Consortium loss is something you might not know about unless you studied law. You should know about it, though, even if you’re not a lawyer. A time might come when you need to understand this term.
We will talk about it in the following article. We’ll go over the basics, and we’ll also cover when it might come into play in your life.
What is Consortium Loss?
Consortium loss, as a term, actually covers a lot of ground. Let’s say something or someone badly injures your spouse. They cannot do the same things for you that they once could.
For instance, they cannot engage in intimate contact with you like they once did. Maybe they can’t love you like they did before. They can’t share your life in quite the same way they once could.
Collectively, a lawyer would call that consortium loss. You can also get more specific with the term, though.
A lawyer might talk about services loss as part of consortium loss. Perhaps your spouse or partner cannot rake the leaves, mow the lawn, clean up around the house, walk the dog, etc.
An attorney might also bring up support loss. That usually means the spouse or partner cannot work anymore because of the injury, so they can’t bring in money the way that they could before.
Usually, you have three years to file a consortium loss claim. You should know that if something happens to your partner or spouse. You don’t want to miss that deadline if you can hold someone responsible for what happened.
How Can You Know Whether You Might Hold Someone Responsible?
If something happens to your partner or spouse and you want to bring a consortium loss lawsuit against someone, how might you know whether you can do that? That will depend on the situation’s details.
For example, maybe your husband hurt himself when he slipped and fell while walking in front of someone’s house. It snowed, and the homeowner didn’t bother to shovel the sidewalk.
Whether you can sue the homeowner for consortium loss might depend on when the snow fell. If they had multiple days to shovel the walk, and they didn’t bother to do it, you might bring a consortium loss lawsuit in that instance.
Maybe someone at work caused a dangerous situation that injured your spouse instead. If they can’t return to work, that would mean support loss, which is part of consortium loss.
You will need to talk to a lawyer if you’re thinking about bringing one of these lawsuits. The more detail you can give them concerning what happened, the better they should understand the situation and know whether you have a legitimate case or not.
What Can You Get if You Win Your Lawsuit?
You will need to appeal to a jury to determine how much, if anything, you get out of a consortium lawsuit. The jury will first deliberate and decide whether your case has merit.
If they say that it does, they will figure out how much money the person or entity responsible must give you. They will probably look at precedent to help them decide how much should come your way.
They will probably look at how many paychecks your spouse or partner missed if they spent some time away from work, but then they went back to their job eventually. They will likely compensate you for medical bills, physical therapy, medication, and so forth.
What Else Can You Get?
Those financial reimbursements are relatively easy to give to someone. The jury can put a dollar amount on them based on lost wages and medical bills.
However, they might also give you money based on less tangible losses. You might describe to them how your spouse or partner is unhappy now, and they are not quite the same person they once were.
Maybe they have lapsed into depression, and they cannot enjoy the time they spend with you anymore. They don’t laugh with you or talk to you. They don’t play with the kids, and they can’t take joy in simple activities.
If so, the jury might try and come up with a dollar amount they think the responsible entity or person owes you. In these cases, it’s often anybody’s guess how much you might get for all of this.
What’s undeniable, though, is that if this event changed your life and your spouse or partner’s life, a jury should recognize that and try to compensate you accordingly.
