Few events are as tragic as the accidental death of a beloved member of your family. If that fatality was caused by another person’s negligent or wrongful conduct, the law allows survivors to collect damages from that person. Claims for loss of consortium are a common component of wrongful death cases.
The accident and injury attorneys at the Salamati Law Firm in Los Angeles represent individuals throughout Southern California in wrongful death lawsuits. They treat every wrongful death case with respect and work tirelessly to pursue claims for loss of consortium and other causes of action against negligent parties and their insurers.
How Does the Law Define Loss of Consortium?
A person’s physical, emotional, and psychological support within a family are all part of the consortium that they provide within that structure. When that person has passed away due to accidental death, their surviving family members are deprived of that love, affection, and companionship. Thus, consortium includes the physical relationship that the deceased person had with their spouse or partner but also encompassed their guidance and daily companionship.
How Can a Personal Injury Lawyer Prove Loss of Consortium?
A skilled accident and injury attorney will analyze the deceased’s lifestyle and activities and will argue for loss of consortium compensation. This is based on the amount and the extent of their in-person contact with family, and their standing in the community. It can also include the surviving family members’ pain and suffering and any mental anguish.
In addition, this analysis can include reviewing specific details such as the stability of the relationship, any past criminal or civil complaints that might have been filed against the deceased, the actual amount of care that the individual offered within a family or group relationship, and finally that person’s life expectancy if they hadn’t suffered an accidental death.
Attorneys for negligent defendants and their insurers often try to make survivors uncomfortable by delving into the more intimate details of the family’s activities. An experienced wrongful death lawyer is best able to deflect these challenges.
How is the Value of Consortium Calculated?
Unlike medical expenses, funeral costs, and other hard amounts that are often part of a wrongful death lawsuit, damages for loss of consortium are non-economic and do not have a definite value. With just a few exceptions, California does not place an upper limit on the amount of non-economic damages that a survivor can recover in a wrongful death lawsuit.
The actual amount of damages that you can recover for loss of consortium is ultimately a function of your personal injury lawyer’s skills and abilities in describing the drastic changes and dislocations that you have experienced following the accidental death of a loved one.
The Salamati Law Firm Fights to Recover the Largest Possible Damages Awards for Loss of Consortium
The Los Angeles wrongful death lawyers at the Salamati Law Firm provide private, professional, and courteous representation to families. We fight for damages to compensate you for loss of consortium with the respect and sensitivity that you deserve.
Please see our website or call our Los Angeles office if a member of your family has died in a Southern California accident as a result of another person’s negligence or malfeasance. We offer complimentary consultations on all wrongful death matters.
Money damages can never replace the full value of a family member, but we will fight tirelessly to recover compensation that might ease the burden of your loss.
