A federal magistrate judge has recommended that the most serious claims alleged in lawsuits against the owner of the Century Aurora 16 movie theater — the site of a July 20 shooting that killed 12 — be thrown out.

In an order issued Thursday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Hegarty said Colorado law bars people wounded in the shooting and family members of those killed from bringing claims of negligence and wrongful death against Cinemark USA.

However, Hegarty said claims alleging violations of the Colorado Premises Liability Act — the same section of law that covers slip-and-fall lawsuits — could go forward.

“[S]o long as a person alleges injury that occurred on the property of another … the claim must be brought solely under the CPLA,” Hegarty wrote in his opinion.

The decision applies to seven lawsuits filed last year against Cinemark. Though Hegarty’s decision carries great weight in the lawsuits, it is merely a recommendation. Both sides in the suits have two weeks to ask U.S. District Court Judge R. Brooke Jackson, the judge overseeing the cases, to take a second look.

After the shooting, in which 58 people were wounded by gunfire, several people injured in the attack and family members of four of those slain sued Cinemark, alleging that the theater’s lax security enabled the shooting. There have been at least 10 lawsuits filed in federal court in Colorado against Cinemark.