A loss of consortium claim in Georgia allows a spouse to recover for the loss of companionship and services that results from the other spouse’s injury. It belongs to the uninjured spouse and stands apart from the injured spouse’s own claim.
The uninjured spouse holds it. Rather than addressing the injury itself, the claim compensates the husband or wife for what the marriage lost, making it that spouse’s own claim to bring. A partner who must now provide constant care has suffered a distinct harm the law recognizes.
It covers the marital relationship. Companionship, society, affection, and the practical services a spouse once provided all fall within it, setting it apart from medical bills or lost wages. The loss is relational rather than financial.
It remains tied to the injury. Because the claim arises from harm to the other spouse, it depends on that underlying claim even as it stays separate, and it can rise or fall on its own footing. The two move together without merging into one.
This spousal claim rests on the uninjured spouse’s standing, the loss of the marital relationship, and its link to the underlying injury. Because what it compensates is relational rather than financial, the proof tends to center on the texture of the marriage before and after the injury, a showing quite different from the medical bills and wage records that drive the injured spouse’s own case.