Colorado Mass Tort Lawyer

Once a company’s product, drug, or decision wrecks your life, the next question is simple: What’s the damage worth? You’ve got hospital bills stacking up. You’re missing work. You might be stuck dealing with pain that doesn’t go away. And it’s not just about the money, but let’s be honest—compensation makes a difference. It helps fix the financial mess and hold the wrongdoer accountable.

In mass tort cases, compensation varies from person to person. Two people might be part of the same lawsuit, but their recoveries won’t look the same. One person might have lifelong medical issues, while another lost their job and steady income. That’s why claims are handled individually within the larger case. Each person’s damages are personal.

Economic Damages

Economic damages are the easiest to measure because they’re tied to actual money lost or spent.

• Medical Expenses: Hospital stays, surgeries, prescription medications, physical therapy, and follow-up visits. In Colorado, health care costs vary wildly depending on where you live, but a single surgery can run into the tens of thousands of dollars. Long-term care drives those numbers even higher.
• Lost Wages: If your injuries keep you from working, you’re entitled to recover lost income. This includes not only the paychecks you’ve already missed but future wages if you can’t return to your job. Colorado law recognizes claims for both current and future income loss.
• Out-of-Pocket Costs: These are the smaller things that add up—travel expenses for medical appointments, in-home modifications like wheelchair ramps, medical equipment like walkers or braces. If you’ve paid for it because of your injury, it counts.

Non-Economic Damages

Colorado recognizes that harm doesn’t end with financial losses. Some injuries don’t show up on a bill but still ruin lives. Non-economic damages try to account for this personal suffering.

• Pain and Suffering: Chronic pain, permanent disability, and the toll of living with an injury. Whether it’s the daily ache of nerve damage or the inability to walk without pain, this category covers physical suffering.
• Emotional Distress: Anxiety, depression, PTSD, and other mental health struggles tied to your injury. This isn’t just about sadness—it’s the full weight of living with trauma caused by negligence.
• Loss of Consortium: The impact on your closest relationships. This includes the loss of companionship, affection, or sexual intimacy with a spouse or partner.

Punitive Damages

Punitive damages aren’t about compensating the victim. They’re about punishing the wrongdoer for particularly reckless or malicious behavior and sending a message to others.

In Colorado, punitive damages fall under C.R.S. § 13-21-102. The law allows courts to award punitive damages when the defendant’s conduct was proven to be fraudulent, malicious, or willful and wanton. For example, if a company knew their product caused cancer but kept selling it anyway, that opens the door to punitive damages.

There’s a cap on these, too. In most cases, Colorado limits punitive damages to an amount equal to the actual damages awarded. So if a plaintiff recovers $500,000 in compensatory damages, punitive damages typically won’t exceed another $500,000. However, the court can increase this cap by up to three times the actual damages if new evidence surfaces during post-trial proceedings that shows the defendant acted even worse than initially proven.

How a Colorado Mass Tort Lawyer Calculates Damages

Mass tort lawyers build each claim with documentation and expert opinions.

• Medical records and bills establish healthcare costs.
• Employment records and tax returns show lost income.
• Expert witnesses—doctors, economists, life care planners—estimate future medical needs and loss of future earning capacity.
• Psychological evaluations can provide support for emotional distress claims.

When claims involve products or drugs that harmed thousands of people, lawyers collaborate on research and evidence gathering. This creates stronger cases for individual plaintiffs, while still focusing on their personal stories and losses. Colorado’s procedural rules allow mass tort claims to be consolidated for pretrial purposes but still tried individually if necessary, ensuring damages reflect each person’s unique experience.