Greer Law Group, Colorado Hospital Sexual Assault Lawyer
Patient Sexual Assault Attorney Serving Denver and All of Colorado
If you were sexually assaulted by a doctor, nurse, technician, aide, or any other staff member while receiving medical care in Colorado, you can bring a civil claim against the person who did it and, in many cases, against the hospital or clinic that allowed it to happen. Colorado places no deadline on sexual misconduct claims arising on or after January 1, 2022, though claims involving public hospitals carry a separate 182-day notice requirement.
Patients are as vulnerable as people get. Sedated, undressed, medicated, alone in a room with someone they were told to trust. Hospitals know this, which is why chaperone policies, monitoring, and screening rules exist. An assault in a medical setting almost always means one of those safeguards was treated as optional.
Call The Greer Law Group at our Denver office today at 303-331-6460 to speak with a Colorado hospital sexual assault lawyer in a free, confidential consultation.
Can I Sue the Hospital, or Only the Person Who Assaulted Me?
Often both. A claim against the individual addresses what that person did. A claim against the hospital addresses the conditions that allowed it.
Hospitals and clinics control credentialing, background checks, supervision, chaperone requirements, camera and badge access, and how complaints get handled. When a facility skipped a check, ignored an earlier report, allowed unsupervised access against its own policy, or moved a problem employee to another unit, that becomes the center of the case.
Whether a hospital answers for a particular provider can turn on whether that person was an employee or an independent contractor, and on what the hospital itself did or failed to do. Colorado law specifically allows claims arising from sexual misconduct to be brought against an entity that did not commit the misconduct.
What if It Happened at a Government Hospital?
This changes everything about timing. Hospitals such as Denver Health and University of Colorado Hospital are public entities under Colorado’s Governmental Immunity Act. A written notice of claim may be required within 182 days after the date you discover the injury, and damages against public entities are capped.
Private hospitals have no such notice requirement. Patients rarely know which category their hospital falls into, so the safer move is to ask early rather than assume there is time.
How Long Do I Have To File a Hospital Sexual Assault Claim in Colorado?
For sexual misconduct occurring on or after January 1, 2022, Colorado law allows a civil action to be brought at any time, with no deadline. Survivors often need years before they are ready, and the law now reflects that.
Claims from before 2022 depend on whether the deadline that applied at the time had already run out, and in 2023 the Colorado Supreme Court struck down the provision that would have reopened decades-old cases. The 182-day government notice deadline is the exception that moves fast and can end a case early.
What Evidence Exists in a Hospital Case?
More than survivors expect. Medical settings document nearly everything:
- Badge access logs showing who entered a room and when
- Staffing and assignment records
- Charting timestamps and electronic record access logs
- Chaperone policies and whether one was present
- Prior complaints about the same employee
- Credentialing files and what the hospital knew at hire
- Incident reports and internal investigation notes
Hospitals keep these on retention schedules, and some of it gets overwritten. The sooner a preservation demand goes out, the more of it survives.
Do I Have To Report It to the Hospital First?
No. You can bring a civil claim whether or not you filed an internal complaint, reported to the police, or anyone was charged.
Be careful with internal processes. Risk management and patient relations work for the hospital. A conversation that feels supportive is still documented by people whose job is to limit the hospital’s exposure. Talk to a lawyer before you give a recorded statement or sign anything.
Colorado requires health care providers and hospital personnel to report suspected abuse of children and at-risk adults, in some cases within 24 hours. When staff knew and said nothing, that silence becomes part of the claim.
What Can Be Recovered in a Hospital Sexual Assault Claim?
Economic damages cover documented costs: counseling and therapy, further medical care, lost wages, and reduced earning capacity.
Non-economic damages cover emotional distress, post-traumatic stress, loss of trust in medical care, and damage to relationships.
Punitive damages may be assessed by the court against a perpetrator as punishment and as a deterrent. They cannot be requested in the original complaint. Claims against public hospitals carry their own damage limits.
Where Do These Cases Happen?
Greer Law Group handles patient assault claims across Colorado, including Denver, Aurora, Lakewood, Westminster, Boulder, Colorado Springs, Fort Collins, Pueblo, and the mountain communities. Settings include hospitals, emergency departments, surgical centers, imaging and radiology suites, dental and medical offices, behavioral health and treatment facilities, nursing homes, and home health visits.
Related reading: sexual assault claims in Colorado, child sexual abuse claims, and medical malpractice.
How Can a Colorado Hospital Abuse Lawyer Help?
Hospitals defend these cases with in-house counsel, risk managers, and a records system only they understand. Getting to the truth means knowing which documents exist, demanding them before they age out, and reading them against the hospital’s own policies.
Marlo Greer spent years defending medical professionals before she represented patients, so she knows how these institutions build their defense and where it tends to break. She serves on the Board of Directors of CHILD USA and speaks to trial lawyers nationally and internationally on institutional accountability.
You’ll talk to a lawyer. No intake script, no call center, and the conversation stays confidential.
The Greer Law Group
2950 Brighton Blvd Suite 25, Denver, CO 80216
303-331-6460
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