Your spouse passes away in an accident. Perhaps it’s a workplace accident or a car accident on the way to work. Regardless of the type of accident, someone else’s negligence leads to your spouse’s death.
One thing you may want to consider, as you look into your legal rights to compensation for medical bills, lost wages and everything else, is loss of consortium. This is also often referred to as loss of companionship or loss of affection.
What is this, exactly? It is just a way for the court to acknowledge that the deadly accident impacted your life forever. This impact comes with tangible losses, like lost wages, but it also comes with intangible issues and an emotional impact.
You have been deprived of some of the intrinsic benefits of being married. For instance, you now have to raise your children on your own. You lost a romantic partner. You no longer have that person’s love and support in everything that you do.
Life can be lonely when a spouse passes away. It can get harder. You have more responsibilities and perhaps you now have no one to help you through. These things do not come with a price tag the way funeral costs and medical bills do, but they still take a serious toll on your life. You may deserve compensation for those losses on top of everything else.
When a loved one passes away, it is very important to look into all of your legal rights. As you can see, you may have some options you never considered before.
Source: FindLaw, “How to Prove Loss of Consortium in a Car Accident Claim,” accessed April 26, 2018.
