Legal term
Loss of Consortium
Updated Jul 20, 20261 sources
In a sentence
A claim by the spouse (in some states, family) of an injured person for the loss of companionship, support, and services caused by the injury — a separate claim riding alongside the injured person's.
Serious-injury cases often include two plaintiffs: the injured person and their spouse, whose consortium claim compensates the relationship's losses. It is derivative — it rises and falls with the underlying injury claim — but it is separately valued.
Rules vary by state on who may bring it and what it covers. In mass-tort settlement matrices, consortium claims are typically folded into the household's overall allocation.
