Maryland Injury Lawyer Blog

Ron,

I read your posts on consortium claims and I agree generally. In some 15 years of trying these cases, I don't recall if a consortium claim ever went to the jury. I'm sure there were a few that did, but my recollection is that consortium claims were usually dismissed by plaintiff prior to trial.

That's probably a good move when the damage evidence is iffy -- it looks like overreaching in those cases. In other cases, consortium claims just invited questions in a deposition on sex (because for so many lawyers, consortium is essentially about the sex) wholly intended to embarrass a plaintiff. I never delved into those issues personally, and was content to ask general questions about relationships since the injury.

On the other hand, I do recall the occasional plaintiff who was all too eager to tell me about how much "consortium" he lost as a result of the wife's injury (and it was always the husband and never the wife), including frequency and positions. Those were the cases where you could count on the smart plaintiff's lawyer to dismiss the consortium claim if just to restrain the husband's testimony at trial.

Have a great Labor Day!

You are exactly right, Tony. What I didn't include in my post is that my thoughts onthis blog also came from reading a trial advocacy book that made it seem as though a loss of consortium claim should be brought in practically every case. I then looked to David Ball's book to get his thoughts (it has a good index) and I blogged from there.