Practice Area
When someone’s negligence takes a person you love, Colorado law gives the family a claim. We handle it with care, take the insurers off your hands, and you pay nothing unless we recover.
When you hire Smith & Weidinger, you work with the lawyer handling your case, not a call center. Founding partner Matthew A. Weidinger focuses on serious-injury cases with complex liability and damages. Before co-founding the firm, he worked at large and small personal injury firms in Denver and Colorado Springs and served as a Deputy District Attorney in Mesa County.
We handle wrongful death claims from car, truck, motorcycle, and pedestrian crashes, dangerous property conditions, and other negligence, from our offices in Denver (1040 S. Gaylord St.) and Colorado Springs (415 N. Tejon St.). We’ll explain who can bring the claim and when, and we move at a pace that respects your family.
Colorado sets an order, and the timing matters (C.R.S. 13-21-201).
Most wrongful death lawsuits in Colorado must be filed within two years of the death (C.R.S. 13-80-102(1)(d)). That includes deaths in car crashes, even though injury claims from crashes get three years. When the death was a vehicular homicide by a driver who fled the scene, the deadline is four years. Claims involving a government vehicle or property need written notice within 182 days.
If the person responsible was charged with a crime, the criminal case doesn’t replace the family’s civil claim. Criminal restitution covers some financial losses, but not grief or loss of companionship, and the civil case has a lower burden of proof. Our firm also practices criminal defense, so we understand how the criminal case can affect the timing and the evidence in yours.
Colorado personal injury
The first-year and second-year rules decide who can file. Get a free, compassionate consultation with a Colorado injury attorney. Not a screener.
You pay nothing upfront.
Not a call center.
Serious-injury crashes and the insurance claims that follow.
Commercial trucking crashes with complex liability.
Injuries caused by dangerous property conditions.
Families come to us while grieving, often while an insurer is already calling. Our first job is to take that weight off: we deal with the insurers, the court filings the claim requires, and the investigation.
Then we build the claim around the person who died: their work, their role in the family, and what their absence means.
Every wrongful death claim is built from the same pieces:
Fault, police reports, reconstruction, and records from any criminal case.
The spouse, heirs, designated beneficiary, or parents, in the right year.
Income, services, the household, and the grief the law recognizes.
Medical bills and lost earnings before death.
Liability coverage, other responsible parties, and uninsured motorist coverage, depending on the policies.
We look at all of it. Then we decide, with your family, whether to settle or file suit.
You talk with a lawyer, not a screener. We explain your options, the deadlines that apply, and how our contingency fee works.
Get the care you need. We deal with the insurance companies and help coordinate MedPay, health insurance, and providers so your treatment doesn't stall.
We collect the reports, photos, video, witness statements, and records, and we send preservation letters before evidence is lost.
Once your doctors have a clear picture of your recovery, we document your losses (medical bills, lost income, future care, and how the injury changed your life) and present the claim.
We negotiate with every insurer involved, and with the health plans and providers that want to be repaid, so more of the settlement stays with you.
If the insurer won't be fair, we file suit before the deadline and prepare the case for trial. Most cases settle, and that preparation is what gets them to a fair number.
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These are the questions families ask most. The answers below are general. Your family, the cause of the death, and the timing decide how they apply to you.
In the first year, only the surviving spouse, unless the spouse agrees in writing to include the heirs. In the second year, the spouse, the heirs, or both. If there’s no spouse, the heirs or a designated beneficiary may file, and parents may file when the person who died had no spouse, children, or designated beneficiary.
Generally two years from the death, including deaths in car crashes. The deadline is four years for a vehicular homicide by a driver who fled. Claims involving a government agency need written notice within 182 days.
Economic losses, like lost financial support, services, and funeral costs, and non-economic damages for grief and loss of companionship. The estate may separately recover medical bills and lost earnings before death.
For deaths on or after January 1, 2025, non-economic damages are capped at $2,125,000. There’s no cap when the death resulted from a felonious killing. Economic losses aren’t capped when the person who died left a spouse, minor children, or dependent parents.
A wrongful death claim compensates the family for its own losses. A survival claim, brought by the estate, recovers the losses the person suffered before death, like medical bills and lost earnings.
Usually, yes. The criminal case decides guilt and punishment. Restitution covers some financial losses, but not grief or loss of companionship. A civil claim is how the family is compensated for those.
