News You Can Use

News You Can Use From 2007 and 2008

SB 66 - Regarding the Healthcare Availability Act. The new law allows victims the medical negligence to recover their judgment in a lump sum, instead of being forced to accept periodic payments from the Defendant.

SB 129 - Regarding Cap Increases. As you know, the legislature has imposed caps on certain types of damages. The new law increases certain caps to account for inflation. Among other things, the general non-economic damages cap has been increased to $468,010; the wrongful death cap has been increased to $436,070; the solatium cap has been increased to $87,210, and the dram shop cap has been increased to $280,810.

SB 256 - Relative to UM/UIM Insurance. The new law allows stacking of the third party liability coverage and the UM/UIM coverage. This means that you can add together the bad driver's liability coverage as well as your UM/UIM coverage for aggregate potential compensation. This new law applies to all automobile policies issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2008.

HB 1020 - Relative to Offers of Settlement. When a Plaintiff rejects a Defendant's settlement offer and subsequently wins a lawsuit, but recovers a final judgment that is less than the settlement offer, the new law states that the Plaintiff shall recover its costs incurred before the rejection of the settlement offer, and the Defendant shall recover its costs incurred after the rejection.

HB 1407 - (I am calling this: "Insurance Accountability Act.") The new law provides the Department of Insurance with increased fining authority to penalize bad conduct by state regulated insurance companies and statutorily prohibits insurance companies from unreasonably delaying or denying payment of contractually-owed benefits. If a court determines that an insurance company has violated the law, it is required to pay the owed benefit, double damages, and attorney fees. This law covers nearly all lines of first party insurance, including ERISA policies. (As you may already know, ERISA is the law that applies to employer sponsored health insurance policies, among other things.)

SB 11 - Regarding Medical Payments Benefits (found in Automobile Insurance Policies). This new law requires all Colorado drivers to purchase $5,000 of mandatory medical payments coverage, unless they choose to opt out. The law has very specific language that allows for absolutely no subrogation by insurance companies against their insured or the tortfeasor, and also includes a priority list for payment starting with ambulances and trauma physicians. This new law is effective January 1, 2009.