Average Slip & Fall Settlement Amounts in Colorado

The “average” case is a moving target

Colorado does not publish a statewide premises liability payout report. The Judicial Branch’s data portal tracks filings, probation metrics, and dashboards, not aggregated verdict or settlement values, so any “average” number usually comes from thin public verdict samples.^[3] Privately negotiated settlements with liability carriers rarely become part of the public record, which means the anecdotal numbers you hear tend to skew toward headline-making outcomes.

What the available data does show

Pinnacol Assurance, Colorado’s largest workers’ compensation carrier, reports that slips, trips, and falls accounted for 20% of all worker injuries each year from 2018 through 2024, ranging from bruises to catastrophic bone and head trauma.^[1] That steady share reinforces how frequently insurers see these claims, even if each injury profile differs.

Nationally, the CDC notes that more than one in four adults aged 65 and older falls each year, triggering roughly three million emergency department visits and hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations.^[2] Colorado’s aging population means those national risk factors increasingly show up in local claims files, especially when winter weather and mountain-town infrastructure create predictable hazards.

Colorado Premises Liability Act sets the rules

The Colorado Premises Liability Act (CPLA) is the exclusive civil remedy for injuries tied to the condition of real property or activities conducted on it.^[4] The statute categorizes visitors as trespassers, licensees, or invitees and calibrates landowner duties accordingly. Invitees receive the highest protection: landowners must use reasonable care to guard against dangers they knew or should have known about, while licensees rely on proof of actual knowledge, and trespassers are limited to willful or deliberate harm.^[4]

The court, not the jury, decides which entrant category applies, and “landowner” includes tenants, property managers, contractors, or vendors responsible for the property’s condition.^[4] That broad definition often pulls snow-removal companies, janitorial vendors, or national store managers into the liability analysis.

Comparative negligence and notice fights

Colorado’s modified comparative negligence rule reduces damages by the plaintiff’s percentage of fault and bars recovery entirely at 50% fault or greater.^[5] Property owners lean heavily on “open and obvious” arguments, distraction defenses, and footwear attacks to push claimants over that threshold.

Plaintiffs still must show the landowner had actual or constructive notice of the hazard.^[4] Surveillance footage, inspection logs, weather data, and incident reports become critical because without notice, the CPLA generally imposes no duty, regardless of injury severity.

Documenting injuries and protecting your medical story

Filing a personal injury claim waives the physician-patient privilege, but Colorado limits that waiver to records relevant to the cause and extent of the injuries being claimed.^[6] Immediate treatment creates a clean baseline, while consistent follow-up care helps defend against arguments that new symptoms stem from unrelated or pre-existing conditions.

Colorado verdict snapshots from recent years

Public verdicts illustrate the ceiling, not the average, when liability and damages line up:

• Marin v. Affleck – $5.3 million premises liability verdict after a fall from a dangerous ladder configuration exposed negligent maintenance on retail property.^[9]
• Gyrion v. Dillon Cos. LLC – $3.2 million jury award for a grocery store slip-and-fall involving failure to warn of a transient hazard.^[10]

These outcomes required clear notice evidence, persuasive medical proof, and venues willing to credit non-economic losses. Those factors rarely align in modest soft-tissue cases.

Don’t miss the procedural guardrails

Most Colorado slip-and-fall suits must be filed within two years of accrual.^[7] Claims against cities, counties, or state agencies add a separate hurdle: written notice within 182 days, delivered to the correct governmental entity, before suit can proceed.^[8] Missing either deadline can extinguish an otherwise strong liability case.