Hurt by an Underinsured Driver in Adams County, a Retired Coloradan Rebuilt His Hand and His Retirement
Result Snapshot
| Case type | Underinsured motorist (UIM) claim after a car crash |
|---|---|
| Injury | Torn thumb extensor tendon; reconstructive hand surgery (index-finger tendon transfer) and about three months of hand therapy |
| Location | Adams County, Colorado |
| Resolution | Pre-suit mediation. $200,000 combined: the $25,000 liability limit from the at-fault driver plus $175,000 from the client’s own UIM coverage |
| Attorneys | Todd A. Travis and Jordan M. Travis |
| Year | 2026 |
A Retirement Built on His Hands, Then a Crash That Took It
He had the retirement he wanted. Golf during the week. Youth sports several nights a week, whistle in hand. Time with his wife and his grown kids, and the small stuff that fills a good day. Then a driver rolled through a stop sign on a clear July afternoon, and the hands he used for all of it stopped working the way they always had. Rampart Injury Lawyers took his case and, before a single court filing, recovered $200,000 for what that crash cost him.
Most of that money did not come from the driver who caused the wreck. It came from our client’s own insurance policy. That is the part of car-crash law almost nobody plans for, and it is exactly where this case was won.
This was an underinsured motorist claim. It shows how a minimum-limits crash can leave a badly hurt person staring at a check that would not come close to covering what happened. Here is how it played out, and what it can teach anyone dealing with a driver who did not carry enough insurance.
What Happened
Our client, a retired information-technology professional in his late sixties, was driving through an Adams County intersection when another driver came off a side street and failed to yield. The impact caught his driver’s side. The car was totaled. His left hand was thrown into the inside of the vehicle hard enough that the extensor tendon in his thumb tore all the way through. He was in a local emergency room that same afternoon, with a deep cut and a thumb that would not move.
Police cited the other driver for failing to yield, and fault was never really the argument in this case. The argument was money, and whether an insurance company would pay what the injury was actually worth.
The Injury, and What It Took From His Day
Eleven stitches closed the laceration. The tendon was the harder problem. A few weeks later, a surgeon operated and moved a tendon from his index finger over to the thumb, rerouting healthy tissue to restore motion the thumb could no longer make on its own. Then came the long part. Roughly twenty hand-therapy sessions across three months. Splints. Range-of-motion drills. Slow, aching, repetitive work to teach a rebuilt hand to grip again.
The intake form his therapist filled out reads like a list of small defeats. Couldn’t open a jar. Couldn’t cut his own steak. Couldn’t wash his own back, or carry the groceries in from the car. The golf clubs sat in the garage. The whistle stayed on the shelf. For a man whose whole retirement ran on staying active and using his hands, the loss was not only in his thumb. It reached into every ordinary part of his day.
Why the Insurance Was the Real Fight
Here is where a lot of injured people learn something hard about how these cases really work. The driver who hurt our client carried the state minimum liability policy, $25,000. Colorado only requires drivers to carry $25,000 per person for bodily injury. For a torn tendon, hand surgery, three months of therapy, and everything this man could no longer do, $25,000 was never going to be enough.
When the at-fault driver’s coverage runs dry, the fight moves to your own policy. That coverage is called underinsured motorist coverage, or UIM. You pay for it every month, and it exists for exactly this moment. Collecting on it, though, is rarely simple. The insurance company across the table may be your own, but its loyalty runs to its bottom line, not to you. Our client’s UIM carrier opened low. Far lower than the injury called for. Insurers count on tired, hurting people taking a fast, small check just to be done. Our client did not have to.
How Rampart Built the Case
Todd Travis and Jordan Travis built this file the way it deserved to be built. We pulled the full medical record, start to finish, from the emergency room through the surgery and every therapy note. We documented what he could not do at home, on the course, and with his family, so the human cost was on paper and not just in his own words. We pushed the carrier at each step. And when their number stayed too low, we did not fold and take it. We set the case for mediation.
