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What is the Loss of Consortium?

March 24, 2022

Being injured in an accident doesn’t just mean the person injured is the only one affected. The consequences of being involved in this type of accident can extend to loved ones of the injured party. If you have researched personal injury claims, you may have run across the phrase “loss of consortium.” We want to tell you more about this concept and how it is related to personal injury law.

What is the Loss of Consortium?

In Tennessee, loss of consortium claims are limited to those who are legally married. Typically, injuries sustained by the victim in an accident often affect the relationship between the spouse and the victim. The ways the relationship could be affected include:

Ability to have sexual relations
Create a strain on the marriage
Loss of companionship
Unable to do activities together they enjoyed before the accident, like biking
Becoming infertile after the accident

This type of claim in a personal injury case is used to compensate the spouse, and it is considered a non-economic damage. This is the same type of damage as pain and suffering, and it can be difficult to place a monetary value on these types of damages.

It is important to note that if the victim is still living and they file a personal injury claim, they must win this claim in order for the spouse to win for loss of consortium. If the victim loses the claim, then the spouse cannot recover damages for this non-economic damage.

How to Prove This Type of Loss

Since this damage is hard to place a value on monetarily, there are certain factors you must be able to prove to successfully claim this loss. They include:

There is a valid marriage
The victim was injured as a result of negligence from another party
The spouse of the victim suffered a loss of consortium
This loss is a result of the injuries sustained by the victim from the accident

Typically a jury or judge determines the value of damages. Some of the things they may consider are:

Stability of the relationship before the accident
Changes in the relationship after the accident
Expected recovery time or reduced life expectancy if injured
Contributions the injured person made to their household before the accident
The financial contributions the injured person made before the accident

These are just some of the things that could affect how much compensation you could receive for this loss.

Scenarios For When You Can File This Claim

There are two ways you could file for this type of loss: a severe personal injury or wrongful death. Most of the time, damages for this type of loss are not awarded, unless the injured person dies or suffers a long-lasting or permanent injury. Typically, a wrongful death lawsuit will include claims for damages for loss of consortium, but most personal injury claims do not claim such damages.