The Colorado Court of Appeals in Nybert v. GEICO Casualty Co., 2017 WL 710504 (Colo. Ct. App. February 23, 2017) issued two significant rulings regarding Colorado’s Unreasonable Delay Statute, Section 10-3-1116. In the first ruling, the Court held that the trial court was permitted under the statute to award the insured twice the amount of the delayed benefit in addition to the actual policy benefit that was delayed. In the second opinion, the Court found that an award of statutory attorney’s fees to the insured could be made without regard to the period from when the benefit was first delayed to the date when it was actually paid and without regard to whether the fee award concerned a contractual claim.
