Pedestrian Hit by Car: Compensation Guide

If you were hit by a car while walking, you can generally recover the full cost of the harm done to you: your medical bills, the income you lost while you couldn't work, future treatment and care, and money for the pain, disruption, and lasting effects of the injury. The driver's auto insurance usually pays first—and if the driver was uninsured, your own uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage can step in. What your case is actually worth depends on the severity of your injuries, how clear the driver's fault is, and the available insurance limits. This guide breaks down what you can claim, how those numbers get built, and the practical moves that protect your recovery.

For a deeper look at how Colorado pedestrian law itself works—right-of-way rules, how fault is proven, and what to do in the days after a crash—see our companion guide, Hit by a Car as a Pedestrian in Colorado. This page stays focused on one thing: the money, and how to get a fair amount of it.

The three kinds of compensation you can recover

Lawyers call the money you're owed "damages." It falls into three buckets, and a real recovery accounts for all of them—not just the bills sitting on your kitchen table today.

Economic damages are the foundation. If there's a bill, an invoice, a pay stub, or a receipt behind it, it counts—and good cases also project costs you haven't paid yet, like future surgeries or a lifetime of care after a serious injury. These are the easiest losses to prove and the ones insurers fight hardest to minimize.

Non-economic damages are often the larger number, and they're where claims get won or lost. Pain, the months you couldn't pick up your kids, a knee that will never work the same—those are real harms, and Colorado law lets you recover for them. Colorado does cap non-economic damages in most personal injury cases, and the legislature recently raised it: for actions filed on or after January 1, 2025, the general personal-injury cap on non-economic damages is $1.5 million, with the first inflation adjustment scheduled for 2028. (Different caps apply to certain claim types, such as medical-malpractice cases.) That ceiling is high enough that most claims settle well below it, but it matters in serious-injury cases.

Punitive damages are uncommon. They aren't about making you whole—they exist to punish a driver whose conduct was willful, malicious, or shockingly reckless (think street racing in a school zone, then fleeing). Most cases never involve them, but where the facts support it, they can meaningfully change a result.

How a settlement number actually gets built

A settlement figure isn't pulled out of thin air. Both your attorney and the insurance company work from the same basic structure: add up the economic losses, then assign a value to the non-economic harm.

For pain and suffering, lawyers and adjusters often use a multiplier—the economic damages multiplied by a factor (commonly in the range of about 1.5 to 5), with more severe and permanent injuries pushing toward the higher end. A sprained wrist that fully heals sits near the bottom; a spinal injury with lifelong consequences sits at the top. It's a rough framework, not a formula—the real work is proving why your case belongs where you say it does.

A few things move that number up or down:

• Injury severity and permanence — the single biggest driver. Lasting disability or chronic pain raises value sharply.
• Clarity of fault — a driver who blew a red light is worth more to you than a disputed-fault crossing.
• Strength of your documentation — consistent medical records and a clear treatment trail beat a thin paper file every time.
• Available insurance — even a strong case can be limited by the at-fault driver's policy limits (more on that below).

What pedestrian cases tend to be worth

Every case is different, and anyone who promises a number up front isn't being straight with you. That said, outcomes loosely track injury severity. The ranges below are illustrative—not a quote, and not a guarantee—to give you a sense of how the spectrum works.

Treat these as a map, not a price tag. The same broken leg can be worth very different amounts depending on whether you needed surgery, how long you were out of work, and whether the driver's insurer is contesting fault.

Where the money comes from—and what if the driver had no insurance

In most pedestrian cases the at-fault driver's auto liability insurance pays your claim. The catch is that it pays only up to that driver's policy limits. If your damages exceed those limits, the gap doesn't disappear—but recovering it takes more work.

This is where uninsured/underinsured motorist (UM/UIM) coverage matters. If the driver who hit you had no insurance—or not enough—your own UM/UIM coverage can step into the driver's shoes and cover medical bills, lost income, and more, up to your policy limits. As a pedestrian, you can often tap your own auto policy even though you weren't in a car. It's one of the most valuable coverages most people forget they have, so it's worth checking your own policy early.

What partial fault does to your claim

Insurers love to argue you share the blame—you crossed mid-block, you were looking at your phone—because shifting fault to you shrinks what they pay. In Colorado, being partly at fault doesn't automatically end your claim. Under the state's modified comparative negligence rule (C.R.S. § 13-21-111), you can still recover as long as your share of fault is less than the at-fault driver's — meaning you are not 50% or more at fault — and your recovery is reduced by your share. If a claim is worth $100,000 and you're found 20% responsible, you'd recover $80,000. Cross that 50% line, though, and recovery can be barred entirely—which is exactly why pushing back on unfair blame is part of protecting your money.

How to protect (and maximize) your claim

What you do in the days and weeks after the crash has a direct effect on what you can recover.

• Get medical care right away—and keep going. A clean, continuous treatment record is the backbone of your economic damages and proof that your injuries are real. Gaps in treatment are the first thing an adjuster uses against you.
• Document everything. Save bills, receipts, and pay stubs; keep names and contact info for witnesses; photograph your injuries as they heal. The more concrete the record, the harder it is to dispute.
• Be careful what you say to the insurer. The adjuster is friendly, but their job is to pay you less. You're not required to give a recorded statement or accept a fast first offer—early lowball offers are common precisely because they hope you'll take the money before you know what your case is worth.
• Don't miss the deadline. Colorado generally gives you three years from the date of injury to file a lawsuit for a motor-vehicle accident injury (C.R.S. § 13-80-101(1)(n)). Miss it and the claim is gone, no matter how strong it was—so don't let an insurer slow-walk you past it.

When to call a lawyer

Not every fender-tap needs an attorney. But if you're facing serious injuries, mounting bills, a disputed-fault argument, an uninsured driver, or an insurer who's stalling or lowballing you, getting counsel early usually pays for itself. Personal injury attorneys typically work on a contingency fee—no upfront cost, and the firm gets paid only if you recover. That means you can get a serious case evaluated without risking money you don't have.

Common questions

How long will my settlement take?

It depends. Straightforward cases with clear fault and modest injuries can resolve in a few months. Serious injuries, future-care projections, or a contested-fault fight often run six months to two years or more. The goal isn't speed—it's a settlement that fully accounts for your future medical needs, because once you sign, you can't reopen it.

What if the driver who hit me had no insurance?

Your uninsured/underinsured motorist (UM/UIM) coverage is the backstop. It can cover medical bills, lost income, and other damages up to your own policy limits—even though you were on foot. Check your auto policy early so you know what's available.

Can I still recover if I was partly at fault?

Usually yes, as long as you weren't 50% or more at fault. Your recovery is reduced by your share of the blame, which is why it's worth fighting an insurer's attempt to over-assign fault to you.

Will I owe taxes on my settlement?

Generally, money for physical injuries, medical bills, and pain and suffering isn't taxed as income. The portion that replaces lost wages typically is taxable. Settlements can be structured in ways that affect this, so run the final breakdown by a tax professional. This is general information, not tax advice.

Talk to Conduit Law—free

Being hit by a car upends your life, and the last thing you should be doing is fighting an insurance company alone. At Conduit Law, we handle the questions—what your case is worth, who pays, how fault gets argued—so you can focus on healing. If you want a rough sense of value first, try our free settlement calculator. When you're ready for real answers, our Denver pedestrian accident lawyers offer a free, no-pressure consultation. Because many pedestrian cases start as vehicle-crash claims, our Denver car accident team evaluates fault, coverage, medical proof, and timing together.

Call Conduit Law at (720) 432-7032 for a free consultation.