When a Colorado law firm declines your injury case, it is applying its own intake threshold. It is not issuing a ruling on your claim. Your deadline has not changed, the insurer still owes what it owes, and thresholds vary enough between firms that a case one practice turns down is a normal case at another. Understanding why firms decline cases, and what each reason actually means, is the most useful thing you can do with the time you have left.
What a Firm Is Actually Calculating When Reviewing Your Case
Personal injury firms that work on contingency, meaning they take a percentage of any settlement rather than charging hourly, evaluate every case through the lens of whether the expected recovery justifies the time and cost of representation. That calculation includes the severity of the injury, the clarity of liability, the available insurance coverage, and the anticipated difficulty of moving the claim through to resolution. None of those factors are fixed. They are estimates, and different firms weight them differently based on their own caseload, overhead, and risk tolerance.
A large firm running hundreds of active cases sets its intake threshold high because its capacity is limited and its overhead is significant. A smaller firm with more flexibility evaluates the same case against a different baseline. What this means in practice is that a decline from one firm tells you something specific about that firm’s economics at that moment. It does not tell you whether your claim has value, whether the insurer owes you money, or whether another firm would reach the same conclusion.
The firms most likely to have uniform intake thresholds are those of similar size operating similar business models. Calling five large personal injury practices in quick succession often produces five identical answers for the same reason. The more useful approach is to vary the size and structure of the firms you contact, not just the names.
The Six Reasons Cases Get Declined, and What Each One Means
Most declines fall into one of six categories. Each has a different implication for what you should do next.
- Low policy limits. The at-fault driver’s insurance may not carry enough coverage to clear a large firm’s intake threshold. That ceiling belongs to their policy, not to your total recovery. Your own underinsured motorist coverage may represent a larger source of compensation, and a firm that stopped at the at-fault driver’s policy never got to it. Low policy limits require a different analysis
- Disputed fault. If the insurer has assigned you more than 50 percent of the fault, some firms decline rather than contest it. Colorado’s modified comparative negligence rule bars recovery at 50 percent or above, but the adjuster’s fault allocation is an estimate, not a finding. Evidence can shift it.
- Treatment gap. Insurers treat delayed or interrupted treatment as evidence the injury was minor. That argument has a counter, and the counter is documentation. A gap with a documented reason attached to it carries far less weight than one that sits in the record unexplained.
- Deadline proximity. Filing periods depend on the claim. Colorado generally provides two years for negligence claims and three years for claims arising from motor-vehicle use, measured from accrual, with exceptions and potentially earlier public-entity notice requirements. A firm may decline a case when too little time remains to investigate and file. Seek advice promptly; another consultation does not extend a deadline.
- Case complexity. Multiple defendants, disputed liability, or unusual fact patterns require more work per dollar of expected recovery. Complexity that exceeds a large firm’s threshold may be manageable for a smaller firm with more time to invest.
- Value below the firm’s minimum. Some practices set an explicit minimum claim value. A case that does not reach that number is declined regardless of merit. A firm with a lower minimum evaluates it differently.
What Did Not Change When They Said No To Your Case
Three things remain true after a decline regardless of the reason. Your filing deadline has not moved. The insurer’s obligation to compensate you does not diminish because one firm passed on the case. The evidence, the medical records, and the insurance policies are unchanged.
What the decline did change is your time. Every day spent on a decline that is not moving toward resolution is a day the insurer is already ahead of you on the claim. The closer the accident date, the more that gap matters.
Francis Law Takes Cases Other Firms Have Declined
Francis Law offers an initial consultation to discuss the available coverage, liability facts, medical information, and possible next steps. Whether the firm can accept a case depends on its circumstances and the scope of representation. A consultation is not a promise of representation, a particular valuation, or a result.
If you have been turned down and are not sure what to do next, Francis Law evaluates declined cases and takes them when the facts support it. There is no cost for the review, and you will get a direct answer rather than another repeat of the same intake result. Call (303) 409-2050 or email intake@francislawcolorado.com.
Frequently Asked Questions About Declined Injury Cases in Colorado
If a personal injury lawyer won’t take my case does that mean I don’t have a claim?
No. A decline reflects the firm’s intake criteria, not a legal determination about your claim’s validity. Firms decline cases routinely for reasons that have nothing to do with whether the underlying claim has value. The most accurate thing a decline tells you is that your case did not clear that particular firm’s threshold at that particular time.
How many personal injury lawyers should I contact after being turned down by one?
At least three, but vary the type of firm, not just the name. Firms of similar size apply similar thresholds. Calling a smaller firm or one that specifically handles declined cases will give you a genuinely different evaluation rather than a repeat of the same answer.
Should I tell the insurance company that a lawyer declined my personal injury case?
There is no legal requirement to disclose that a firm declined your case, and doing so would not help your claim. Insurers already assume that unrepresented claimants are easier to settle with cheaply. Volunteering a decline reinforces that assumption. You are not obligated to share your intake history with the opposing insurer.