Colorado: Prejudgment Interest Rules
The short answer
Colorado splits this question by claim type, not by liquidated versus unliquidated damages. A personal-injury or wrongful-death tort claim runs on its own dedicated statute: a flat 9% a year, compounding annually, from the date the injury happened all the way through to the date the judgment is paid -- one continuous clock, not separate pre- and post-judgment phases. Everything else -- contract debts, property damage, and any other claim where money or property was "wrongfully withheld" -- runs on a separate statute at 8% a year, compounding annually, and unusually, that statute expressly applies even when the damages were unliquidated at the time. Both rates are mandatory once claimed, not left to a judge's discretion.
| Governing law | Two entirely separate statutes split by claim type, each expressly excluding the other. C.R.S. § 13-21-101 covers personal-injury and wrongful-death TORT claims only. C.R.S. § 5-12-102 ("Except as provided in section 13-21-101...") covers everything else -- contract debts, property damage, and any other claim for money or property "wrongfully withheld" -- and expressly applies even to unliquidated amounts |
|---|---|
| Interest rate | For a personal-injury tort claim: a flat 9% a year, compounded annually, under § 13-21-101 (set in 1975; compounding added in 1979). For everything else under § 5-12-102: either 8% a year compounded annually, or, at the claimant's election, an amount that "fully recognizes the gain or benefit realized" by the party that wrongfully withheld the money or property (roughly a disgorgement measure) if that money or property was an identifiable separate asset. Medical debt is capped separately at 3% a year (added 2023). If a personal-injury judgment is appealed, a different floating post-judgment rate applies instead during the appeal (2 percentage points above a Kansas City Federal Reserve discount rate, certified annually by the secretary of state) |
| When interest starts running | For a personal-injury tort claim: from the date the action accrued (the date of injury), continuously through to the date the judgment is satisfied -- one uninterrupted clock, not separate pre- and post-judgment periods, unless the judgment is appealed, which triggers the separate floating post-judgment rate for the appeal period. For a § 5-12-102 claim: from the date the money or property was wrongfully withheld, or from the date it became due (on a contract, note, account, or settlement), through to the date of payment or judgment entry, whichever comes first |
| Contract vs. tort claims | Colorado's real dividing line is personal-injury tort versus everything else -- not liquidated versus unliquidated damages the way several other states split it. Personal-injury and wrongful-death claims get their own dedicated statute (§ 13-21-101) at a distinct 9% compounding rate running continuously from injury to payment. Every other claim type -- contract, property damage, and other torts like conversion -- falls under § 5-12-102's 8% compounding rate instead, and that statute goes further than most states by expressly applying "even if the amount is unliquidated at the time of wrongful withholding or at the time when due" -- Colorado does not require liquidated damages the way Arizona, Washington, or Maryland do for their general prejudgment-interest right |
| Mandatory or discretionary | Both statutes use mandatory language, not equitable discretion. Under § 13-21-101, once a plaintiff claims interest in the complaint, "it is the duty of the court" to add it to the judgment. Under § 5-12-102, "creditors shall receive interest" once money or property has been wrongfully withheld or a debt has become due -- an entitlement, not a judgment call, though a court still determines the dollar amount when the claimant elects the gain-or-benefit measure instead of the flat 8% rate |
| Simple or compound | Both statutes compound annually -- explicitly, in their own text. Section 5-12-102 says "eight percent per annum compounded annually" in three separate subsections. Section 13-21-101 requires "compounding of interest annually from the date the suit was filed" for actions filed on or after July 1, 1979, and again for post-judgment interest during an appeal. This is a genuinely different default than most states surveyed so far, which apply simple interest absent an express statutory compounding instruction |
| Claims against the government | The Colorado Governmental Immunity Act (CGIA), C.R.S. §§ 24-10-101 to -120, bars ALL tort claims against a public entity or employee UNLESS the claim fits one of a short list of enumerated waiver categories (operating a motor vehicle, a dangerous condition of a public building/highway/hospital/jail, and operating certain public utilities and facilities, among a few others) -- outside those categories, a tort claim against the government can't proceed at all, so a prejudgment-interest question never arises. Where a CGIA waiver DOES apply, total damages recoverable from the public entity are capped (currently $424,000 per person / $1,195,000 per occurrence for claims accruing 2022-2026, rising to $505,000 / $1,421,000 for claims accruing 2026-2030, adjusted for inflation every four years) -- no statutory language was found either including or excluding interest from that cap, unlike some other states' explicit rules on this exact point. The CGIA doesn't apply to breach-of-contract claims against the government at all |
