Loss of Consortium Car Accident Settlement Amounts in New York

Key Takeaways

• Loss of consortium is the injured person’s spouse’s own claim for the harm to the marriage. It is derivative: it depends on the injured spouse’s claim.
• Only a spouse can bring it, and only for injuries that happened during the marriage (Anderson v Eli Lilly & Co., 79 NY2d 797 [1991]). Children have no consortium claim for a parent’s injury (De Angelis v Lutheran Medical Center, 58 NY2d 1053 [1983]).
• In a car crash case the injured spouse must prove a “serious injury” under Insurance Law § 5102(d), which has eight categories for actions commenced on or after May 26, 2026.
• When the injured spouse dies, there is no consortium claim in the wrongful death action; recovery is limited to pecuniary injuries (EPTL 5-4.3; Liff v Schildkrout, 49 NY2d 622 [1980]).

When a car crash leaves one spouse badly hurt, the harm reaches the whole marriage. A husband who coached his son’s team, handled the home repairs and spent every evening with his wife is now in a rehabilitation facility. A wife who ran the household and cared for the children can no longer walk unassisted. The uninjured spouse has a claim of their own under New York law: loss of consortium.

This post explains what the claim is, who can bring it in New York, what moves its value, and how it fits with the injured spouse’s case and with a wrongful death case.

What Is Loss of Consortium?

Loss of consortium is the uninjured spouse’s claim for the damage the defendant’s negligence did to the marriage. In Millington v Southeastern Elevator Co., 22 NY2d 498 (1968), the Court of Appeals recognized a wife’s right to sue for loss of consortium and described what is lost: “The loss of companionship, emotional support, love, felicity and sexual relations are real injuries.” The Court described consortium as “the interest of the injured party’s spouse in the continuance of a healthy and happy marital life.”

The claim is derivative. The spouse does not claim the defendant owed a separate duty to the spouse; the claim rests on the defendant’s negligence toward the injured spouse and the injuries that negligence caused. The spouse is a plaintiff in the case, with a separate claim for damages.

What a consortium claim usually covers:

• Companionship and society: the daily presence, conversation and support of a spouse.
• Services: the household work, childcare and home maintenance the injured spouse did.
• Sexual relations: loss or impairment of the physical relationship caused by the injuries, the pain or the treatment.

Who Can File a Loss of Consortium Claim in New York?

A spouse, for injuries during the marriage

Consortium is a marital claim. In Anderson v Eli Lilly & Co., 79 NY2d 797 (1991), the Court of Appeals held that “a cause of action for loss of consortium does not lie if the alleged tortious conduct and resultant injuries occurred prior to the marriage,” because “consortium represents the marital partners’ interest in the continuance of the marital relationship as it existed at its inception.” A fiancé who marries the injured person after the crash has no claim for that crash.

Not children

In De Angelis v Lutheran Medical Center, 58 NY2d 1053 (1983), the Court of Appeals refused to recognize a child’s claim for loss of consortium against someone who disabled the child’s parent: such actions “were not recognized at common law and we find no reason to recognize such a right now.”

If you were married to the injured person when the crash happened, the claim exists and should be pursued alongside your spouse’s case. Talking to a Long Island car accident lawyer soon after a serious crash involving your spouse is the best way to make sure it is included.

What Determines the Value of a Consortium Claim?

This article does not publish settlement ranges; figures detached from a case’s records mislead more than they help. The value of a consortium claim follows the facts:

• Severity and permanence of the injuries: the most important factor. A recovery that leaves most of the relationship intact is worth less than a permanent disability that changes it entirely.
• The marriage before the crash: how the couple lived, what they did together, and who did what at home, shown through testimony, photographs and family accounts.
• Age and life expectancy: a younger couple has more years of the changed relationship ahead.
• Specific, documented changes: medical records showing sexual dysfunction caused by the injuries, counseling records, and concrete testimony about what the couple can no longer do.
• Household services: an economist can calculate the cost of replacing the services the injured spouse can no longer perform and discount it to present value.

The Serious Injury Threshold and Loss of Consortium

In a car crash case, the injured spouse’s claim for pain and suffering requires a “serious injury.” Insurance Law § 5104(a) provides that, between covered persons, “there shall be no right of recovery for non-economic loss, except in the case of a serious injury, or for basic economic loss.”

