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Insurance Claims
Colorado Insurance Claim Lawyers
An insurance claim lawyer represents you — the policyholder — when an insurer denies, delays, or underpays a claim it should’ve covered. We handle property, auto, disability, and business disputes across the Western Slope, and when an insurer acts unreasonably, we sue for bad faith.
$22M
policyholder verdict
$6.75M
hail damage settlement
2
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Lawyer of the Year, Insurance Law
Best Lawyers
Practice areas
Five claim areas. One side of the table.
What types of insurance disputes do we handle? Every kind an insurer can deny. We represent policyholders only, never insurers.
Insurance Bad Faith
When the insurer’s conduct is the problem — an unreasonable denial, a stall, a lowball. Colorado’s bad-faith statutes can make them pay two times the covered benefit plus your attorney fees, and proving it is what this firm is known for.
Bad faith claims →
Property Insurance
Wildfire, hail, water, frozen pipes, roof collapse — the losses Colorado weather writes into every policy year.
Property claims →
Auto & UM/UIM
When the at-fault driver can’t pay and your own uninsured-motorist coverage won’t step up like it promised.
Auto & UM/UIM claims →
Business & Commercial
EPLI, D&O, general liability, business interruption — coverage your company already paid for.
Business claims →
Disability & Health
Long-term disability and health insurance denials, where the appeal deadlines are brutal.
Disability & health claims →
Are you an attorney building an insurance case? Nelson also serves as an
Where your claim stands
What if my insurer denied, delayed, or underpaid my claim?
Every dispute we see starts one of three ways. Start where your claim stands today.
Plain answers
When should I hire an insurance claim lawyer?
Earlier than you’d think. The moment an adjuster stops returning calls, asks for a recorded statement, or sends a check smaller than the estimate — that’s the moment. In our practice, the claims that resolve best are the ones where a lawyer got involved before the insurer locked in its position. Waiting costs leverage. And Colorado’s deadlines don’t pause while an adjuster “reviews” your file.
Do you handle insurance bad faith claims?
Yes — it’s the center of our insurance practice. Colorado requires insurers to handle claims reasonably and promptly. When they don’t, the law lets policyholders recover two times the covered benefit, plus attorney fees, on top of what the policy owed. That’s leverage most people don’t know they have.
How much does an insurance claim lawyer cost in Colorado?
Nothing up front. We take insurance cases on contingency — you pay a fee only if we recover for you. On top of that, Colorado law can make the insurer pay your attorney fees when a court finds it withheld benefits without a reasonable basis. Strong bad-faith cases often cost the policyholder nothing at all.
Denied for 14 months. Paid in full — plus fees.
That’s how a bad-faith case ends when the statute does its work. If your claim is stuck, the sooner we see the file, the more leverage you keep.
Your lawyer
Nelson Waneka
Nelson has tried insurance cases across Colorado since 2010 — from Garfield County courtrooms to the Colorado Court of Appeals. He’s been named Best Lawyers’ “Lawyer of the Year” for Insurance Law twice, and insurers know his name. That matters more than it should.
Best Lawyers “Lawyer of the Year,” Insurance Law (2×) · Chambers USA ranked · Colorado Super Lawyers Top 100
Based in Glenwood Springs. Serving the Western Slope: Aspen · Vail · Grand Junction · Montrose · Basalt — mountain-town claims handled by a mountain-town firm, not a Denver satellite.
From our clients
“Nelson made the insurance company take us seriously for the first time in two years.”
Wildfire claim · Glenwood Springs