Colorado's Personal Injury Damage Caps, Explained (2025 Update)

By Adam Fonta, Lionheart Injury Law  |  Updated July 9, 2026  |  4-minute read

If you were seriously hurt in Colorado, at some point an insurance adjuster or a lawyer will mention "the caps", the legal ceilings Colorado places on certain kinds of injury compensation. The caps changed dramatically on January 1, 2025, when HB24-1472 took effect, and most of what you'll read online is now out of date. This page explains what is capped, what is not, and why the difference between the two often decides what a serious case is worth.

What HB24-1472 Changed

For years, Colorado's general non-economic cap sat around $600,000 (inflation-adjusted, with a doubling provision in limited circumstances), one of the more restrictive regimes in the country. In 2024, the legislature passed HB24-1472 as part of a compromise that headed off a ballot fight over damage caps. For causes of action accruing on or after January 1, 2025:

• The general non-economic damages cap rose to $1.5 million, more than double the old ceiling even with its doubling provision.
• The wrongful death non-economic cap rose to $2,125,000, replacing a cap that had sat near $600,000 for decades.
• Both caps will be adjusted for inflation every two years beginning in 2028, so they will keep climbing.

If your injury happened before 2025, the old caps may still govern your claim, one of many reasons the date your cause of action accrued matters.

The Caps That Work Differently

Wrongful death. Non-economic damages in a wrongful death case are capped at $2,125,000 for deaths on or after January 1, 2025, but the cap does not apply where the death was caused by a felonious killing. Economic losses to the family remain uncapped.

Punitive (exemplary) damages. Punitive damages punish willful and wanton conduct, a drunk driver, a company that knew and didn't care. They are capped at an amount equal to your actual damages, and a court can raise that to three times actual damages if the misconduct continues during the case. They cannot even be requested at the start of a lawsuit; they are added by amendment once the evidence supports them.

Medical malpractice. Claims against doctors and hospitals run under a separate, lower set of caps that HB24-1472 raises in annual steps through 2029. If a claim can be characterized either as ordinary negligence or as medical negligence, a common battleground in nursing home and med spa cases, which framework applies can swing the recoverable damages dramatically.

Dram shop claims. Claims against a bar or liquor store that overserved a visibly intoxicated driver carry their own statutory cap and a one-year filing deadline, the shortest in Colorado injury law.