Can a Spouse Recover for Loss of Consortium in California?
- Tom Feher, Esq.
From Tom Feher, Esq. “The husband or wife who was not in the crash is often the one holding the family together afterward, and California law gives that spouse a claim of their own. It is not an add-on to the injured person’s case. It is a separate claim, and it has to be proved separately.”
Short answer: yes. In California a husband, wife, or registered domestic partner who was not physically hurt can bring their own claim for loss of consortium when their partner is seriously injured by someone else’s negligence. It compensates the loss of companionship, affection, support, and intimacy, it is filed alongside the injured partner’s case, and it carries the same two-year deadline.
Key Takeaways
- It is your own claim. Loss of consortium belongs to the uninjured spouse, not to the injured one, and it is pleaded as a separate cause of action in the same lawsuit.
- The law names it by statute. Civil Code 1431.2 lists loss of consortium among non-economic damages, which means each defendant pays only its own share of it.
- You must have been married at the time. California limits the claim to spouses and to registered domestic partners under Family Code 297.5. Engaged and unmarried couples cannot bring it.
- Children and parents cannot bring it. California has refused to extend loss of consortium to a child whose parent is hurt, or to a parent whose child is hurt.
- Two years, same as the injury claim. Code of Civil Procedure 335.1 gives you two years from the date of the incident, and missing it ends the consortium claim even if your spouse’s claim is still alive.
Free Case Evaluation – No Fee Unless You Win
If your husband, wife, or partner was seriously injured and your life changed with theirs, Feher Law will review both claims together in a free consultation. Call (310) 340-1112 – You pay nothing unless we win.
| What the claim covers | Who it belongs to |
|---|---|
| Loss of companionship, society, and affection | The uninjured spouse or registered domestic partner |
| Loss of sexual relations and the ability to have children | The uninjured spouse or registered domestic partner |
| Loss of your partner’s moral support and comfort | The uninjured spouse or registered domestic partner |
| The hands-on care you now provide | The uninjured spouse or registered domestic partner |
| Medical bills and lost wages of the injured person | The injured spouse, not the consortium claim |
| Pain and suffering of the injured person | The injured spouse, not the consortium claim |
What Loss of Consortium Actually Means in California
Loss of consortium is the legal name for what a serious injury does to a marriage. California recognized the claim in Rodriguez v. Bethlehem Steel Corp. (1974) 12 Cal.3d 382, where the state Supreme Court held that a spouse who is not physically hurt still suffers a real, compensable loss when a partner is disabled by someone else’s negligence. The claim covers the loss of companionship, affection, comfort, moral support, society, and sexual relations, and it also covers the ordinary care you now give that you did not give before. The Legislature has since written it into the damages statute itself: Civil Code 1431.2 defines non-economic damages to include, in so many words, loss of consortium, which puts the claim on the same statutory footing as pain and suffering and means each defendant is severally liable for its own percentage of it rather than the whole.
Who Can Bring the Claim, and Who Cannot
California draws the line at legal partnership. A husband or wife can bring the claim, and so can a registered domestic partner, because Family Code 297.5 gives registered domestic partners the same rights and obligations the law grants to spouses. You generally must have been married or registered at the time of the injury, so a couple who marries after the crash usually cannot bring it, and the California Supreme Court declined to extend the claim to unmarried cohabiting partners in Elden v. Sheldon (1988) 46 Cal.3d 267.
If you want to understand how the underlying injury claim is valued before you look at the consortium piece, our guide to how pain and suffering is calculated in California walks through the methods insurers actually use, and our free pain and suffering calculator lets you test the numbers yourself. In a death case, the related claim is wrongful death rather than consortium, and our California wrongful death settlement guide covers who has standing to file.
Talk to a California Personal Injury Attorney
Feher Law has recovered more than $170 million for clients across Southern California, and we handle the injured partner’s claim and the consortium claim together. Call (310) 340-1112 – You pay nothing unless we win.
How Much a Loss of Consortium Claim Is Worth
There is no table and no multiplier that sets this number. Because loss of consortium is non-economic, its value comes from evidence about your marriage before the injury and after it: how long you have been together, what you did together, what your partner can no longer do, and what you now do for them. The measure of damages is the general tort standard in Civil Code 3333, which entitles you to compensation for all the detriment proximately caused, whether or not it could have been anticipated. Two limits are worth knowing. If the underlying injury was caused by medical negligence, your consortium claim is non-economic and falls under the MICRA cap in Civil Code 3333.2, which for 2026 stands at $470,000 for injury cases and $650,000 for wrongful death, rising each January 1. And if a defendant’s conduct was malicious or oppressive rather than merely careless, Civil Code 3294 allows punitive damages on clear and convincing evidence, which is a separate question from the value of the consortium loss itself.
Your Claim Is Separate, But It Rises and Falls With Theirs
This is the part most people get wrong. Your claim is your own, and the settlement check can be written to you, but it is derivative: you only recover if the defendant is legally responsible for injuring your partner in the first place, under the ordinary-care duty in Civil Code 1714. That has practical consequences. If your spouse is found partly at fault, your consortium award is reduced by the same percentage. If your spouse settles and signs a release, the language of that release can affect your claim, which is why both claims should be handled by the same firm rather than split. Expect the defense to seek discovery into your marriage, and expect it to be uncomfortable.
Deadlines and the One Mistake That Ends the Claim
You have two years from the date of the injury under Code of Civil Procedure 335.1, the same deadline that applies to your partner’s claim, and a shorter six-month government-claim clock applies if a public entity is involved. The single most common way a consortium claim dies is that nobody pleads it. It is not automatic, it is not included in your spouse’s complaint by default, and adding it after the two years have run is usually impossible. Insurers know this, which is why a demand that includes a documented consortium claim and a credible willingness to try the case moves differently. A formal settlement offer under Code of Civil Procedure 998 can shift costs onto a defendant who refuses a reasonable number and then loses at trial.
Both Claims, One Firm, No Upfront Cost
We plead the consortium claim at the start, not as an afterthought, and we document the marriage evidence that gives it value. Call (310) 340-1112 – You pay nothing unless we win.
What to Expect When You Work With Feher Law
- Free Case Evaluation: We review your partner’s injuries, your marriage before and after, and whether the consortium claim is worth pleading separately. No fee, no obligation.
- Both Claims Pleaded Together: We file the injured partner’s claim and your consortium claim in the same action, so neither is left out and no deadline is missed.
- Building the Marriage Evidence: Consortium cases are won on specifics: what you did together before, what care you give now, and testimony from the people who see it. We gather that early.
- Demand and Filing: We present a documented demand covering both claims, and if the insurer will not pay full value we file suit inside the two-year deadline so you never lose leverage.
- Trial if the Number Is Wrong: Insurers price cases on whether a firm will actually try them. Our trial record is the reason our demands get answered.
Why California Injury Families Choose Feher Law
Thomas Feher, Esq. has taken more than 50 jury trials to verdict, and that trial record is what moves settlement math, because insurers pay real value to firms they know will pick a jury. The results are public: a $20.7 million brain injury verdict against a hotel defendant in July 2026, a $14.6 million verdict in Simone v. Estate of Bruce Jameson for a catastrophic spine injury, an $8.5 million recovery for a T-boned worker, and more than $170 million recovered for California clients overall. From offices in Torrance and Huntington Beach, the firm serves clients throughout Los Angeles County, Orange County, San Bernardino County, and Riverside County, in English and in Spanish. You pay nothing unless we win.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Last reviewed by Thomas Feher, Esq. – September 2026
