Understanding Loss of Consortium in California
If your spouse suffered a recent injury in an accident, you are probably experiencing a difficult time.
You are probably concerned about your spouse’s current and future health and also stressed about the effect of your spouse’s injuries on your marital relationship.
In California, you may be able to recover damages for the impact your partner’s injuries have had on your marriage.
Here, we will discuss some of the basics of a California loss of consortium claim.
What Is Loss of Consortium?
Loss of consortium is a type of claim you can file if your spouse is injured or killed as a result of another party’s negligent or intentional conduct.
You can bring a claim against a responsible party if your spouse’s injuries deprive you of the enjoyment of your spouse’s companionship, support, comfort, guidance, and/or sexual relations.
A court may find the responsible party liable in a loss of consortium action even if they did not act with the intent to damage your marriage.
What Types of Accidents Lead to Loss of Consortium Claims?
Any injury to your spouse caused by another person’s negligence or intentional actions may lead to a loss of consortium claim. Physical injuries that impair mobility as well as emotional injuries such as depression or PTSD can affect your marital relationship.
If you are no longer able to enjoy your spouse’s company in the same way that you did prior to their accident, you can bring a California loss of consortium claim.
Car accidents, defective product accidents, and medical malpractice are examples where negligent conduct may result in such injuries.
Intentional conduct by a responsible party, such as assault or battery, can also lead to a loss of consortium claim.
Your spouse’s injuries do not have to be permanent or severe for you to file a loss of consortium claim. You need to prove only that your partner’s injuries have affected some aspect of your marriage to recover damages.
How Do You Prove a Loss of Consortium Claim in California?
You must prove four elements to prove a California loss of consortium claim.
Valid and Lawful Marriage
You and your partner must be married or in a registered domestic partnership at the time of the accident.
If you and your partner are cohabiting but not married, you unfortunately cannot bring a claim.
Tortious Injury to One Spouse
One spouse must have suffered personal injury as a result of another party’s failure to take reasonable care. This means that your spouse will have a separate personal injury claim against the defendant.
If both you and your spouse sustained injuries in an accident, you can still file a loss of consortium claim. As long as someone else’s conduct caused your spouse’s injuries, you may proceed with your claim.
Loss of Consortium Suffered by the Non-Injured Spouse
The non-injured spouse must show that they lost the enjoyment of some aspect of their relationship with their injured spouse.
The injured spouse’s abilities or behavior needs to have changed to prove this element. Such changes can include:
- The inability to perform household duties or assist in raising children;
- Changes in mood such as irritability, depression, or anxiety;
- Inability to engage in recreational activities that you and your spouse once enjoyed together; or
- Changes in the ability or desire to engage in sexual relations.
These are only a few examples of marital changes that can result in a loss of consortium claim in California. An experienced attorney will know whether the changes in your relationship may give rise to a claim.
Proximate Cause
You must prove that the injuries that resulted from the defendant’s conduct, and not another factor, are responsible for the changes in your marriage relationship.
For example, if your spouse’s irritability is due to new stresses at work rather than shock from a recent accident, you cannot recover damages.
How to Calculate Loss of Consortium Damages
You can recover noneconomic damages for a loss of consortium claim in California.
Noneconomic damages are compensation for intangible losses. Intangible losses include things like the estimated monetary value of your spouse’s former ability to engage in activities with you.
You cannot recover for tangible losses, such as wages that your spouse lost as a result of the accident. Additionally, in California, a court may reduce your loss of consortium recovery proportionately to any negligence by your injured spouse.
There is no concrete formula used to calculate loss of consortium damages. The jury or judge will make their best effort to estimate the value of whatever aspect of your marriage was damaged due to your spouse’s injuries. A number of factors, such as the stability of your marriage prior to the accident, are considered when calculating damages.
In California, the amount you can recover from a loss of consortium claim may be affected by an insurance company’s policy limits. For example, most car insurance policies have coverage limits of $15,000 per person per accident. Even though loss of consortium is a separate claim, the insurance company will include it as part of the damages paid to compensate the injured spouse. So the insurance company will not pay you more than $15,000 for your spouse’s injuries plus your loss of consortium.
Additionally, California law imposes a $250,000 cap on noneconomic damages in medical malpractice cases. However, this cap applies to each spouse individually. So if your spouse was injured by medical malpractice, you could recover up to $250,000 for loss of consortium.
How Do You Prove Damages?
To prove damages, you must show that a particular aspect of your marriage is diminished after the accident compared to how it was before the accident.
You will have to present evidence to show what kind of emotional support, companionship, sexual relations, etc. you had with your spouse prior to your spouse’s accident. Presenting a picture of your marriage before your spouse’s injury can involve discussing intimate or private details. A skilled loss of consortium attorney can tell you what to expect from the process of proving damages in your claim.
You must then present evidence of how your marital relationship has changed since your spouse’s injury. This may vary in difficulty depending on which aspects of your marriage have been affected. It is much easier to prove that your spouse’s loss of mobility has diminished their ability to help you with parenting than it is to prove that your partner’s emotional changes have decreased their ability to support you emotionally.
