Attorney Profile - Kyle Bachus

Kyle Bachus is a founding partner of Bachus & Schanker, LLC in Denver, Colorado, where he has devoted his practice exclusively to wrongful death and catastrophic injury. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Florida in 1989 and his Juris Doctor from the University of Florida College of Law. In 1996, he co-founded Bachus & Schanker, LLC, which has since grown into one of the region's leading plaintiff injury firms, now with more than 30 lawyers handling serious cases across Colorado and the nation.

Bachus has devoted his practice exclusively to wrongful death and catastrophic injury, and each year he and his Elite Litigation Group at Bachus & Schanker help more Colorado families through wrongful death cases than any other individual plaintiff lawyer in the state, working directly with approximately 25 grieving families at any given time. He was among the first Colorado lawyers to integrate dedicated victims' advocates directly into civil wrongful death representation. His commitment is also personal: his own mother was killed when she was run over by a concrete mixer truck, giving him an unfiltered understanding of what families endure after a fatal incident, and he later wrote the bestselling book Unthinkable: Real Answers for Families Confronting Catastrophic Injury or Death as both a resource for families and a legacy to his mother.

Notable Results

• In 2013, Bachus led the Bachus & Schanker trial team that achieved the largest personal injury verdict in the State of Colorado that year. (Publicly reported.)

Recognition

• Since its inception in 2007, Bachus has been named every year to the list of Colorado Super Lawyers as well as to the list of "Colorado's Top Lawyers" in the field of plaintiff's personal injury law.
• Law Week named Bachus the Top Class Action Lawyer in Colorado in 2014.
• He has been named by Lawdragon as one of "The Top 500 Leading Personal Injury Lawyers in America."
• Bachus has been recognized as an AV-rated attorney and "pre-eminent lawyer," the highest rating assigned to individual attorneys by Martindale-Hubbell.
• He has been included in The National Trial Lawyers: Top 100, Civil Plaintiff, which recognizes the nation's top trial lawyers in civil plaintiff law.
• He has been recognized on 5280 magazine's Top Lawyers lists for 2015, 2016, and 2017.
• Bachus is a member of the Colorado and Florida Bar Associations and has served on the Board of Directors of the Colorado Trial Lawyers Association for more than twenty years in total.

Legislative Work

Bachus authored the legislation that became Colorado's "made whole" statute, C.R.S. 10-1-135, and stood with the Governor when it was signed into law. Before this statute, health insurance companies and disability insurers routinely attempted to recoup money from an injured person's settlement or verdict even when that person had not been fully compensated. Under the law, those insurance payers generally cannot take reimbursement from a person's recovery unless and until the person has first been fully compensated for their losses. Additionally, Bachus was instrumental in the drafting and passage of an important amendment to Colorado's Uninsured Motorist Statute, Colorado Revised Statute 10-4-609, which became effective January 1, 2008, and significantly impacts "safety net" insurance coverage available when injured by an uninsured or underinsured driver.

Bar Admissions

• Colorado, 1994 (Bar No. 24441)