Boulder Drunk Driving Accident Lawyer
When drunk drivers get behind the wheel, they present a serious danger to themselves and everyone on the road. In addition to enormous medical bills, accidents caused by these reckless drivers often leave victims with serious injuries and lifelong disabilities. In many cases, their lives are cut short.
If you were injured in a drunk driving accident, the legal team at The Wilhite Law Firm is ready to fight for your right to compensation. With over 40 years of experience, we have the skill and resources to handle even the most serious personal injury cases, including those involving drunk drivers. Contact us today for a free consultation with a Boulder drunk driving accident lawyer today.
What Are Some Colorado Drunk Driving Statistics?
Impaired driving is a serious problem in Colorado. The Colorado Department of Public Safety reports that state prosecutors filed a staggering 25,165 cases involving DUI charges in 2019. Even so, drunk driving led to 622 deaths on Colorado roads in the following year. The fatality rate in these crashes is especially high among individuals between 21-34 years old.
Unsurprisingly, data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) confirms that the problem is not limited to Colorado. In 2020 alone, 11,654 people were killed in drunk driving accidents nationwide. That translates to about 32 people killed every day and one person killed every 45 minutes. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) further shows that roughly one in every three fatal traffic accidents involves a drunk driver.
What Are Common Drunk Driving Accidents and Injuries?
Of course, the common denominator in drunk driving accidents is the presence of alcohol. In Colorado, it is illegal to drive with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.08 percent or above. Drivers operating a vehicle at or above this BAC level are at least 11 times more likely to cause an accident than drivers with no alcohol in their system.
Though the presence of alcohol significantly increases the likelihood of an accident, it does little to determine how each accident will unfold. At the end of the day, each accident should be analyzed on a case-by-case basis. That said, common accidents caused by drunk drivers include:
- Head-on collisions
- Rear-end collisions
- Wrong-way collisions
- Left-hand turn collisions
- Rollover accidents
- Backing-up accidents
- Truck accidents
- Motorcycle accidents
- Bicycle accidents
- Pedestrian accidents
- Parking lot accidents
No matter the circumstances of your case, the attorneys at The Wilhite Law Firm are ready to help you on the path toward maximum compensation. Call us today for a free consultation.
How Is Liability Determined in a Boulder Drunk Driver Accident?
The cornerstone of most personal injury cases is a legal concept known as negligence. This simply refers to the idea that we all owe each other a duty to use reasonable care to avoid harming others through our actions. Because of the clearly unreasonable nature of driving while intoxicated, injured victims in a drunk driving accident can lean in on the at-fault driver’s drunkenness to prove negligence.
However, Colorado law also uses a concept known as comparative negligence. This simply means that, in cases where the injured victim contributed to the cause of the accident, their compensation will be reduced proportionately to their contribution. Further, if they were more than 50 percent at fault, their compensation is reduced to zero.
In drunk driving cases, defendants often face an uphill battle to show that they were not primarily at fault for the accident. Meanwhile, an experienced plaintiff’s attorney can comb through the available evidence to show that you were minimally negligent or not at all. Whether at the negotiation table with insurers or in a courtroom before a judge, our legal team is ready to fight for you. Talk to a Boulder personal injury attorney at The Wilhite Firm today.
What Damages Are Available Through a Drunk Driver Accident Injury Lawsuit?
If a drunk driver injures you, chances are you are legally entitled to compensation. In most cases, compensation is awarded in the form of economic and non-economic damages.
Economic damages are those that can be easily reduced to a monetary value. Non-economic damages are those that cannot be easily reduced in this manner because their intangible nature means each person is likely to assign a different value. Colorado sets important limits on the non-economic damages a jury may award.
Together, economic and non-economic damages may compensate you for:
- Medical expenses
- Lost income if you miss work while healing from your injuries
- Reduced future earning capacity if the accident leaves you with a permanent disability
- Pain and suffering
- Psychological trauma
- Lowered quality of life
- Loss of consortium
- Wrongful death
- Funeral and burial expenses
- Lost or damaged property
In particularly serious cases, you may also be entitled to exemplary damages meant to punish the at-fault party in addition to the damages you receive as compensation. To avoid unfair judgments and subject to very few exceptions, Colorado law does not allow exemplary damages in a case to exceed the combined total of the economic and non-economic damages awarded as compensation.
Is There a Deadline for Filing a Drunk Driving Accident Lawsuit in Colorado?
Yes. Under Colorado law, you have three years from the date of a car accident to file a lawsuit in civil court against the responsible party. If the victim died in the crash and their surviving family members want to bring a wrongful death lawsuit, the deadline is extended to four years. Either way, failure to file your lawsuit before the controlling deadline nearly always results in your case being dismissed in court.
Although the deadline does not directly govern insurance claims, the ability to sue the at-fault party and their insurers is your primary bargaining chip during settlement negotiations. Therefore, if you lose the ability to sue by missing the deadline, there will be little to stop the insurer from making a minimum settlement offer. They may even deny your claim altogether.
An experienced attorney can keep track of important deadlines and paperwork to ensure you do not miss out on your opportunity to pursue maximum compensation. Our team of personal injury attorneys is ready to handle your case.
Contact a Boulder Drunk Driving Accident Lawyer
If you were injured by a drunk driver, you are likely entitled to compensation for your medical bills, lost wages, pain, suffering, and more. The Wilhite Law Firm has over 40 years of experience advocating for the rights of injury victims throughout Colorado. Contact our office for a free consultation with a Boulder drunk driving accident lawyer today.
