Personal injuries can have a wide-ranging impact on victims’ lives. Not only are your finances affected, your relationship with your spouse could be severely damaged. When this happens, you may be entitled to file a claim for loss of consortium.
The questions are: how do you prove loss of consortium and how do you establish the value of these damages?
There are various ways to prove you suffered loss of consortium and having an experienced personal injury lawyer to help you can be invaluable during this process. The accomplished legal team at Phillips Law Group is well-versed in the many details surrounding a loss of consortium claim.
What is Loss of Consortium?
Before diving into the evidence that is required to prove a loss of consortium claim, we must first explain exactly what loss of consortium is after an injury. Victims of motor vehicle accidents, construction accidents, slip and fall accidents, violent attacks and any other type of accident can wind up suffering loss of consortium and so can members of their families.
The purpose of a loss of consortium claim is to compensate the plaintiff for a damaged relationship, loss of dependency, or emotional detachment caused by an injury suffered in an accident.
For the most part, loss of consortium means that the injured loved one can no longer provide emotional support, love, or financial support to the family, spouse or dependents. This includes the loss of the aspects of a relationship between a parent and a child or between two spouses.
Proving There Has Been Loss of Consortium
In order to recover compensation for a claim for loss of consortium, you will need to prove that it exists in your life because of injuries suffered as a result of an accident. Loss of consortium is a non-economic damage and it is difficult to determine the monetary value because victims are affected emotionally. This means that there are no physical signs or monetary evidence, such as medical bills or lost wages.
There is also no set method to determining the value of a loss of consortium claim. However, the following will be taken into account as your Phoenix personal injury attorney works to assign a value to the claim:
- Was your marriage stable and full of love?
- What were the living arrangements of the marriage?
- Did your spouse receive a lot of care and companionship prior to the injury?
- The life expectancy of each spouse
- Was there ever abuse?
- Did the couple require counseling, including family counseling?
- Evidence of the activities you and your spouse took part in prior to the injury
- Evidence of the household chores you performed prior to the injury
Your attorney may also ask you to keep a journal documenting the emotional impact of the injured person not being able to provide the same level of support as before. For example, a child could keep a journal about his or her parent missing school functions or sports practices.
If you are forced to pay for the performance of services your spouse can no longer perform, it is crucial to keep records of payments you made to the person who provides these services. This could include payments made for daycare or tutoring for children.
Contact Phillips Law Group for More Information
Was your spouse seriously injured in an accident in Arizona? Has your relationship with your spouse changed because of his or her injuries? If so, you might have reason to file a loss of consortium claim against the at-fault party.
Proving loss of consortium is not easy. An attorney will know what it takes to build a case for you and show the court how strong your marriage was prior to the injury or untimely death.
Call us at 602-222-2222 to speak with an attorney. We do not collect a fee unless you receive compensation.
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