Tim Garvey

Tim Garvey is an experienced Denver personal injury attorney dedicated to helping regular people fight insurance company greed, and he specializes in insurance bad faith, catastrophic personal injury, and wrongful death. If asked to describe what he does, Tim often explains: “I sue insurance companies when they act like jerks. They keep me very busy.”

Throughout his career, Tim has helped his clients recover millions of dollars in wrongly withheld insurance benefits, and Tim credits his success to his unique approach of treating clients like family to learn their human story. This approach allows Tim to tell his client’s story—to insurance companies, to mediators, or to juries—with empathy and compassion.

Many organizations have recognized Tim’s dedication to his clients and the results he gets for them over the past decade, including:

• The National Trial Lawyers: Top 100 Trial Lawyer (2021–now);
• Colorado Super Lawyers: SuperLawyer (top 5% of all lawyers) (2021–now);
• Colorado Super Lawyers: Rising Star (2016–2020);
• 5280 Magazine: Top Lawyer: Plaintiffs’ Personal Injury (2023);
• Martindale: Client Champion Gold (2023);
• AVVO: Perfect 10.0 Rating;
• Colorado Trial Lawyers Association: Outstanding Service Award (2021);
• American Society of Legal Advocates: Top 40 under 40 (2015);
• Colorado Bar Foundation: Fellow (2014);
• Colorado Bar Association: Pro Bono Award (2014);
• U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado: Pro Bono Award (2014);
• Colorado Bar Association Leadership Training program (Graduate 2013).

Since graduating law school in the top 25% of his class from the University of Denver Sturm College of Law in 2010, Tim has trained with some of the country’s best trial lawyers at renowned institutions like the Trial Lawyers College; the Lanier Trial Academy; and the Ethos Institute, to name just a few.

Tim is actively involved in both the legal community and the community at large. Tim previously served as a Co-Chair for CTLA’s Amicus Committee from 2021 to 2023. He also served as a Co-Chair for CTLA’s New Lawyers Division and CTLA’s Seminar Committee; as a Mentor for City Year Denver (2018–2020); as a board member and Treasurer for Youth on Record (2012–2017); as President of the Colorado Lawyer Chapter of the American Constitution Society (2013–15); and as a Council Member of the Colorado Bar Association Young Lawyers Division (2012–14). Tim has also been a member of the American, Colorado, Denver, and Arapahoe County Bar Associations; the American Association for Justice; the Colorado Trial Lawyers Association; the Faculty of Federal Advocates; and the Plaintiffs’ Employment Lawyers Association.

While attending law school, Tim worked as a research assistant for three professors and completed multiple prestigious internships including one with the Office of Legal Counsel of Governor Bill Ritter, Jr., and another with Judge Ed Bronfin of the Denver District Court. Tim also won a scholarship during law school to attend The Hague Academy of International Law and had his winning paper published in the Denver Journal of International Law & Policy. Upon graduation, Tim clerked for Judge A. Bruce Jones of the Denver District Court, serving on both civil and domestic relations dockets.

A native of New Jersey, but a proud Colorado resident since 1989, Tim enjoys all that living in the Mile High City has to offer, including a thriving arts scene and easy access to the Rocky Mountains. Tim also enjoys traveling to new destinations and exploring new cultures. Prior to attending law school, Tim spent nearly a decade managing one of the country’s best independent record stores (Twist & Shout Records), while simultaneously running a small Denver-based record label (Public Service Records), DJ’ing at several weekly events, and owning a cheesesteak restaurant (Taste of Philly) with his twin brother.

Notable Cases:

• Tibbits v. Jasion, 2022CV31347 (Denver Dist. Ct., May 28, 2024) ($2.5M post-trial settlement for client injured in a five-car pileup)
• Covelli v. Toyota, 23CA1767 (Colo. Ct. App. 2024) (amicus counsel for plaintiff in a roof collapse case where the jury awarded damages of over $40M)
• Watson v. EMC Corp., 2024WL501610 (10th Cir. 2024) (ERISA life insurance claim involving novel equitable remedy of surcharge)
• Fear v. GEICO Cas. Co., 2023 COA 31 (amicus counsel for plaintiff in landmark case involving the admissibility of insurer’s internal evaluation in insurance bad faith claims)
• Gebert v. Sears, Roebuck & Co., 2023 COA 107 (amicus counsel for plaintiff in case affirming district court’s $1.1M judgment for injuries caused by a miswired stove)
• Confidential pre-trial seven-figure settlement for man injured by a runaway tractor trailer (2023)
• Confidential post-trial seven-figure settlement for woman injured in a crash with a food delivery driver (2023)
• Ford Motor Co. v. Forrest Walker, 2022 CO 32 (amicus counsel for plaintiff in a car crash case involving proper calculation of interest for $2.9M judgment)
• Brown v. Long Romero, 2021 CO 67 (amicus counsel for case where the Supreme Court overturned the district court’s ruling that the parents of a child who died in birth could not hold the birthing center accountable for negligent hiring of nurse-midwife involved in the child’s wrongful death)
• Ellis v. Liberty Life Assur. Co. of Boston, 958 F.3d 1271 (10th Cir. 2020) (ERISA LTD claim)
• Auwae v. Metro. Life Ins. Co., 441 F.Supp.3d 1188 (D. Colo. 2020) (defeating insurer’s motion to dismiss life insurance claim involving suicide)
• Amica Life Ins. Co. v. Wertz, 2020 CO 29 (amicus counsel for life insurance claim involving a suicide exclusion)
• Renfandt v. N.Y. Life Ins. Co., 2018 CO 49 (amicus counsel for plaintiff in case where Colorado Supreme Court held that “under Colorado law, a life insurance policy exclusion for ‘suicide, sane or insane’ excluded coverage only if the insured, whether sane or insane at the time, committed an act of self-destruction with the intent to kill himself.”)
• DonMoyer v. Quanta Services, Inc., 2017WL5191803 (D. Colo. 2017) (defeated employer’s motion for summary judgment regarding male client’s retaliation claim for hiring and promoting women within the company)
• Estate of Roemer v. Johnson, 764 Fed. Appx. 784 (10th Cir. 2019) (represented the estate of a man murdered by his cellmate in the estate’s claims against the government)
• Spokas v. Am. Family Mut. Ins. Co., 2015WL3948098 (D. Colo. 2015) ($2.2M judgment in insurance bad faith matter)
• Am. Family Mut. Ins. Co. v. Green-Tillman, 2014CV30642 (Adams County Dist. Ct., Apr. 21, 2015) ($215,000 judgment in insurance breach of contract case)
• Casper v. Guarantee Trust Life Ins., 2014WL8726761 (Pueblo County Dist. Ct., June 15, 2014) ($4.8M jury award for cancer patient with a $50,000 cancer insurance policy) (affirmed on appeal to the Colorado Supreme Court Guarantee Trust Life Ins. Co. v. Casper, 2018 CO 43)
• Lacroix v. Beverage Distributors Co., 2014WL7184283 (Adams County Dist. Ct., May 16, 2014) ($200,000 jury award for client served drain cleaner with his beer at a restaurant, damaging his esophagus)