Our Case Results
$750
THOUSAND
REAR END VEHICLE COLLISION
A negligent driver rear-ended our client who suffered a significant back injury resulting in pre-trial settlement of $750,000.
REAR END VEHICLE COLLISION
A negligent driver rear-ended our client who suffered a significant back injury resulting in pre-trial settlement of $750,000.
$565
THOUSAND
LOW-SPEED REAR END VEHICLE COLLISION
Our client was a passenger in a vehicle involved in a low-speed impact resulting in back surgery. Settlement of his third-party liability and his underinsurance claims resulted in total settlement of $565,000.
LOW-SPEED REAR END VEHICLE COLLISION
Our client was a passenger in a vehicle involved in a low-speed impact resulting in back surgery. Settlement of his third-party liability and his underinsurance claims resulted in total settlement of $565,000.
$500
THOUSAND
PEDESTRIAN STRUCK BY VEHICLE
Our client’s mother was struck and killed in a crosswalk resulting in a policy limits settlement of $500,000.
PEDESTRIAN STRUCK BY VEHICLE
Our client’s mother was struck and killed in a crosswalk resulting in a policy limits settlement of $500,000.
$125
THOUSAND
CAR REAR ENDED BY BUS
A bus rear ended our client causing serious back injuries. Result: $125,000.
CAR REAR ENDED BY BUS
A bus rear ended our client causing serious back injuries. Result: $125,000.
$115
THOUSAND
DISPUTED LIABILITY RED LIGHT CRASH
Our client came to us with a low back injury after having been sued by a motorist in a disputed fault automobile collision. The police report placed fault on our client. They claimed he entered an intersection in his Porsche on a red light. This supposedly was the cause of a collision with a large pickup truck. The truck went on to collide with several more vehicles after the initial collision. The police report included numerous witness statements most of which blamed our client. After the course of the next two years, we took numerous depositions. Eventually, what we had known all along eventually became evident. The police report was wrong and it was actually the driver of the pickup who had run the red light. After multiple days of mandatory settlement conference, just before trial, the other driver’s insurance finally agreed to compensate our client for his back injury and paid $115,000 to settle the case.
DISPUTED LIABILITY RED LIGHT CRASH
Our client came to us with a low back injury after having been sued by a motorist in a disputed fault automobile collision. The police report placed fault on our client. They claimed he entered an intersection in his Porsche on a red light. This supposedly was the cause of a collision with a large pickup truck. The truck went on to collide with several more vehicles after the initial collision. The police report included numerous witness statements most of which blamed our client. After the course of the next two years, we took numerous depositions. Eventually, what we had known all along eventually became evident. The police report was wrong and it was actually the driver of the pickup who had run the red light. After multiple days of mandatory settlement conference, just before trial, the other driver’s insurance finally agreed to compensate our client for his back injury and paid $115,000 to settle the case.
$100
THOUSAND
VEHICLE COLLISION
While our clients, grandparents and their two grand-kids were driving through an intersection, another vehicle illegally turned left in front of our clients. The insurer for the other driver contended that the claimed injuries were not severe and not caused by the collision. After aggressive advocacy for our clients, we made a policy limits demand and contradicted the insurer’s position regrading our clients’ injuries. The insurer paid its entire policy to our clients.
VEHICLE COLLISION
While our clients, grandparents and their two grand-kids were driving through an intersection, another vehicle illegally turned left in front of our clients. The insurer for the other driver contended that the claimed injuries were not severe and not caused by the collision. After aggressive advocacy for our clients, we made a policy limits demand and contradicted the insurer’s position regrading our clients’ injuries. The insurer paid its entire policy to our clients.
Although these results may not indicate the possible outcome of your case, you can see that we work tirelessly to get the best possible results for our clients. To learn more about the potential value of your San Francisco car accident claim, call us now at 415.569.7495 or contact us to schedule your free consultation.
Injured? Don’t Delay.
Our car accident lawyers represent victims of accidents caused by negligent and reckless driving in San Francisco, Corte Madera, San Rafael, Mill Valley, Sausalito, and the surrounding Marin County areas. Here are some of the most common questions we get asked by our car accident clients.
Why Hire an Attorney?
An attorney will know whether your loss of consortium claim is likely to succeed. If you yourself have no injuries and your spouse’s injuries are minor, a jury may not award you much in damages. In cases like these, it may not be worth the time and legal fees to bring a loss of consortium claim.
In addition, if your spouse is already pursuing a claim for their personal injuries, a jury may view your loss of consortium claim as an attempt at a double recovery if your spouse’s injuries are temporary and less severe.
An attorney can also sit down with you and discuss the reality of proving your loss of consortium claim. An experienced personal injury attorney will know what information about your marriage you are likely to have to present to prove your claim.
Talking to an attorney can help you decide whether you want to proceed with your claim in light of privacy concerns.
The Wakeford Law Firm is available to take your call and start discussing your loss of consortium claim. Wesley Wakeford has almost 20 years of experience as a personal injury lawyer. During his career, he has litigated many cases, achieving successful outcomes for his clients. The Wakeford Law Firm is ready to provide you with knowledgeable and responsive representation both in and out of the courtroom.