In front of a neutral mediator, we laid out what this crash had actually cost a man who had earned the life he was living. Not an abstraction. A specific person, a specific hand, a specific retirement put on hold.
The Result
The pressure worked. The UIM carrier moved. The case resolved for a combined $200,000, drawing the full $25,000 policy limit from the at-fault driver’s insurer and $175,000 from our client’s own UIM coverage. All of it before a lawsuit was ever filed. That spared him years of litigation, depositions, and the strain of a trial, and it still delivered a recovery that reflected the real weight of what happened.
Today he is back on the course. Back on the sidelines with a whistle around his neck. He can twist the lid off a jar of pickles and cut his own steak again. Small things, until they are taken from you. Then they are everything. What drove this outcome was the medical proof, the documented losses, and a refusal to accept the first low number. A different case, with different facts, would resolve differently.
Colorado Injury Law Takeaway: Your Own Policy May Be the Difference
If a driver hurts you and does not carry enough insurance, your own underinsured motorist coverage can be the difference between a token payment and a real recovery. Under Colorado law, UIM coverage pays the gap between the at-fault driver’s liability limits and the full value of your damages, up to your own UIM limit, and the insurer cannot shrink it with a setoff for other coverage you carry (C.R.S. § 10-4-609). In plain terms, minimum-limits insurance is often the floor, not the ceiling, of what you can recover.
Timing matters, and UIM claims have their own deadline. In Colorado, a UIM claim generally has to be started, by lawsuit or by a written demand for arbitration, within three years after the claim accrues, with a narrow extension tied to how and when you resolve the case against the at-fault driver (C.R.S. § 13-80-107.5). Wait too long and the coverage you paid for can slip away. If you are dealing with an underinsured driver, the smart move is to talk to a lawyer before you sign anything or let a clock run.
Frequently Asked Questions
It is coverage on your own auto policy that pays when the at-fault driver’s insurance is too low to cover your injuries. Under C.R.S. § 10-4-609, it covers the difference between the other driver’s liability limits and your full damages, up to your UIM limit, and it cannot be reduced by a setoff for other coverage you carry.
Yes. A UIM claim is a claim against your own carrier, on coverage you already paid for. Your insurer still owes you fair dealing, even though the money comes from your own policy. In this case, most of the recovery came from the client’s own UIM coverage.
Colorado requires only $25,000 per person in bodily injury coverage, which often runs out after a single surgery or hospital stay. When it does, your UIM coverage can step in to cover the rest of your losses, up to your limit.
Generally three years from when the claim accrues, though the rule has a specific extension tied to resolving the underlying claim against the at-fault driver, under C.R.S. § 13-80-107.5. Because the timing can be tricky, confirm your deadline with a lawyer early.
Talk to a Colorado Injury Lawyer
Were you seriously hurt by a driver who did not carry enough insurance, in Adams County or anywhere along the I-25 corridor? You may have coverage on your own policy that you do not know about, and you do not have to take on your insurance company alone. Rampart Injury Lawyers builds these cases from the ground up. Call (303) 766-8766 for a free, no-pressure conversation about what happened and what your options are. There is no fee unless we obtain a recovery for you, though a client may be responsible for case costs and expenses.
Disclaimers
Every case is different. Prior results, including the outcome described here, do not guarantee or predict a similar result in any future case.
Rampart Injury Lawyers is a trade name of Travis Legal Offices, LLC. Todd A. Travis is the attorney responsible for the content of this page. The firm maintains one office in Castle Rock, Colorado, and serves injured people in communities along the I-25 corridor.
Rampart Injury Lawyers handles injury cases on a contingency-fee basis. There is no attorney fee unless we obtain a recovery on your behalf. A client may still be responsible for litigation costs and expenses.
This page is for general information and is not legal advice. Contacting Rampart Injury Lawyers or submitting information through this website does not create an attorney-client relationship. Please do not send confidential or time-sensitive information until an attorney-client relationship has been established in writing.
