Denver attorney Gabriel Schwartz recently finished his term as the president of Justice for Colorado, a firm focusing on wrongful injury and death cases. Gabriel Schwartz also handles personal injury cases from his personal offices in Denver and the Vail Valley.

Under Colorado law, recovery for personal injury cases falls into two broad categories, general and special damages. Special damages are economic in nature and can be quickly calculated by adding the data on receipts, estimates, or pay stubs. Some specific examples include lost wages due to missing work, or the cost of car repairs.

General damages refer to the economic cost of pain or emotional suffering. Most often, this cost is calculated by multiplying special damages by a number between 1.5 and five. Higher multipliers reflect the severity of the injury or damages.

While there are no limits to how much special damages can be sought, general damages have caps. As of 2008, most plaintiffs can only receive $468,000 or less to cover pain and suffering. However, caps may be removed for plaintiffs with life-long injuries.