Colorado Physician Gives Claimant Zero Impairment Rating Without In-Person Exam

Colorado Comp Carrier’s Settlement With Third-Party Defendant Partially Undermines Employee’s Tort Claim

A deeply divided Supreme Court of Colorado (three justices dissenting), reversing in relevant part a decision of a split division of the Court of Appeals, held that a settlement between...

Colorado High Court Says Injured Employee May Not Recover Via Co-Employee’s UM/UIM Policy

An injured employee is barred by operation of Colorado’s Workers’ Compensation Act’s exclusivity and co-employee immunity principles from bringing a UM/UIM benefits action against a co-employee vehicle owner’s insurer for...

Federal Court in Colorado Holds Injured Employee May Not Recover Under Employer’s Uninsured Motorist Coverage

In a diversity insurance case that the court indicated was an issue of first impression, the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, construing Colorado law, held that an...

Colorado High Court Says 8th Amendment’s “Excessive Fines” Prohibition Protects Corporations, as Well as Individuals

Decision Calls Into Question Whether Per Diem Fines to Uninsured Employers Are Unconstitutionally Harsh The Supreme Court of Colorado, with one justice dissenting in part, recently held that the Eighth...

Colorado DIME Physician's Opinion Not Always Given Presumptive Deference

DIME Physician’s Opinions as to the Cause of Engineer’s Narcolepsy Not Afforded Special Deference By virtue of a special Colorado statute [Colo. Rev. Stat. § 8-42-107(8)(b)(III)], a division-sponsored independent medical...

Colorado ALJ May Not Find MMI Without Appropriate Expert Medical Opinion

A Colorado appellate court recently held that a workers’ compensation claimant may not be placed at the point of maximum medical improvement (MMI) where neither the claimant’s treating physician nor...

Eighth Circuit: North Dakota Need Not Substitute Colorado’s More Generous Death Benefits Rules for Claim Filed in the Peace Garden State

In a case of first impression, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a U.S. District Court decision that had dismissed a widow’s civil action seeking a declaration that N.D....

Colorado Court Apportions Two-Thirds of Occupational Disease Claim to Overweight Mechanic

Has the State Established New Weight-Loss Program for Workers? Emphasizing that within the Colorado workers’ compensation scheme, the employer does not necessarily take the employee as it finds him (or...

$841,200 Fine Against Small Colorado Employer Was Unconstitutionally Excessive

While upholding the facial constitutionality of Colo. Rev. Stat. § 8–43–409, which provides for the imposition of fines against certain employers that fail to maintain workers’ compensation insurance, a Colorado...

Colorado High Court Ok’s Firing of Worker For State-Authorized Use of Medical Marijuana

Earlier today, the Supreme Court of Colorado, affirming a split decision of the state’s Court of Appeals, held that under the plain language of Colo. Rev. Stat. § 24–34–402.5, Colorado’s...

Colorado Employer and Carrier Need Not Disclose if They Made Gifts to State Comp Judges

A Colorado workers’ compensation insurer and an employer’s counsel need not respond to a discovery request made by a workers’ compensation claimant that they disclose whether any of them had...