Why did Colorado repeal its 30-year old no-fault auto insurance law on July 1, 2003?
A. In 2001, Colorado’s legislature put a “sunset” provision on the auto insurance law that would result in a repeal of the system if no legislative action were taken to reform no-fault or replace it. The deadline was extended through two sessions, but in 2002 Governor Bill Owens said he would not extend the sunset of no-fault past the 2003 Legislative Session. The Governor called for either an aggressive reform to the “broken no-fault system” or a return to a fault-based or tort auto insurance system. The General Assembly rejected several no-fault reform measures, but ultimately passed HB-1188 which returned Colorado to a tort system on July 1, 2003. Q. Why was Colorado’s no-fault system considered broken? A. No-fault auto insurance meant that if you were in an accident each person involved collected injury damages from his or her own insurance company. It wasn’t necessary to establish fault in order to get your medical bills taken care of because you were required to buy an additional
