In need of a lawyer due to climbing gym accident - Denver, CO

I'm looking for any personal recommendations for a lawyer, especially one familiar with climbing gym accidents in the state of Colorado.

I've searched the forum archives, and found threads mostly summarizing cases or speculating about cases, but I haven't found any actual names of lawyers. Simply googling has yielded mostly a plethora of ambulance chaser personal injury lawyers, which I am not interested in hiring. 

Would appreciate PMs to discuss in greater detail.

Will you be the plaintiff or defendant ? Your post seems to lean towards you as plaintiff. 

Defendant.

Thank you for your reply, climbing has a long and cherished tradition of personal responsibility, gyms may tax that tradition but do not erase it. Best of luck.  

Do you not have insurance - home owners if this is personal, or business for a gym you own - will both cover defense - in Colorado.  It’s called “duty to defend”.  IMO, you need to contact them asap.  They’ll find their own lawyer, you get back to life.  If you have no insurance, then my recommendation is to strongly consider a lawyer who will basically help you ignore them until they run out of money and come to their senses that you don’t have any that they can actually collect on, that their case is shit anyway, and that there’s no plump insurance company to collect a parasitic “cost of litigation” settlement from either - any decent lawyer should be able to help you with that - no need for complicated climbing expertise. Good luck.

Start with Chris Archer, who is counsel for the Access Fund. At the very least he should know where to lead you 

Bill Schickwrote:

Do you not have insurance - home owners if this is personal, or business for a gym you own - will both cover defense - in Colorado.  It’s called “duty to defend”.  IMO, you need to contact them asap.  They’ll find their own lawyer, you get back to life.  If you have no insurance, then my recommendation is to strongly consider a lawyer who will basically help you ignore them until they run out of money and come to their senses that you don’t have any that they can actually collect on, that their case is shit anyway, and that there’s no plump insurance company to collect a parasitic “cost of litigation” settlement from either - any decent lawyer should be able to help you with that - no need for complicated climbing expertise. Good luck.

This. You'd be surprised the obscure circumstances in which your home or business insurance will cover you. 

The standard route to find a lawyer is through the state bar association: https://www.cobar.org/Licensed-Lawyer 

Damn personal responsibility takes another fall.

Carolinawrote:

Damn personal responsibility takes another fall.

sure, as does measured judgement

Without more information it is hard to pass judgement on either party.

Which gym?

Surreal.

But this is where we are.

petzl logicwrote:

sure, as does measured judgement

Pretty sure going climbing, in a climbing gym, is a personal decision.  But I could be wrong, someone could have forced the climbers hand(s).

Carolinawrote:

Pretty sure going climbing, in a climbing gym, is a personal decision.  But I could be wrong, someone could have forced the climbers hand(s).

i don’t like excessive litigation more than rash verdicts but it’s silly to think that no business has ever made a mistake endangering a customer  

if you went to top rope in a gym and the anchor was fastened with a zip tie that snapped when you started to lower we can assume that you’d walk away content that you signed a waiver while we all screamed #fakenews?

i wouldn’t be, but there are no details here so i can’t pass anymore judgement than a strongly considered eye roll. 

Besides, thus far it seems at least as likely as not that the OP is a troll.

Bill Lawrywrote:

Besides, thus far it seems at least as likely as not that the OP is a troll.

Maybe. 

Probably not a gym employee, since then he would be represented by the gym's insurance company lawyers.

Probably not a plaintiff (which he denied above anyway) since otherwise there'd be plenty of personal injury lawyers to choose amongst.

I'd guess he was involved in an accident (maybe lowering since we are talking about a gym?) and the injured climber or the injured climber's health insurance company is suing.

That would also explain why he (wisely) has chosen not to elaborate on any details.

It's really only a matter of time till such suits become more common.

I can see why a jury might think holding yourself out as a competent belayer then dropping your climber might be negligent.

Even if it is arguably within the risks one should expect while climbing.

Mark E Dixonwrote:

I'd guess he was involved in an accident (maybe lowering since we are talking about a gym?) and the injured climber or the injured climber's health insurance company is suing.

That would also explain why he (wisely) has chosen not to elaborate on any details.

The name of the gym seems hardly incriminating.

Bill Lawrywrote:

The name of the gym seems hardly incriminating.

I agree that seems harmless, but if it were me, I wouldn't divulge any more than I needed to get the advice I wanted.

It's like in a deposition- just answer the question asked, absolutely nothing more.

You never know what will come back to bite you.

I'll get blocked on this thread soon, but have to admit I'm curious about the details too!

I hear you, Mark.  I’m curious as well.  Hard to look away.  And so painful for those who have actually suffered through it.

Not the kind of post to make in jest.

Looks like I’m at my three post limit for the day.  Carry on.

Tamiban Gueterstan wrote:

People like the BS about how easy it is to sue for personal injury in America by citing a few ridiculous lawsuits. As a side note though, the idea that the McDonald's hotcoffee lawsuit was actually a uniquely legitimate case is mostly contrarian drivel. That case was a total fluke, and all the people who got burned before and after her got nothing despite the fact that McDonald's changed absolutely nothing after losing the case. But anyway, as often as we can cite big payoffs from lawsuits and and settlements, it's actually quite hard to get fairly compensated for personal injury and medical malpractice in America. The state laws are overwhelming stacked against plantiffs.

This^^^

One of my uncles spent years inhaling asbestos dust running a small demolition company.  He died, of course. Didn't get a nickel because he was also a lifelong smoker. I spent exactly one day helping him and am now terrified of mesothelioma. Ripping pipes out of walls that were covered with asbestos insulation, and the clouds of dust that would get all over you, in your hair, so you can bring it home to your family...Times have changed, and now there is a fund for people like him. 

Tamiban Gueterstan wrote:

People like the BS about how easy it is to sue for personal injury in America by citing a few ridiculous lawsuits. 

Actually the only limit who to sue and for how long is limited by how much money the plaintiff has. That money determines how qualified plaintiff's attorney is, and how long the process can drag on. And, of course, if the case is not absolutely frivolous, the defendant has to defend each offensive move by the plaintiff's attorney, which is likely to cost money. So, eventually, it becomes a battle of wills and bank accounts. Usually, the winning sides are the legal teams. 

Disclaimer - this is what I learned from watching TV, your experiences are likely to be different.