Are you a family member, spouse, or domestic partner of a personal injury victim severely injured and killed by someone else’s negligence? At Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers, LLC, our personal injury attorneys can file a loss of consortium claim on your behalf to ensure your family recovers damages.
Contact our legal firm at (888) 424-5757 (toll-free phone number) or use the contact form today to schedule a free consultation. Then, let’s discuss how filing a personal injury case can ensure your family receives the monetary recovery you deserve.
A personal injury can occur without warning, leaving victims with extensive injuries or death. In addition, their families often face mounting medical costs and personal expenses, requiring some legal remedy when another’s negligence caused the damage.
Damages for loss of consortium can include compensation for loss of emotional and financial support.
Typically, the law allows the families to seek special damages (economic damages) to pay for rehabilitation, physical therapy, and-home services, prescription medications, medical devices, lost wages, and future lost earnings.
However, the family also experiences non-economic damages, including disfigurement, mental anguish, inconvenience, loss of enjoyment of life, loss of opportunity, and physical pain and suffering.
The courts typically provide compensatory damages to pay for all the above and restore the victim and family members to nearly “whole” again. However, consortium damages will involve a loss of services, loss of support, and a loss of quality in a relationship between the injured party and non-injured-family members.
A Loss of Consortium Claim Providing Additional Monetary Compensation
A loss of consortium claim helps families involved in a domestic relationship recover damages in financial compensation after an accident that harmed or killed a family member. Loss of consortium claims frequently arises after a sudden and severe personal injury like a car crash, workplace injury, or another tragic personal injury accident.
These claims are often a part of an injury case or wrongful death lawsuit handled by an experienced personal injury attorney specializing in a loss of consortium. The events that lead to a loss of consortium claim could include injuries sustained in a car accident, medical malpractice, product liability, nursing home neglect, premises liability, and wrongful death that does not include financial losses.
Defining a Loss of Consortium Claim
Loss of consortium is a legal definition used in tort law, referring to an individual’s declaration of benefits once provided in a family relationship that was lost due to injuries caused by someone else’s negligence or intentional act.
At its most basic level, eight loss of consortium claim is based on a defendant’s conduct, and the person injured or killed who can no longer provide his or her spouse or another family member the same affection, love, companionship, comfort, or sexual relations once provided before the incident that caused their injuries or death.
A loss of consortium claim can be brought to court as a standalone claim brought by an individual’s spouse who was injured or killed to the defendant’s negligence or intentional act. Typically, loss of consortium refers to a loss of benefits, including, but not limited to sexual relations and intimate affection that was directly lost through a specific injury or death of the injured person.
Under tort law, a marriage includes the right of one partner to their spouse’s company, support, and affection in every activity related to the relationship. In addition, the non-injured victim’s claim can be filed against any party found liable for causing the other spouse’s injury or death if it can be proved there was harm to the marriage.
The non-injured spouse’s claim involving a loss of consortium allows the victim to recover compensation for any non-economic damage that could include:
- The loss of protection, assistance, care, comfort, companionship, society, moral support, and love
- The loss of enjoyment a sexual relationship, and the potential of having children
That said, the law is specific that individuals filing a loss of consortium claim against another entity or person cannot receive compensation for economic damages. The spouse’s claim seeking loss of consortium damages cannot include medical expenses, hospital costs, and funeral & burial expenses.
Who is Eligible to File a Loss of Consortium Claim?
Loss of consortium claims can be filed against any perpetrator of an intentional climb, like rape, assault, or battery. Typically, spouses and domestic partners are eligible to file a loss of consortium lawsuit or personal injury case on two different scenarios, including at the spouse was injured or killed.
A loss of consortium claim might be resolved in a court of law by experienced lawyers who can prove loss, where a judge or jury determines whether the spouse or domestic partner suffered a loss of consortium as a direct result of the injury.
Usually, the court will evaluate various factors that prove that the relationship did indeed involve a valid marriage that suffered a loss of consortium by how long the couple was together, whether the marriage was stable, and the activities lost by the injury.
However, the court’s monetary judgment to end a loss of consortium case will not include financial damages, including the wages or salaries previously earned by the injured or deceased person. Other damages not included in a loss of consortium claim would include medical costs and personal services like home health care, home nursing care, and domestic household assistance.
A plaintiff will usually file a loss of consortium claim seeking general non-economic damages to make them “whole” again. However, the damages awarded at trial or the negotiated settlement amount usually serve as a rough substitute for the loss and injuries both you and your partner endured.
Recover Non-Economic Damages in Lost Consortium Claims
A personal injury attorney specializing in resolving lost consortium claims can offer free legal advice during an initial consultation. Many family members can file a loss of consortium case, including spouses and domestic partners (the non-injured spouse of the injured victim) to recover:
- Past, current, and future medical bills
- Reputation loss
- Any personal injury sustained by the loss
- Loss of consortium damages
- Lost sexual relationship of the marital (conjugal) relationship
The plaintiff can also seek financial damages (the precise monetary value determined by their income) and mental anguish loss along with economic damages or non-economic damages.
Typically, the defendant’s insurance company will pay monetary compensation determined by medical and social experts calculating a more precise monetary value based on the victim’s loss.
How to Prove a Loss of Consortium
Typically, lost consortium cases involve spouses harmed in a car accident with physical injuries or emotional trauma so severe they can no longer provide affection, love, companionship, and sexual relationship to the other spouse.
The injured person likely can no longer provide household chores and maintenance, handle raising children or perform a previously enjoyed lifestyle activity relating to the relationship.
A loss of consortium lawyer can:
- Review the evidence to prove the loss
- Work with experts who can value the loss of consortium claim
- Determined how the case can be presented at court for the best possible outcome
Usually, the plaintiff’s attorneys will include a claim for loss of consortium as part of a personal injury lawsuit. Numerous contributing factors will likely determine the value of the loss consortium part of an accident injury lawsuit. The trial court will determine:
- The spouses’ living arrangements
- The stability of the marriage and loving relationship
- The level of care and companionship the spouse received
- The life expectancy of both spouses
Like all other portions of a personal injury lawsuit, the victims have a limited time to file a claim against the defendants based on the state statute of limitations. Typically, the statute restricts the time to two years from when the injuries or death occurred.
Resolving a loss consortium claim can be challenging. In many cases, the defense attorney attempts to weaken the plaintiff’s case to minimize the amount that the defendant’s insurance company will pay for compensation.
The most successful cases typically require an experienced personal injury lawyer who can provide the best legal advice, representing the injured victim to ensure that their accident claim is resolved for maximum compensation.
Hiring a Personal Injury Lawyer Specializing in Loss of Consortium Cases
Was your loved one injured through negligence or intentional act, or died through a wrongful death caused by another? The personal injury attorneys at Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers can offer free legal options about handling a loss of consortium claim.
Contact our personal injury law firm at (888) 424-5757 (toll-free phone number) or use the contact form today to schedule a free consultation. Let us help the uninjured spouse and others get the justice and answers they need, including receiving compensation and proving their loss or injury.
All confidential and sensitive information you share with your experienced personal injury attorney remains private through an attorney-client relationship. In addition, our law firm accepts all personal injury cases through contingency fee agreements, meaning that no fees are paid until the case is successfully resolved.
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Many million-dollar negotiated settlements and jury trial awards have already been awarded to the victims who were injured through another’s negligence. Contact our law firm today at (888) 424-5757 to discuss your legal options to obtain the compensation you deserve.