| Other exceptions | Section 5-12-102(3)'s express coverage of unliquidated amounts is itself Colorado's biggest departure from most other states' approach. A separate limit comes from case law: the Colorado Supreme Court held in Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. v. Holmes (2008) that a claimant suing for the cost of FUTURE repairs (not yet incurred) hasn't lost the time value of any money and so isn't entitled to prejudgment interest on that future-cost component under § 5-12-102(1)(b) -- only past, already-incurred costs draw interest. Medical debt is separately capped at 3% rather than the general 8%. A 2024 bill (HB 24-1230) that would have added a dedicated 6%/8% prejudgment-interest mandate specifically for residential construction-defect claims died without a floor vote before the session ended; a near-identical 2025 bill (HB 25-1261) proposing the same construction-defect-specific rate also died -- current law has no construction-defect-specific prejudgment-interest rule |
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The short answer
Colorado sorts prejudgment interest by the TYPE of claim, not by whether the damages happen to be liquidated. If you're suing for a personal injury or a wrongful death, a dedicated statute gives you a flat 9% a year, compounding annually, running continuously from the date you were hurt all the way through to the date the judgment is finally paid -- there's no separate pre-judgment and post-judgment phase the way most states have. Every other kind of claim -- an unpaid debt, property damage, or any situation where someone "wrongfully withheld" money or property that was rightfully yours -- runs on a completely separate statute instead, at 8% a year, also compounding annually, and unusually, that statute says outright that it applies even if your damages weren't a fixed, known amount at the time. Both rates are automatic once properly claimed, not left up to a judge's discretion.
Requirements one by one
Governing law
Colorado splits this topic across two statutes that each expressly defer to the other. C.R.S. § 13-21-101 governs personal-injury and wrongful-death tort claims exclusively. C.R.S. § 5-12-102 opens with "Except as provided in section 13-21-101" and then covers everything that statute doesn't -- ordinary contract debts, property damage, and any claim for money or property that's been "wrongfully withheld." The two statutes don't overlap, and a case falls into one or the other based purely on what kind of claim it is.
Interest rate
A personal-injury tort claim draws a flat 9% a year, compounded annually, under § 13-21-101 -- a rate set in 1975, with annual compounding added by a 1979 amendment. Everything covered by § 5-12-102 instead runs at 8% a year compounded annually, unless the claimant chooses a different measure available specifically for "wrongfully withheld" money or property that's an identifiable separate asset: an amount that "fully recognizes the gain or benefit realized" by the party who withheld it, essentially letting the claimant capture what the other side actually earned by holding onto the money instead of a flat statutory rate. Medical debt gets its own, much lower cap: 3% a year, added by a 2023 amendment. If a personal-injury judgment gets appealed, the 9% rate stops and a different, floating rate takes over for the appeal period -- 2 percentage points above a specific Kansas City Federal Reserve discount rate, recertified by the Colorado secretary of state every January 1st.
When interest starts running
For a personal-injury tort claim, the clock starts on the date the action accrued -- the date of the injury itself, not the date suit was filed -- and runs continuously through to the date the judgment is actually satisfied, unless an appeal switches in the separate post-judgment rate for that period. For a § 5-12-102 claim, interest starts on the date the money or property was wrongfully withheld, or on the date it became due under a contract, note, account, or settlement, running through to the date of payment or the date judgment is entered, whichever happens first.
Contract vs. tort claims
The real dividing line here is personal-injury tort versus everything else, not liquidated versus unliquidated the way several other states split this question. Personal-injury and wrongful-death claims get their own statute and their own distinct 9% rate. Every other claim type -- a contract debt, a property damage claim, or another kind of tort like conversion -- falls under the general § 5-12-102 framework at 8% instead. What makes Colorado genuinely different from states like Arizona, Washington, or Maryland: § 5-12-102 doesn't require the damages to be liquidated at all. Its own text says interest applies "even if the amount is unliquidated at the time of wrongful withholding or at the time when due" -- a broader default than most states offer outside the personal-injury carve-out.
Mandatory or discretionary
Neither statute leaves the underlying entitlement to a judge's equitable discretion. Under § 13-21-101, once a plaintiff claims interest in the complaint, "it is the duty of the court" to add it to the judgment. Under § 5-12-102, "creditors shall receive interest" once the statutory conditions are met -- a right, not a judgment call, though the court still has to determine the dollar figure when a claimant elects the gain-or-benefit measure instead of the flat 8%.
Simple or compound
Both statutes compound interest annually, and say so explicitly. Section 5-12-102 repeats "compounded annually" in three separate subsections. Section 13-21-101 requires "compounding of interest annually from the date the suit was filed" for any action filed on or after July 1, 1979, and again for the post-judgment rate during an appeal. This is a real departure from most other states surveyed so far, which default to simple interest unless a statute says otherwise -- Colorado's default runs the other way.
