotional distress not arising from a physical injury is taxable, except the portion covering actual medical treatment for that distress. Interest on a judgment or settlement is taxable. And if you previously deducted medical expenses related to the injury, reimbursement of those expenses through a settlement becomes taxable under the tax benefit rule.⁶ How the settlement agreement allocates the payment across these categories affects what you owe, so vague lump-sum language creates risk.

Paying for a Lawyer

Most personal injury attorneys take slip and fall cases on contingency, meaning the fee is a percentage of the recovery rather than an hourly rate. Contingency percentages typically run 25 to 40 percent, often rising if the case goes to trial. You generally pay nothing upfront, but the agreement should spell out who covers litigation costs — filing fees, expert witnesses, depositions — if the case loses. These terms vary between firms and directly affect what you keep, so read the agreement before signing.

1
Justia Law. Colorado Code 13-21-115 – Actions Against Landowners
2
Justia Law. Colorado Code 13-80-102 – General Limitation of Actions
3
Justia Law. Colorado Code 24-10-109 – Notice Required
4
Justia Law. Colorado Code 13-21-111 – Negligence Cases
5
Justia Law. Colorado Code 13-21-102.5 – Limitations on Damages for Noneconomic Loss or Injury
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 104 – Compensation for Injuries or Sickness