Loss of consortium is the harm to a close family relationship when someone is seriously injured or killed: the loss of love, companionship, comfort, and support. In Texas, spouses can claim it, and children can claim it for a parent's serious, permanent injury, but parents cannot for a child's nonfatal injury.
The claim belongs to the family member, not the injured person. A spouse whose partner can no longer share daily life the way they did, or a child whose parent is permanently disabled, suffers a loss of their own, and Texas law recognizes it as a separate element of damages.
Texas courts set the boundaries. The Texas Supreme Court recognized a spouse's claim for loss of consortium in Whittlesey v. Miller (1978). In Reagan v. Vaughn (1990), it allowed a child to recover for loss of consortium when a parent suffers a serious, permanent, and disabling injury. In Roberts v. Williamson (2003), it declined to allow parents to recover for loss of consortium from a child's nonfatal injury.
When a crash is fatal, the family's loss of companionship is part of the wrongful death claim under Chapter 71 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code, which belongs to the surviving spouse, children, and parents.
The consortium claim depends on the underlying injury claim. It rises and falls with the proof of the defendant's fault and the seriousness of the injury, and the injured person's own share of fault can reduce it.
Proof is personal: how the marriage or family life changed, what activities stopped, and testimony from people who know the family. Owsley Law Firm includes these claims when the facts support them and charges no fee unless it wins.
Loss of household services, like care of the home and family, can be a separate economic loss from the emotional loss of companionship, and both should be documented.
A child's consortium claim requires a serious, permanent, and disabling injury to the parent under the Texas Supreme Court's decision in Reagan v. Vaughn.
In death cases, the wrongful death statute allows recovery for loss of companionship and society and for mental anguish, which overlaps with what consortium covers in injury cases.
Mistakes that cost people money
- Not including the spouse or children when the injury is serious and permanent.
- Relying only on the injured person's testimony to describe the family's loss.
- Assuming consortium is available for every injury.
Related questions
Can an unmarried partner claim loss of consortium?
Texas has generally limited the claim to spouses and to children of a seriously injured parent.
Do I have to file a separate lawsuit?
No. Consortium claims are usually brought in the same case as the injured person's claim.
Does the injured spouse's fault reduce the claim?
It can. The claim derives from the injury, so a share of fault assigned to the injured person can reduce it.
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