Claims against the government
The Colorado Governmental Immunity Act bars all tort claims against a public entity or its employees unless the claim fits one of a short list of specific waiver categories -- operating a motor vehicle, a dangerous condition of a public building, road, hospital, or jail, and operating certain public utilities, among a few others. Outside those categories, a tort claim against Colorado state or local government can't proceed at all, so the prejudgment-interest question never comes up. Where a waiver does apply and the case proceeds, total recoverable damages are capped -- currently $424,000 per person and $1,195,000 per occurrence for claims accruing between 2022 and 2026, rising to $505,000 and $1,421,000 for claims accruing between 2026 and 2030, adjusted for inflation on a four-year cycle. No statutory text was found specifically saying whether prejudgment interest counts toward that cap or sits outside it. The Governmental Immunity Act doesn't apply to breach-of-contract claims against the government at all -- those follow ordinary rules.
Other exceptions
Section 5-12-102's coverage of unliquidated damages is itself the state's biggest exception to the pattern seen in most other states. A separate, judge-made limit comes from Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. v. Holmes: if you're suing for the cost of repairs you haven't made yet (future, not-yet-incurred costs), the Colorado Supreme Court held you haven't lost the "time value" of any money and so aren't entitled to prejudgment interest on that portion of the claim -- only past, already-paid-out costs draw interest under § 5-12-102(1)(b). Medical debt sits in its own lower-capped track at 3%. And worth knowing if you're following Colorado's legislature: two recent bills (2024's HB 24-1230 and 2025's HB 25-1261) each tried to add a dedicated, higher prejudgment-interest rate specifically for residential construction-defect claims -- both died without passing, so no such carve-out exists in current law.
What trips people up
The most common mistake is assuming Colorado uses one interest rate for everything. It doesn't -- a personal-injury plaintiff gets 9% compounding continuously from the date of injury, while almost every other kind of claim gets 8% compounding under a completely different statute, with its own different accrual rule.
People sometimes assume "unliquidated" damages can't draw prejudgment interest in Colorado the way they can't in several other states. For a personal-injury claim, that's true in the sense that the claim runs on its own statute regardless. But for other claims under § 5-12-102, Colorado's statute expressly says unliquidated amounts still qualify -- don't assume a claim is disqualified just because the dollar figure wasn't fixed in advance.
Don't assume the 9% personal-injury rate keeps running forever once a case is appealed. If the losing side appeals a personal-injury judgment, the interest rate switches to a different, floating, secretary-of-state-certified rate for the appeal period -- though if the appeal succeeds in getting a full retrial rather than just adjusting the existing judgment, the original 9% rate resumes running from the original accrual date once a new judgment is entered, since there's no intervening judgment for the floating rate to attach to.
Common questions
What's Colorado's prejudgment interest rate?
9% a year, compounding annually, for a personal-injury or wrongful-death tort claim, running from the date of injury. For nearly everything else (contract debts, property damage, other wrongfully-withheld money or property), it's 8% a year, also compounding annually.
Can I get prejudgment interest on unliquidated damages in Colorado?
For claims outside the personal-injury carve-out, yes -- Colorado's general interest statute expressly applies "even if the amount is unliquidated," which is broader than many other states allow.
Does Colorado compound prejudgment interest?
Yes, both of Colorado's interest statutes compound annually by their own express terms -- a real exception to the simple-interest default many other states use.
Can I get prejudgment interest on the cost of future repairs?
Generally no. The Colorado Supreme Court has held that future, not-yet-incurred repair costs don't carry prejudgment interest, since you haven't yet lost the use of money you haven't spent.
Statutes and sources
- C.R.S. § 5-12-102(1)-(3) (statutory interest; wrongfully withheld money/property; unliquidated amounts covered) — quoted in full above. Accessed 2026-07-05: https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/images/olls/crs2024-title-05.pdf
- C.R.S. § 5-12-102(5) (medical debt cap) — quoted in full above. Accessed 2026-07-05: https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/images/olls/crs2024-title-05.pdf
- C.R.S. § 13-21-101(1)-(4) (interest on personal-injury damages) — quoted in full above. Accessed 2026-07-05: https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/images/olls/crs2024-title-13.pdf
- C.R.S. § 24-10-114(1) (Governmental Immunity Act damages cap) — quoted in full above. Accessed 2026-07-05: https://www.sos.state.co.us/pubs/info_center/files/LimitationsOnJudgments.pdf
- Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. v. Holmes, 193 P.3d 821 (Colo. 2008) — future repair costs don't draw prejudgment interest. Accessed 2026-07-05: https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/2514829/goodyear-tire-rubber-co-v-holmes/
Source links
Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.