Bennett, Mark W.

Joe has been practicing law since 1986, beginning his legal career as a public prosecutor in Colorado's Ninth and Fifth Judicial Districts.  Since moving to Colorado Springs in 1990, Joe has been primarily involved in civil and personal injury litigation, representing both plaintiffs and defendants.  He presently handles medical malpractice claims, major personal injury lawsuits and wrongful death cases. 

Joe is a 1983 graduate of the University of Massachusetts in Boston, where he majored in English Literature, and a 1986 graduate of the University of Colorado School of Law in Boulder.  He worked as a deputy district attorney in the Ninth Judicial District, handling both misdemeanor and felony prosecutions, until 1989.  He then spent two years in the Fifth Judicial District Attorney's office handling all felony prosecutions in Eagle County, which includes the resort town of Vail.  From 1990 to 1994, he was employed by a firm in Colorado Springs.  Since 1994, Joe's practice has involved primarily plaintiff's medical malpractice and other serious personal injury cases.  Joe and Keith Cross have been partners since 1995.

Joe is a member of the Colorado and El Paso County Bar Associations, the American Association for Justice (AAJ), the AAJ Professional Negligence section and the AAJ Birth Trauma Litigation Group, the Gastric Bypass Litigation Group, and the Medical Negligence Litigation Group. He is also a member of  the Colorado Trial Lawyers Association and its Medical Negligence Committee and Amicus Committee.  Joe is licensed in Colorado, the United States District Court for the District of Colorado, the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit and the United States Supreme Court.  Former Colorado Governor Roy Romer appointed Joe to  the Advisory Board for the Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind where he served for several years, including two as the Board's chairman.

In recent years, Joe has been involved in a number of major lawsuits and successfully argued to the Colorado Supreme Court on behalf of the plaintiff in Corsentino v. Cordova, the case that established that emergency vehicle operators could be held legally responsible for deaths and injuries caused by their failure to comply with the provisions of Colorado's emergency vehicle statute. Joe has filed Amicus briefs on behalf of the Colorado Trial Lawyers Association in two cases in the Colorado Supreme Court, most recently in Day v. Johnson, challenging the "exercise of judgment" jury instruction that is routinely read to the jury in medical malpractice cases. Joe is an advocate for the underdog and particularly enjoys cases against institutions, governments and corporations.

 Joe and his wife, Sue, have been married for over 30 years and have four children.