For actions commenced on or after May 26, 2026, Insurance Law § 5102(d), as amended by Part EE of chapter 58 of the Laws of 2026, defines serious injury as a personal injury that results in:

• Death
• Dismemberment
• Significant disfigurement
• A fracture
• Loss of a fetus
• Permanent loss of use of a body organ, member, function or system
• Permanent consequential limitation of use of a body organ or member
• Significant limitation of use of a body function or system

The former category for a non-permanent injury that prevented substantially all customary daily activities for 90 of the 180 days after the accident applies only to actions commenced before May 26, 2026.

Because the consortium claim is derivative, it depends on the injured spouse’s claim. In Perl v Meher, 18 NY3d 208 (2011), the wives’ derivative claims were part of the same appeals that turned on whether their husbands could prove a serious injury. When the injury plainly meets a category, as with a fracture, an amputation or a spinal cord injury, the case can focus on damages. When the injured spouse’s claim rests on soft tissue injuries that insurers contest, the consortium claim carries the same threshold risk.

Consortium Claims in Wrongful Death Cases

When the injured spouse dies, the law changes. A wrongful death action is brought by the personal representative of the estate for the benefit of the decedent’s distributees (EPTL 5-4.1(1)). The damages are “such sum as the jury … deems to be fair and just compensation for the pecuniary injuries resulting from the decedent’s death to the persons for whose benefit the action is brought” (EPTL 5-4.3(a)), plus medical and funeral expenses.

Loss of consortium is not one of them. In Liff v Schildkrout, 49 NY2d 622 (1980), the Court of Appeals held that “the Legislature, by including the pecuniary injury limitation in its statutory scheme, clearly intended that damages for loss of consortium should not be recoverable in wrongful death actions,” and reaffirmed “the principle that a claim for loss of consortium will not be recognized within a wrongful death action in this State.” In Gonzalez v New York City Housing Authority, 77 NY2d 663 (1991), the Court repeated that the statute has “denied recovery for grief, loss of society, affection, conjugal fellowship and consortium.”

What a surviving spouse can recover is pecuniary loss: the support the decedent would have provided, and the value of services the decedent performed. Gonzalez explains that for a decedent who was not a wage earner, pecuniary injuries “may be calculated, in part, from the increased expenditures required to continue the services she provided, as well as the compensable losses of a personal nature, such as loss of guidance.” The recovery is distributed among the distributees “in proportion to the pecuniary injuries suffered by them” (EPTL 5-4.4(a)(1)).

The Grieving Families Act, which would allow recovery for grief and loss of companionship, is not law: the 2025 bill (S4423) was vetoed by the governor on December 5, 2025, and the 2026 bill (S10171) was referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee on May 4, 2026. Our Grieving Families Act explainer and our wrongful death law status tracker follow its status.

How to Document and Present a Consortium Claim

The claim depends on evidence. Testimony that “the marriage has changed” does not move an insurer or give a jury a basis for an award. The strongest presentations combine:

• Testimony from both spouses: specific and concrete. The trips the couple can no longer take, the routines that ended, the repairs that now need contractors, the changes in intimacy, the support the injured spouse can no longer give.
• Witnesses who knew the couple: adult children, siblings, friends and neighbors who saw the relationship before and after.
• Medical evidence: treating doctors who explain the injuries, their permanence, and the care they will require.
• Counseling records: if either spouse or the couple sought counseling because of the crash.
• An economist for household services: the replacement cost of the injured spouse’s household work over the couple’s remaining years, discounted to present value.

A journal kept by the uninjured spouse, recording how the crash has changed daily life, helps preserve details that are otherwise forgotten. A Long Island car accident lawyer who handles catastrophic injury cases will help both spouses document the claim from the start.

Statute of Limitations

A personal injury action must be commenced within three years (CPLR 214(5)). Assert the consortium claim in the same complaint as the injured spouse’s claim, within that time.

A wrongful death action “must be commenced within two years after the decedent’s death” (EPTL 5-4.1(1)). If a criminal action has been commenced against the same defendant for the same event, the personal representative has “at least one year from the termination of the criminal action” to sue, even if the two years have run (EPTL 5-4.1(2)). Against a city, county, town or village, a notice of claim is required within 90 days, which in a wrongful death case runs “from the appointment of a representative of the decedent’s estate” (General Municipal Law § 50-e(1)(a)).

If your spouse was seriously injured in a car crash in New York, both claims should be brought together and on time. Evidence fades and witnesses forget, and an early consultation is the right first step.

Related Legal Resources

For additional guidance on this topic, see:

• Long Island personal injury lawyer
• Long Island wrongful death attorney
• contact our office

If you have a case involving these issues on Long Island or in the New York City metropolitan area, the Law Office of Jason Tenenbaum, P.C. offers free consultations. Call (516) 750-0595 or contact our office online.