How Ganderton Law Handles Cases When Liability in a Car Accident Is Shared

When liability is shared in a car accident, you can still recover compensation. Colorado’s modified comparative fault system reduces your payout by your percentage of responsibility, so if you’re 20% at fault on a $100,000 claim, you recover $80,000. Ganderton Law works to make sure that fault percentage reflects what actually happened, not what the other driver’s insurance company wants it to say.

Shared fault crashes happen all the time. One driver may speed while another fails to yield or change lanes safely. In many accidents, more than one person may share responsibility, which can make insurance claims more complicated.

Their standard move is pushing more fault onto you to shrink their payout. That's where having a car accident lawyer in Colorado Springs who's worked inside those insurance companies changes the outcome.

Ganderton Law was founded by David Ganderton, who spent years as both a prosecutor and an insurance defense attorney before opening his own firm to represent injury victims. He didn't just learn how to fight insurance companies. He learned how they think.

What Colorado's Fault Law Actually Says

Colorado's comparative fault rule lives in C.R.S. § 13-21-111. Your damages get reduced by your share of fault. Hit 50% or more, and you recover nothing.

That threshold is where real money gets fought over. Insurance adjusters sometimes push fault percentages up deliberately to hit that cutoff and eliminate a claim entirely. Knowing that's happening is the core of what Ganderton Law does in these cases.

How the Firm Investigates Shared-Fault Accidents

The firm doesn't wait for the insurer to define what happened. Their team builds a factual record fast:

Police reports and officer observations on contributing factors.
Surveillance footage from traffic cameras or nearby businesses.
Cell phone records when distracted driving is suspected.
Witness statements collected before memories shift.
Black box data from commercial vehicles.
Accident reconstruction for genuinely contested cases.

Fault percentages aren't handed down by some neutral authority. They get negotiated. The side with the stronger evidence record almost always comes out better.

When the Insurer Gets Your Fault Percentage Wrong

They don't always get it right, and they rarely err in your favor. A common example is when someone gets rear-ended but has a brake light out. The insurer assigns them 30% fault.

Whether that's legitimate depends entirely on whether the brake light failure actually contributed to the crash or whether the tailing driver simply wasn't maintaining a safe following distance regardless.

Ganderton Law examines those assignments closely. Because David Ganderton spent years making these arguments from the insurance side, he can identify when faulty reasoning is grounded in the evidence versus when it's structured to minimize a payout.

Colorado’s proportionate liability law, C.R.S. § 13-21-111.5, allows fault to be divided between multiple parties in an accident. This means one driver may try to reduce their responsibility by pointing to the actions of others involved.

In multi-vehicle crashes, cases involving poor road conditions, or accidents with third parties, determining fault can become complicated quickly. The firm tracks all of it.

The Team Behind These Cases

Dave's background is the foundation, but the full team carries these cases across the finish line.

Associate attorney Sean Edgren spent years as an El Paso County deputy public defender, handling thousands of felony and misdemeanor cases. That work demands exactly the skills contested fault cases require—building tight factual records under pressure and negotiating from a position of preparation rather than hope.

The paralegal team, including Dulce Rodriguez, Karen Dowling, and Evelina Aleksandrova, has years of experience handling personal injury cases, medical records, and insurance communication. In shared-fault cases, strong documentation can make a big difference. Organized and complete records help support a claim and reduce opportunities for insurance companies to dispute the case.

What to Do If You Think Fault Will Be Disputed

A few things protect your position from day one:

Don't give a recorded statement to the other driver's insurer before speaking with an attorney.
Document your injuries and treatment consistently from the start.
Keep every receipt and record related to the accident.
Stay off social media about the crash and your recovery.

Early statements are frequently used to argue higher fault percentages later. Adjusters are trained to ask questions in ways that produce answers that can be reframed.

Why the Fault Percentage Gap Costs Real Money

On a $200,000 claim, the difference between being found 20% and 40% at fault is $40,000. That's not a legal technicality. That's whether your settlement actually covers what you lost.

Ganderton Law handles these cases on contingency unless you recover. That means their outcome is tied directly to yours, which matters when fault is contested and the pressure to accept a low number is real.

Early statements follow a case for years. By the time fault percentages are being argued, what you said in week one is already in the file.

Conclusion

Shared fault cases hinge on who builds the better record, faster. Insurance adjusters work these cases every day. Most injury victims don't. That experience gap is what Ganderton Law closes, and it's why having someone who's worked inside those companies matters more than people expect when the fault percentage on their claim is the difference between a fair recovery and nothing at all.

Key Takeaways

One can recover compensation even when liability is shared in a car accident.
If you share more than 50% liability, you recover nothing.
Ganderton Law builds a factual record fast by collecting police reports, surveillance footage, black box data, etc.
Their paralegal team has years of experience handling several types of cases.
Keep every receipt and record related to the accident safe to prove partial liability.